Questions tagged [terminology]
For questions about terms, definitions and related concepts used in science and mathematics.
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History: Direct Product became Tensor Product?
I'm reading a 1939 paper by the great and famous J. von Neumann, "On infinite direct products" (of vector spaces), available here http://www.numdam.org/item/?id=CM_1939__6__1_0, legally I ...
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Is there a reason $⊑$ in CSP is analogous to $⊇$ (as opposed to $⊆$)?
The 'square' subset symbols are sometimes used to express analogous concepts to subsets, like prefixes or suffixes.
However their use in CSP seems to be counterintuitive to their shape: $⊑$ appears ...
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When did the term "order" come into use as the highest exponent in an expansion?
Answer(s) to the question What is a 3rd-order Fresnel lens? are disappointing to me, in that the term 3rd order does not refer to anything like a third-order series expansion.
But this leads me to a ...
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When did the research field of Astrophysics begin?
I have this vague idea that Astrophysics morphed out of Astronomy as a field of study and research. I am curious if this is true and when did Astrophysics become separate from Astronomy as a field of ...
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Is it a historical coincidence that relative atomic weights by chemical methods and mass spectrometry are very close?
The concept of relative atomic weight originated from measuring the combining weight of hydrogen with a certain element. In the simplification process H was taken as unity (18th, 19th and 20th century)...
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Who came up with a number of the theoretical plates equation?
In chromatography, the signal is shaped like a Gaussian peak, and it is plotted against time vs. instrument's signal. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chromatography#/media/File:Rt_5_12.png
(a) One of ...
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Gentzen and computer science
This is a cross-post from mathstack:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/2584003/gentzen-and-computer-science?noredirect=1#comment5333947_2584003
I would like to learn a bit about the ...
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Timeline of mathematical foundation?
As it is globally known that set theory as a foundation of mathematics, although in the beginning we didn't call it "Set" rather group of elements. For example - set of [1(banana) + 2(apple)+1(cow)] =>...
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How did "one-to-one" come to be used to refer to injective functions?
I have always had a hard time explaining to my students the term one-to-one. After making sure my students understand "in", "sur" and "bi", the Bourbaki terms, injective, ...
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Who was the first to use bijections?
I know that Bourbaki were the first who used the word 'bijection', but one-to one functions were for sure used before them. So do you aware of the earliest examples of one-to-one correspondences?
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Formal logic as a synonym to syllogistic logic, or as a name for the study of logic?
On page 443, section 1.1 Expanding to Contradiction, in José Ferreirós' A Road To Modern Logic - An Interpretation, the following is written:
Philosophical conceptions of logic have been complex and ...
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Terms for different types of clouds before 1770?
Using Google Books I couldn't find any reference to cumulus clouds before 1772. What terms were used for the different types of clouds before 1772, if there were specific terms?
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History of PSL(2,Z)
I want to know the mathematician who named PSL(2,Z) as the modular group first. Also, I would be pleased if someone suggest to me some papers about the history of the modular group. Thanks a lot in ...
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Which one goes first - Secant or Newton - in Numerical root finding technique?
In Numerical root solving technique, which comes first in history - Newton or Secant - and each one is named after whom?
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kinetic energy formula written as mv^2
I stumbled across the following quote and couldn't understand how one wouldn't use the factor of 1/2 without completely disrupting the work-energy principle. Though, informal, energy is defined as the ...
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History of Path algebras
I want some references that point the inventor of Path algebras and history/evolution of these algebras from the first idea. If possible.
I tried to search in many different places, but all times, ...
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Usage of terms prior and posterior in probability
Probability function is of two types in general. They are unconditional probability and conditional probability.
But the terms prior probability and posterior probability are used in place of ...
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How was the term speed treated in the 16th and 17th centuries?
What did people in the 16th and 17th centuries mean by the term speed? Did they have
$$\text{speed} = \frac{ \text{distance} }{ \text{time} }$$
back then? Or did they have some other notion of speed ...
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History of mesoscopic physics
Mesoscopic physics is a topic of major research as nanotechnology becomes an important hot topic. There doesn't seem to be a major writing about the history of mesoscopic physics. I know a little ...
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