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Questions tagged [terminology]

Questions on the usage and meaning of words in mathematics, the names for mathematical entities, and other such questions.

Terminology is a discipline that studies, among other things, the development of terms and their interrelationships. This tag is intended to be used for questions on the usage and meaning of words in mathematics, the names for mathematical entities, and other such questions.

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What is the etymology of multiplication and division operators?

When I was studying mathematics in school, we used to have "x"(cross) as multiplication operator. Consequently, "⋅"(dot) became the multiplication operator, then came "*"(asterick). Similarly for division I had seen: ÷, / and — (its not minus-read…
Karan Desai
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The name of the triangular arrangement of numbers in order

What do you call a triangular arrangement of numbers in order from the top, like in this picture? I know of Pascal's triangle but this is different. I know that the string that appears on the right-hand diagonal sequence of this triangle consists of…
stacko
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Does a half-square have a name?

By a half-square I mean a rectangle which has the dimensions $ a \times 2a $ (as opposed to a square which has the dimensions $ 2a \times 2a $)
Gallifreyan
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What is the term for the number of sides of a polygon?

Or more generally the number of (n-1)-polytopes forming a n-polytope? We have 'cardinality' for the number of elements in a set. In the domain of topology, 'valence' is the number of edges connecting to a vertex. Etc. For polygons, it seems to…
Garp
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Identities v Laws

I have tried to find this out through google and searching this site with no luck. Basically, are the terms 'law' and 'identity' interchangeable in Mathematics? What is described as 'logarithmic identities' in one place is referred to as 'log laws'…
user5421817
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What are the names of the terms of a comparison?

In addition, we have the augend and addend, and in subtraction, minuend and subtrahend. If I'm running comparisons like 2 < 3, 4 ≥ 1, etc., what are the terms 2 & 3 and 4 & 1 respectively called?
nikodaemus
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What do you call the percentage of a number within a range?

I often need to calculate the position of a number $n$ on a scale from $a$ to $b$, represented as a value between $0$ and $1$ (inclusive), as shown below: $$ p=\frac{n - a}{b - a} $$ Where $a \leq n \leq b \therefore 0 \leq p \leq 1$ Is there a…
andrewtc
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Potential, energy... why?

Good morning, I have a question concerning the following terminologies : potential and energy. Let $\mu$ be a finite Borel measure on $\mathbb{C}$ with compact support. We define its potential as the function $p_{\mu} \colon \mathbb{C}\to…
Đức Anh
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Meaning of the $\Delta$ operator in this context?

I'm working on an algorithm for determining the principal components of data. It works, but the convergence criterion uses the symbol $\Delta$ in a way in which I'm not familiar with. It's in step 3 of the picture below, and is used elsewhere in the…
Peter Greaves
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What is the opposite to "closed under an operation"?

A set is called closed under an operation if applying an operation on elements of a set always leads to an element of that set. But what about the opposite, when an operation on an element of the set never leads to an element of the set? Is there…
celtschk
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use of the word "object"

I have a nit-picky question about how the word "object" (as in "mathematical object") is generally used/understood. I'll ask by way of a simple, specific example. Consider 1) the set of permutations of $n$ things, and 2) the set of bijective…
Visitor
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Is there a name for the relation of a directed set?

If $(X,R)$ is an ordered set then we say $R$ is an order in $X$, how do we call the relation $R$ if $(X,R)$ is a directed set? A direction in X?
la flaca
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Difference between "substitution" and "replacement"

Is there a technical difference between "substitution" and "replacement"? For example, if I use another expression for x, am I replacing for it? Or substituting? What is I use another value of x?
Parul
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What is the meaning of left hand side is divided by 2

$$\begin{align}\sqrt{2} = \frac{a}{b} \\ 2a^2 = b^2\end{align}$$ I have the equation above and was told that since the left land side is divided by $2$, $b^2$ is an even number. But to me, the left hand side is times $2$.
user1050548
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Term for sum, difference, product, quotient

Feel free to let me know if this is better suited for: https://english.stackexchange.com/ https://stackoverflow.com/ That said, I'm wondering if there's a math term for the nature of "sum", "difference", "product", and "quotient". Now these are…
lux
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