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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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Name of a number that matches place in a list?

I'm pretty sure there is a term for a number that has a value that matches its place in a list but my googling is failing me. For example in 4 2 2 4 1 0 the second 4 would have a special name.
Bren
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Is there a standard for math terminology?

I searched for the definition of "quotient" and I felt there were many answers. Is there a place that defines math terms? Something like a standard?
YoussefDir
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Am I abusing the word "remark"?

My professor often uses the word "remark" to comment on something. I find myself picking it up and also replacing that word for "comment" Does it look silly to do that? Or is the word "remark" can be used for "anything"? I am TAing right now and I…
Lemon
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"Clockwiseality" and Chirality

This question was asked over on ELU https://english.stackexchange.com/q/287021/129806. It seems most people agree that "chirality" is the correct word to use, however I am not so sure. I feel this question is best addressed in a more rigorous way,…
michael_timofeev
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Is there a name for this closure (boundary, interior) operator on sets of sets

Sorry, I couldn't find anything and without proper names it's even harder. It sounds like something reasonably simple to consider and name though. Given a set of sets $\bf S$, we define some kind of upward closure: $\delta({\bf…
pinkwerther
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Is this called an identity?

Identity is an equation which is true regardless of what values are substituted for any variables (if there are any variables at all). The question is: $$\frac{x^2-a^2}{x-a}=x+a$$ Is this an identity? This equation is not true if $x=a$. And how…
9Algorithm
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How to symbolize impossible discrete logarithm?

The task is to find $k$ such that $$2^k\mod 14 = 12 $$ The output is a cycle of $4$, $8$ and $2$ making this impossible. What is the correct symbol to claim task an impossibility/invalid? $$2^k \mod 14 ≠12 $$ is the best I got. NB: Answer is…
Manumit
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Meaning of "Radial Separation"?

I'm reading conflicting uses of the term "Radial Separation." On this math forum it is implied to be "the distance between circles" as well as "the distance between the circles of the spiral". A local ByLaw implies the meaning is distance between…
Incognito
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Name for plane perpendicular to a vector

In writing some vector processing requirements, I want to use the correct terminology. For a 3D vector defined between the origin and a point, is there a term or name for a plane that is perpendicular to that vector? Are there any special names,…
Jim
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Like "time-inhomogeneous," but for space

I'm talking about a random walk that is homogeneous in time but not in space--is there a term for this? I've searched for "space-inhomogeneous" but nothing came up. Thank you!
MissMonicaE
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How to mathematically state y - 1 unless y - 1 < 0 then y is 0

I have a formula and I don't know how to write it in mathematical form (I'm a programmer.) The formula needs the variable y to be y - 1 unless y <= 0, in which case y should just be 0. Programmatically, it would look like this: if (y > 0) then y =…
jpreed00
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What's the meaning of "drop" in mathematics?

What's the meaning of "drop" in following sentence: "the term can be dropped from the numerator"
user223276
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Multiply vector by number that rescales to integers - what is the name?

What is the name of the number that rescales a set of rational numbers s.t. they are all integers? E.G., 1,000 in the following example. > c(-.11, -.105, -.1) * 1000 [1] -110 -105 -100 However, if the first number was .1111, the number is instead…
Henry David Thorough
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Name for space which is countable union of compact sets

Is there a name for a (topological) space which is the countable union of compact sets. For example $\mathbb{R}^N = \bigcup_{j\in\mathbb{N}} j \,B_{\mathbb{R^N}}$.
Peter
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Terminology for vectors in ''positive angle'' position

I would like to know whether there is a standard terminology for the following situation: Let $H$ be a complex Hilbert space and $\xi, \eta \in H$ are two vectors such that $(\xi, \eta)_H \ge 0$. Do we say that $\xi$ and $\eta$ are in positive…
Yanqi QIU
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