Possible Duplicate:
Is there any difference between mapping and function?
I am an aspiring mathematician who just started out. What is the difference between a function and a map? Or are these notions equivalent?
Possible Duplicate:
Is there any difference between mapping and function?
I am an aspiring mathematician who just started out. What is the difference between a function and a map? Or are these notions equivalent?
In my experience the two have always been interchangeable. Occasionally one is chosen for emphasis. For instance, sometimes one will use the term "function" to refer specifically to a map of sets with no structure, rather than a continuous map of topological spaces or a homomorphisms of some algebraic objects. Alternatively, the term "map" is sometimes reserved for geometric kinds of things (spaces, manifolds, etc.).