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A counter example occurs when somebody makes a claim that all members of some category of things have a particular property, and then someone else proves that the claim is not true by showing an example of a thing in the category that does not have the property claimed.

For example, if someone claimed that "All presidents of the United States are dead white men", then Barack Obama would be a counter-example because he is a President of the United States but isn't a dead white man.

For another example, if someone claimed that all mammals bear live young, the echidna and the platypus would be counter-examples because they are mammals that lay eggs.

For another example, if someone claimed that the United States is the only country that has never defaulted on its debts, Australia and Tuvalu would be counter-examples. The claim is logically equivalent to saying that all countries in the category of being not the USA have defaulted on a debt at least once,....

For another example, if someone claimed that all prime numbers are odd, "2" would be a counter example. Or if someone claimed that all odd numbers are prime "9" would be a counter-example.

In short, a counter-example to a proposition or claim is an example that proves that the proposition or claim is not true.

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11y ago
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14y ago

A counter example is a proof of a negation of a universal statement.

A statement of the form "all X are Y" (e.g. all men are mortal), can be disproved by providing a counter example (here: something (someone) which is both a man and immortal).

A more mathematical example of the use of a counter example could be to disprove the statement "the product of two prime numbers is odd". This is a claim about all numbers which are the product of two prime numbers (all elements in the set {n in N | n = p*q where p and q are prime numbers}). This set contains infinitely many pair numbers, but a single example (or witness), is enough to disprove the statement. Four is such a number and can serve as a counter example.

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15y ago

An example that proves a conjecture to be false.

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Q: What is a counter example?
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