Search Results for ""

In the case of a general surface, the distance between two points measured along the surface is known as a geodesic. For example, the shortest distance between two points on ...

A branch of mathematics that is a sort of generalization of calculus. Calculus of variations seeks to find the path, curve, surface, etc., for which a given function has a ...

The problem of finding the curve down which a bead placed anywhere will fall to the bottom in the same amount of time. The solution is a cycloid, a fact first discovered and ...

The mathematical study of how given quantities can be approximated by other (usually simpler) ones under appropriate conditions. Approximation theory also studies the size ...

Let T(m) denote the set of the phi(m) numbers less than and relatively prime to m, where phi(n) is the totient function. Define f_m(x)=product_(t in T(m))(x-t). (1) Then a ...

Various forms of opening and closing bracket-like delimiters are used for a number of distinct notational purposes in mathematics. The most common variants of bracket ...

Brent's method is a root-finding algorithm which combines root bracketing, bisection, and inverse quadratic interpolation. It is sometimes known as the van ...

Clairaut's difference equation is a special case of Lagrange's equation (Sokolnikoff and Redheffer 1958) defined by u_k=kDeltau_k+F(Deltau_k), (1) or in "x notation," ...

The amazing polynomial identity communicated by Euler in a letter to Goldbach on April 12, 1749 (incorrectly given as April 15, 1705--before Euler was born--in Conway and Guy ...

An extremum is a maximum or minimum. An extremum may be local (a.k.a. a relative extremum; an extremum in a given region which is not the overall maximum or minimum) or ...