Thread: public vs get, set

Hello,

I'm coding some C# and cant really get the difference between public and the properties get, set. In me world the two things is kinda the same but my guess is that I have missed something so any help would be nice ty.

Example:

Code:

class TheNumber
{
     public int number;
     public int Number {get; set;}
}

Then from any part of the code I can write:

Code:

TheNumber theNumber = new TheNumber();

theNumber.number = 10;
theNumber.Number = 10;

so why cant I just have a public member instead of the property one in this case?