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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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Verify vs Prove

Can the terms "Verify" and "Prove" typically be taken as synonymous when reading math texts or in discussion with mathematicians? If not equivalent, then what are the definitions of "Verify" and "Prove"?
quantif
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What is the word for a corollary that follows from a proof?

I know there's a particular word but can not think of it and have been unsuccessful finding it by googling. I want to say "porium" but that doesn't come up when I google.
Asdf
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Is there an "exponentiation for exponentiation?"

I have asked a few colleagues and none of them knew of one, so I figure Math.SE is probably the best place to ask. Is there a name for exponentiation repeating $n$ times, like multiplication is for addition and exponentiation is for multiplication?
Piper McCorkle
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Sufficient/necessary vs. weaker stronger

I know what sufficient resp. necessary means, but I'm confused, when our professor uses the terminology weaker resp. stronger. I couldn't yet find out, what the translation of these pair of words to the pair necessary stronger is (at least I'm…
temo
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Terminology: what is the difference between stochastic and aleatory

Is there a difference in the meanings of stochastic and aleatory? Are these words interchangeable? So far I have not been able to find a meaningful difference.
kilojoules
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If $<$ is a "strict inequality", what do we call $\leq$?

Is there a term or phrase better than "non-strict"?
Tim kinsella
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What does it mean to "identify" two mathematical objects?

There is an informal notion of "identifying" two mathematical objects that I have run into several times, and I'm am wondering how to formally express this idea. A case of this I ran into long ago was "identifying" a finite dimensional vector space…
Yly
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Is a 2-dimensional subspace always called a plane no matter what the dimensions of the space is?

Is a 2-dimensional subspace in a 7-dimensional space still called a plane? I know that a 6-dimensional space in 7-dimensional space is called a hyperplane because the difference in the number of dimensions of the space and subspace is 1. The answer…
ryang
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What is a bounded quantifier?

I was reading a Wikipedia article on arithmetical hierarchy and came across bounded quantifiers. I didn't know what those were and so quickly went to another article to read up on them and only became more confused. Here's the definition, given by…
user287997
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In mathematics what does it mean "to occur naturally"?

In mathematics, I often meet the expression " 'x' occurs naturally", or " 'x' occurs naturally in 'Y' ". For example: "You should know why eigenvectors and eigenvalues occur naturally in linear algebra." (Garrity, Thomas A., All the mathematics…
Sahroph
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Is there a name for a function that maps a set into a subset of itself?

Say $X$ is a set of subsets of some arbitrary set. Is there a name for a function $f:X\to X$ satisfying $f(A)\subseteq A$ for all $A\in X$? More specifically, is there a name for an $f:X\to X$ with $f(A)\subseteq A$ and $f(f(A)) = f(A)$? In decision…
Seamus
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Is there a term for "finite and non-zero"?

People sometimes use the term "finite" to mean "non-zero" or "non-infinitesimal". For example, physicists often say "finite temperature" to emphasize that the temperature under consideration is not zero. Similarly, when speaking of symmetry groups…
Sesquipedal
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Difference between classification and characterization

What is the difference between classification and characterization in reference to mathematical objects ? Some examples will be appreciated.
halfpog
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"diverges to $1$"

$\newcommand{\logit}{\operatorname{logit}}$ A series may "diverge to $\infty$" or "diverge to $-\infty$"; a product may "diverge to $\infty$" or "diverge to $0$". postscript in response to comments: If $\lim_{n\to\infty}\prod_{i=1}^n a_i = 0$, it is…
Michael Hardy
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Which one is correct? $(n/2)$nd or $(n/2)$th?

I am reading a textbook in which I find a writing problem: Squaring them produces the $(n/2)$nd roots of unity. My question: Which one is correct? $(n/2)$nd or $(n/2)$th?
Jill Clover
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