acceleration Suppose that a particle is moving in a straight line, with a point O on the line taken as origin and one direction taken as positive.. If the velocity is positive that is, i
Trang 2OXFORD PAPERBACK REFERENCE
The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics
Some entries in this dictionary have recommended web links.When you see the symbol at the end of an entry go to thedictionary’s web page at http://www.oup.com/uk/reference/resources/mathematics, click on Web links in the Resourcessection and click straight through to the relevant websites
Christopher Clapham was until 1993 Senior Lecturer in
Mathematics at the University of Aberdeen and has alsotaught at universities in Nigeria, Lesotho, and Malawi He is
the author of Introduction to Abstract Algebra and
Introduction to Mathematical Analysis He lives in Exeter.
James Nicholson has a mathematics degree from Cambridge,
and taught at Harrow School for twelve years beforebecoming Head of Mathematics at Belfast Royal Academy in
1990 He lives in Belfast, but now works mostly with theSchool of Education at Durham University He is co-author of
Statistics GCSE for AQA.
Trang 3The most authoritative and up-to-date reference books forboth students and the general reader.
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Trang 5Countries of the World
Trang 6Family and Local HistoryFinance and Banking
First Names
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Foreign Words and PhrasesGeography
Trang 10The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Mathematics
FOURTH EDITION
CHRISTOPHER CLAPHAM
JAMES NICHOLSON
Trang 11Great Clarendon Street, OxfordOX2 6DP
Oxford University Press is a department of the University ofOxford It furthers the University’s objective of excellence inresearch, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwidein
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Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press
in the UK and in certain other countries
Published in the United States
by Oxford University Press Inc., New York
© Christopher Clapham 1990, 1996
© Christopher Clapham and James Nicholson 2005, 2009First edition 1990
Second edition 1996
Trang 12Third edition 2005
Fourth edition 2009
All rights reserved No part of this publication may bereproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in anyform or by any means, without the prior permission in writing
of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law,
or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographicsrights organization Enquiries concerning reproductionoutside the scope of the above should be sent to the RightsDepartment, Oxford University Press, at the address above
You must not circulate this book in any other binding orcover and you must impose this same condition on anyacquirer
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data
Data available
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Typeset by SPI Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India
Printed in Great Britain
on acid-free paper by
Clays Ltd., St Ives plc
ISBN 978–0–19–923594–0
1 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2
Trang 13Preface
Dictionary
APPENDICES
1 Table of areas and volumes
2 Table of centres of mass
3 Table of moments of inertia
8 Table of convergence tests for series
9 Table of common inequalities
10 Table of trigonometric formulae
11 Table of symbols
12 Table of Greek letters
Trang 1413 Table of Roman numerals
14 Table of Fields Medal Winners
Trang 16Preface to Second Edition
*
This dictionary is intended to be a reference book that givesreliable definitions or clear and precise explanations ofmathematical terms The level is such that it will suit, amongothers, sixth-form pupils, college students and first-yearuniversity students who are taking mathematics as one oftheir courses Such students will be able to look up any termthey may meet and be led on to other entries by following upcross-references or by browsing more generally
The concepts and terminology of all those topics that feature
in pure and applied mathematics and statistics courses at thislevel today are covered There are also entries onmathematicians of the past and important mathematics ofmore general interest Computing is not included Thereader’s attention is drawn to the appendices which giveuseful tables for ready reference
Some entries give a straight definition in an opening phrase.Others give the definition in the form of a complete sentence,sometimes following an explanation of the context Anasterisk is used to indicate words with their own entry, towhich cross-reference can be made if required
This edition is more than half as large again as the firstedition A significant change has been the inclusion of entriescovering applied mathematics and statistics In these areas, I
am very much indebted to the contributors, whose names aregiven on page v I am most grateful to these colleagues for
Trang 17their specialist advice and drafting work They are not,however, to be held responsible for the final form of theentries on their subjects There has also been a considerableincrease in the number of short biographies, so that all themajor names are included Other additional entries havegreatly increased the comprehensiveness of the dictionary.The text has benefited from the comments of colleagues whohave read different parts of it Even though the names of all ofthem will not be given, I should like to acknowledge heretheir help and express my thanks.
