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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 ...

A connective in logic which yields true if any one of a sequence conditions is true, and false if all conditions are false. In formal logic, the term disjunction (or, more ...