A chain in a finite partially ordered set 
is a set of pairwise comparable elements
(i.e., a totally ordered subset). The partial
order length of 
is the maximum cardinal number of a chain in 
.
Chain
See also
Addition Chain, Antichain, Brauer Chain, Chain of Circles, Dilworth's Lemma, Hansen Chain, Pappus Chain, Partial Order, Partial Order Length, Path, Chain PolytopeExplore with Wolfram|Alpha
References
Comtet, L. Advanced Combinatorics: The Art of Finite and Infinite Expansions, rev. enl. ed. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Reidel, p. 272, 1974.Skiena, S. Implementing Discrete Mathematics: Combinatorics and Graph Theory with Mathematica. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley, p. 241, 1990.Referenced on Wolfram|Alpha
ChainCite this as:
Weisstein, Eric W. "Chain." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Chain.html