Christopher Clapham
Trang 18Preface to Third Edition
Since the second edition was published the content andemphasis of applied mathematics and statistics at sixth-form,college and first-year university levels has changedconsiderably This edition includes many more appliedstatistics entries as well as dealing comprehensively with thenew decision and discrete mathematics courses, and a largenumber of new biographies on 20th-century mathematicians I
am grateful to the Headmaster and Governors of BelfastRoyal Academy for their support and encouragement to take
on this task, and to Louise, Joanne, and Laura for transcribing
my notes
James Nicholson
Trang 19Preface to Fourth Edition
Since the third edition was published there has been adramatic increase in both access to the internet and theamount of information available The major change to thisedition is the introduction of a substantial number ofweblinks, many of which contain dynamic or interactiveillustrations related to the definition
James Nicholson
Trang 20a- Prefix meaning ‘not’ For example, an asymmetric figure is
one which possesses no symmetry, which is not symmetrical
A The number 10 in hexadecimal notation.
abacus A counting device consisting of rods on which beads
can be moved so as to represent numbers
• A description of how one abacus works
abelian group Suppose that G is a *group with the operation
Then G is abelian if the operation is commutative; that is,
if, for all elements a and b in G, a b = b a.
Abel, Niels Henrik (1802–29) Norwegian mathematician
who, at the age of 19, proved that the general equation ofdegree greater than 4 cannot be solved algebraically In otherwords, there can be no formula for the roots of such anequation similar to the familiar formula for a quadraticequation He was also responsible for fundamentaldevelopments in the theory of algebraic functions He died insome poverty at the age of 26, just a few days before hewould have received a letter announcing his appointment to aprofessorship in Berlin
Abel’s test A test for the convergence of an infinite series
which states that if ∑a n is a convergent sequence, and {b n} is
monotically decreasing, i.e b n+1 ≤ b n for all n, then ∑a n b n isalso convergent
Trang 21above Greater than The limit of a function at a from above is
the limit of f(x) as x → a for values of x > a It is of particular importance when f(x) has a discontinuity at a, i.e where the
limits from above and from below do not coincide It can be
written as f(a+) or
abscissa The x-coordinate in a Cartesian coordinate system in
the plane
absolute address In spreadsheets a formula which is to
appear in a number of cells may wish to use the contents ofanother cell or cells Since the relative position of those cellswill be different each time the formula
appears in a new location, the spreadsheet syntax allows anabsolute address to be specified, identifying the actual rowand column for each cell When a formula is copied andpasted to another cell, a cell reference using an absoluteaddress will remain unchanged A formula can contain amixture of absolute and *relative addresses
absolute error SeeERROR.
absolute frequency The number of occurrences of an event.
For example, if a die is rolled 20 times and 4 sixes areobserved the absolute frequency of sixes is 4 and the *relativefrequency is 4/20
absolute measure of dispersion =MEASURE OF DISPERSION.
absolutely convergent series A series {a n} is said to beabsolutely convergent if is *convergent For
Trang 22example, if then the series is convergent
is absolutely convergent
absolutely summable =ABSOLUTELY CONVERGENT.
absolute value For any real number a, the absolute value
(also called the *modulus) of a, denoted by |a|, is a itself if a
≥ 0, and −a if a ≤ 0 Thus |a| is positive except when a = 0.
The following properties hold:
(i) |ab| = |a||b|.
(ii) |a + b| ≤ |a| + |b|.
(iii) |a − b| ≥ ||a| − |b||.
(iv) For a > 0, |x| ≤ a if and only if −a ≤ x ≤ a.
absorbing state SeeRANDOM WALK.
Trang 23absorption laws For all sets A and B (subsets of some
*universal set), A ∩ (A∪B) = A and A∪(A ∩ B) = A These
are the absorption laws
abstract algebra The area of mathematics concerned with
algebraic structures, such as *groups, *rings and *fields,involving sets of elements with particular operationssatisfying certain axioms The purpose is to derive, from theset of axioms, general results that are then applicable toany particular example of the algebraic structure in question.The theory of certain algebraic structures is highly developed;
in particular, the theory of vector spaces is so extensive thatits study, known as *linear algebra, would probably no longer
be classified as abstract algebra
abstraction The process of making a general statement which
summarizes what can be observed in particular instances For
example, we can say that x2 < x for 0 < x < 1 and x2 > x for x
< 0 or x > 1 Mathematical theorems are essentially
abstraction of concepts to a higher level
abundant number An integer that is smaller than the sum of
its positive divisors, not including itself, For example, 12 isdivisible by 1, 2, 3, 4 and 6, and 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 6 = 16 > 12
acceleration Suppose that a particle is moving in a straight
line, with a point O on the line taken as origin and one direction taken as positive Let x be the *displacement of the particle at time t The acceleration of the particle is equal to ẍ
or d2x/dt2, the *rate of change of the *velocity with respect to
t If the velocity is positive (that is, if the particle is moving in
the positive direction), the acceleration is positive when theparticle is speeding up and negative when it is slowing down
Trang 24However, if the velocity is negative, a positive accelerationmeans that the particle is slowing down and a negativeacceleration means that it is speeding up.
