Talk:Successor function

Currently, this redirects to an article that references the Successor Function, but doesn't even hint at its meaning. I actually got here trying to figure out what it was. The Primitive Recursive Function article explicitly defines it, so I'm redirecting there. -Bigmantonyd 04:31, 19 September 2007 (UTC)

There needs to be more full explanation of these concepts and their notation

I am trying to teach myself more math stuff, specifically as it relates to lambda calculus and Church Numerals. But I am having trouble because a lot of these articles are very partial in their explanation. For instance this: " 5 + 2 = 5 + S(1) = S(5 + 1) = S(5 + S(0)) = S(S(5 + 0)) = S(S(5)) = S(6) = 7." from the article has absolutely no explanation. What is up with this notation system? Why is it like this? What is going on and what does it mean? These things should be better explained. Thedonquixotic (talk) 22:16, 18 August 2019 (UTC)

The explanations are given before in the article. "S" denotes the successor function, so e.g. S(1)=2, this should explain the first equation in the chain. m+S(n)=S(m+n) is the second part of the recursive definition of addition ("+") in terms of successor ("S"), applied to m=5 and n=1, this should explain the second equation in the chain. And so on. - Jochen Burghardt (talk) 14:38, 19 August 2019 (UTC)

Does this really need to be a separate article from this?

212.75.236.148 (talk) 18:45, 22 July 2023 (UTC)