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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.

8534 questions
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What is the phonetic way to say $10^{99}$

More specifically, $10^6$ is one million, $10^9$ is one billion. So what is $10^{99}$?
xPythagoras
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How is the start of repeating decimals defined?

Today I tried to find the period length of the repeating decimals of 8/86 by asking WolframAlpha (yes a somewhat stupid question because it's the same as 1/43). Here I found the repeating decimals being 930232558139534883720; isn't it the same as…
Wolf
  • 123
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What does it mean if a function is onto?

I've heard the term "onto" several times but still not sure what it means or implies. It's often said along with the function is "one-to-one".
Alaa Awad
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"Finite" includes Zero?

It is accepted that the empty set, of cardinality 0, is a finite set. So for phrases like "all but finitely many", or there is "a finite number of", is it accepted that they include the 0 possibility? For instance then, "all but finitely many"…
TSJ
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what does it mean to extrapolate?

Doing an assignment and got up to this question "Is is sensible to extrapolate the graph back to the moment when the population was zero? Explain" Don't know how to answer it because I do not know what this word means
Ray Kay
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What exactly constitutes a 'term'?

From what I understand when I looked up the definition on wikipedia, a term is a monomial with a coefficient. However, I was taught in high school that a term could also be an expression depending on the context -- for instance in $$ \frac{(x -…
Svitkona
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What is "dependence in a simple fashion"?

I'm reading Silverman/Tate's Rational Points on Elliptic Curves and pg 15 states: (1) $\quad aX^2 + bY^2 = cZ^2$ (to be solved in integers) "Legendre's theorem states that there is an integer m, depending in a simple fashion on a, b, c, so that…
Ben Kushigian
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Can there be a bijection between a countably infinite set and an uncountably infinite set?

I suppose the answer is trivially no, but I haven't actually seen it stated precisely this way in the general. I've only seen specific cases, such as the proof by Cantor's diagonal argument that $\nexists f$ such that $f:\mathbb{N} \mapsto [0,1]$ is…
Ben Simmons
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What is the term for a component of a quantity's units?

Imagine a company pays for a service for each employee. The service costs $10/employee/month. Written another way, the cost is "10 dollars per employee per month." My question focuses on 10 dollars per employee per month and finding a name for…
Matt Briançon
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Name for sum of reciprocals

I have often run into the equivalent equations $\frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b} = \frac{1}{c}$ and $c = \frac{1}{\frac{1}{a} + \frac{1}{b}}$ (e.g. focal length, equivalent resistance, etc). Does this relationship have a name? Edit: wording
woojoo666
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What to call the relationship $\frac 1x + \frac1y = 1$

I've rediscovered the fun of geometry recently and found the beautiful and (to me at least) unexpected result that the two diagonal lengths of a regular unit heptagon are related by: $$\frac1a + \frac1b = 1$$ Does this sort of relationship have a…
IanF1
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Is "=" an Operator?

I know that $+$, $-$, $\times$, and $/$ are all operators. But is $=$ an operator? For example, in the equation: $5 \times 5 = 25$ I know $\times$ is an operator, but is $=$?
warspyking
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"Isomorphy" in mathematical texts

I want to use the term "isomorphy" in a mathematical text, like: There is isomorphy of objects A, B, C, D, E and F. which is equivalent to There exist isomorphisms between the objects A, B, C, D, E and F. or The objects A, B, C, D, E and F are…
shuhalo
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Usage of the term Q.E.F.

While researching the term Q.E.D last night, the phrase Q.E.F was mentioned, which was apparently "used by Euclid to indicate the end of the justification of a construction". Does Q.E.F indicate the construction can be totally described given the…
Allyl Isocyanate
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What's the mathematical name to scale a number to a new resolution

From a programmers background, i know what i need to accomplish, and how i should, but i don't know if there's a mathematical name for what i'm doing here... For examle, i have the number 5 in a range from 0 to 100. I need to calculate the…
Jeroen1984
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