How should I understand the definition of [computational problem](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computational_problem)? > A computational problem is a mathematical object representing a > collection of questions that computers might be able to solve. For > example, the problem of factoring > > "Given a positive integer n, find a nontrivial prime factor of n." What is the mathematical object in the example above? Quoting Wikipedia again: > Commonly encountered mathematical objects include numbers, > permutations, partitions, matrices, sets, functions, and relations. So how can you 'represent' a collection of questions with numbers or permutations, matrices etc.? What is meant here is probably the following collection of sentences: 'find a nontrivial prime factor of 1', 'find a nontrivial prime factor of 2' and so on... But the thing is - these sentences are not mathematical objects. A little further in the article it reads: > A computational problem can be viewed as an infinite collection of > instances together with a solution for every instance. which makes perfect sense, but I don't quite see the relationship with the first definition.