In the preceding paragraph, a common convention has been
followed, in which the unit vector i in the positive direction
along the line has been suppressed Acceleration is in fact avector quantity, and in the one-dimensional case above it is
equal to ẍi.
When the motion is in two or three dimensions, vectors are
used explicitly The acceleration a of a particle is a vector
equal to the rate of change of the velocity v with respect to t Thus a = dv/dt If the particle has *position vector r, then
When Cartesian coordinates are used, r = xi
If a particle is travelling in a circle with constant speed, it stillhas an acceleration because of the changing direction of thevelocity This acceleration is towards the centre of the circleand has magnitude where v is the speed of the particle and
r is the radius of the circle.
Acceleration has the dimensions LT−2, and the SI unit ofmeasurement is the metre per second per second, abbreviated
to ‘ms−2
acceleration–time graph A graph that shows acceleration
plotted against time for a particle moving in a straight line
Let v(t) and a(t) be the velocity and acceleration, respectively,
of the particle at time t The acceleration–time graph is the graph y = a(t), where the t-axis is horizontal and the y-axis is
Trang 25vertical with the positive direction upwards With theconvention that any area below the horizontal axis is negative,the area
under the graph between t = t1 and t = t2 is equal to v(t2) −
v(t1) (Here a common convention has been followed, in
which the unit vector i in the positive direction along the line
has been suppressed The velocity and acceleration of the
particle are in fact vector quantities equal to v(t)i and a(t)i,
respectively.)
acceptance region SeeHYPOTHESIS TESTING.
acceptance sampling A method of quality control where a
sample is taken from a batch and a decision whether to acceptthe batch is made on the basis of the quality of the sample.The most simple method is to have a straight accept/rejectcriterion, but a more sophisticated approach is to take anothersample if the evidence from the existing sample, or a set ofsamples, is not clearly indicating whether the batch should beaccepted or rejected One of the main advantages of thisapproach is reducing the cost of taking samples to satisfyquality control criteria
accuracy A measure of the precision of a numerical quantity,
usually given to n *significant figures (where the proportional accuracy is the important aspect) or n *decimal places (where
the absolute accuracy is more important)
accurate (correct) to n decimal places Rounding a number
with the accuracy specified by the number of *decimal places
given in the rounded value So e = 2.71828 … = 2.718 to
three decimal places and = 2.72 to two decimal places
Trang 26is 9.30 correct to two decimal places.Where a number of quantities are being measured and added
or subtracted, using values correct to the same number ofdecimal places ensures that they have the same degree ofaccuracy However, if the units are changed, for examplebetween centimetres and metres, then the accuracy of themeasurements will be different if the same number of decimalplaces is used in the measurements
accurate (correct) to n significant figures Rounding a
number with the accuracy specified by the number of
*significant figures given in the rounded value So e =
2.71828 … = 2.718 to four significant figures and = 2.72 to
three significant figures e−3 = 0.049787 … = 0.0498 correct
to three significant figures Rounding to the same number ofsignificant figures ensures all the measurements have aboutthe same proportionate accuracy If the units are changed, forexample between centimetres and metres, then the accuracy
of the measurements will not be changed if the same number
of significant figures is used in the measurements
Achilles paradox The paradox which arises from considering
how overtaking takes place Achilles gives a tortoise a headstart in a race To
overtake, he must reach the tortoise’s initial position, then
where the tortoise had moved to, and so on *ad infinitum The
conclusion that he cannot overtake because he has to cover aninfinite sum of well-defined non-zero distances is false, hencethe paradox
acre An imperial unit of surface area, which is 4840 square
yards This is the area of a furlong (220 yards) by a chain (22
Trang 27yards) which used to be standard units of measurement in the
UK A square mile contains 640 acres In the metric system a
*hectare is approximately 0.4 acre
action limits The outer limits set on a *control chart in a
production process If the observed value falls outside theselimits, then action will be taken, often resetting the machine
For the means of samples of sizes n in a process with standard
deviation σ with target mean μ, the action limits will be set at
active constraint An inequality such as y + 2x ≥ 13 is said to
be active at a point on the boundary, i.e where equality holds,for example (6, 1) and (0, 13)
activity networks (edges as activities) The networks used in
*critical path analysis where the edges (arcs) representactivities to be performed Paths in the network represent theprecedence relations between the activities, and *dummyactivities are required to link paths where common activitiesappear, but the paths are at least partly independent Whilethis is a complication, each activity appears on only one edgeand the sequence of activities needed is easier to follow thanwhen the vertices are used to represent the activities Once theactivity network has been constructed from the precedencetable, the *critical path algorithm (edges as activities) can beapplied
