For example, let's say we invert a checker algorithm and "run it backward from YES". Does that find an arbitrary single solution? Does it find all solutions? What if there are an infinite number of solutions?
For example, let's say we invert a checker algorithm and "run it backward from YES". Does that find an arbitrary single solution? Does it find all solutions? What if there are an infinite number of solutions?
Disclosure: I was that kid. My program was a mess, but good enough for a proof of concept.
In other contexts, what is meant is g : B -> 2^A such that x is in g(f(x)) for all x and f(x') = f(x) for all x' in g(f(x)). Here, g is said to produce the pre-image under f, and is a generalization of the above definition of inverse for non-injective functions.
In other contexts still, what is meant is g : B -> A such that f(g(y)) = y for all y such that there exists some x with f(x) = y. This is a different generalization called a one-sided inverse. (People probably call it a left inverse or right inverse, but I can never remember which is which because it emerges from an arbitrary notational convention.)
The article uses inverse in this third sense. "Find some input to f which would yield a given output y, if one exists."