Editing Pairing function (section)

{{Short description|Function uniquely mapping two numbers into a single number}}
{{More citations needed|date=August 2021}}

In [[mathematics]], a '''pairing function''' is a process to uniquely encode two [[natural number]]s into a single natural number.

Any pairing function can be used in [[set theory]] to prove that [[integer]]s and [[rational number]]s have the same [[cardinality]] as natural numbers.<ref>{{Harvnb|Pigeon}}: <blockquote>"Pairing functions arise naturally in the demonstration that the cardinalities of the rationals <math>\mathbb{Q}</math> and the nonnegative integers <math>\mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0}</math> are the same, i.e., <math> | \mathbb{Q} | = | \mathbb{Z}_{\geq 0} | =  \aleph_0 </math>, originally due to Cantor."</blockquote></ref>