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The first definition of the logarithm was constructed by Napier and popularized through his posthumous pamphlet (Napier 1619). It this pamphlet, Napier sought to reduce the ...

The negative binomial distribution, also known as the Pascal distribution or Pólya distribution, gives the probability of r-1 successes and x failures in x+r-1 trials, and ...

Given a curve C and O=(x_0,y_0) a fixed point called the pedal point, then for a point P on C, draw a line perpendicular to OP. The envelope of these lines as P describes the ...

A direct search method of optimization that works moderately well for stochastic problems. It is based on evaluating a function at the vertices of a simplex, then iteratively ...

Newton's forward difference formula is a finite difference identity giving an interpolated value between tabulated points {f_p} in terms of the first value f_0 and the powers ...

Newton's iteration is an algorithm for computing the square root sqrt(n) of a number n via the recurrence equation x_(k+1)=1/2(x_k+n/(x_k)), (1) where x_0=1. This recurrence ...

A surface such as the Möbius strip or Klein bottle (Gray 1997, pp. 322-323) on which there exists a closed path such that the directrix is reversed when moved around this ...

The norm of a mathematical object is a quantity that in some (possibly abstract) sense describes the length, size, or extent of the object. Norms exist for complex numbers ...

If T is a linear transformation of R^n, then the null space Null(T), also called the kernel Ker(T), is the set of all vectors X such that T(X)=0, i.e., Null(T)={X:T(X)=0}. ...

By asking a small number of innocent-sounding questions about an unknown number, it is possible to reconstruct the number with absolute certainty (assuming that the questions ...