activity networks (vertices as activities) The networks used
in *critical path analysis where the vertices (nodes) representactivities to be performed The edges (arcs) coming out from
Trang 28any vertex X join X to any vertex Y whose activity cannot start until X has been completed, and the edge is labelled with the time taken for activity X Note that there will often be more
than one such activity, in which case each edge will carry thesame time The construction of an activity network requires alisting of the activities, their duration, and the precedencerelations which identify which activities are dependent on theprior completion of other activities With this structure,
*dummy activities are not needed, but the same activity will
be represented by more than one edge when more than oneother activity depends on its prior completion, and thesequence of
activities is less easy to follow than the alternative structure
*activity networks (edges as activities)
acute angle An angle that is less than a *right angle An
*acute-angled triangle is one all of whose angles are acute
adders (in combinatorial circuits) The half-adder and full
adders are sections of circuits which use a system of logicgates to add binary digits, by using a combination for whichthe truth table output is identical to the output required by thebinary addition
• An article demonstrating how a simple adder works
addition (of complex numbers) Let the complex numbers z1
and z2, where z1 = a + bi and z2 = c + di, be represented by the points P1and P2in the *complex plane Then z1 + z2= (a + c) + (b + d)i, and z1+ z2is represented in the complex plane
Trang 29by the point Q such that OP1QP2 is a parallelogram; that is,such that Thus, if the complex number
z is associated with the *directed line-segment , where P represents z, then the addition of complex numbers
corresponds exactly to the addition of the directedline-segments
addition (of directed line-segments) See ADDITION (ofvectors)
addition (of matrices) Let A and B be m × n matrices, with A
= [a ij ] and B = [b ij] The operation of addition is defined bytaking the SUM A + B to be the m × n matrix C, where C =
[c ij ] and c ij = a ij + b ij The sum A + B is not defined if A and
B are not of the same order This operation + of addition on
the set of all m × n matrices is *associative and
*commutative
addition (of vectors) Given vectors a and b, let and
be *directed line-segments that represent a and b, with the
same initial point O The sum of and is the directed
Trang 30line-segment , where OACB is a parallelogram, and the
SUM a + b is defined to be the vector c represented by This is called the parallelogram law Alternatively, the sum of
vectors a and b can be defined by representing a by a directed
line-segment and b by where the final point of thefirst
directed line-segment is the initial point of the second Then a + b is the vector represented by This is called thetriangle law Addition of vectors has the following properties,
which hold for all a, b and c:
(i) a + b = b + a, the commutative law.
(ii) a + (b + c) = (a + b) + c, the associative law.
(iii) a + 0 = 0 + a = a, where 0 is the zero vector.
(iv) a + (−a) = (−a) + a = 0, where −a is the negative of a.
addition formula SeeCOMPOUND ANGLE FORMULA.
Trang 31addition law If A and B are two events then the addition law
states that the Pr(A or B) = Pr(A) + Pr(B) − Pr(A and B), or using set notation P(A∪B) = P(A) + P(B) − P(A ∩ B) In the
special case where A and B are *mutually exclusive events
this reduces to P(A∪B) = P(A) + P(B).
addition modulo n See MODULO N, ADDITION andMULTIPLICATION.
additive function A function for which f(x + y) = f(x) + f(y).
For example, f(x) = 3x is an additive function since f(x + y) = 3(x + y) = f(x) + f(y) but is not additive since
is not in general equal to
additive group A *group with the operation +, called
addition, may be called an additive group The operation in agroup is normally denoted by addition only if it is
*commutative, so an additive group is usually *abelian
additive identity The identity element under an operation of
addition, usually denoted by 0, so a + 0 = 0 + a = a.
additive inverse SeeINVERSE ELEMENT.
adherent point A point of the *closure of a set.
ad infinitum Repeating infinitely many times.
adj Abbreviation for *adjoint.
adjacency matrix For a *simple graph G, with n vertices v1,
v2, …, v n , the adjacency matrix A is the n × n matrix [a ij]
Trang 32with a ij = 1, if vi is joined to v j , and a ij = 0, otherwise The
matrix A is *symmetric and the diagonal entries are zero The
number of ones in any row (or column) is equal to the
*degree of the corresponding vertex An example of a graph
and its adjacency matrix A is shown below.
adjacent angles A pair of angles on a straight line formed by
a line or half-line meeting it Adjacent angles will add to180°
adjacent edges A pair of edges in a graph joined by a
common vertex
adjacent side The side of a right-angled triangle between the
right angle and the given angle
adjacent vertices A pair of vertices in a *graph joined by a
common edge
Trang 33adjoint The adjoint of a square matrix A, denoted by adj A, is
the transpose of the matrix of cofactors of A For A = [a ij], let
A ij denote the *cofactor of the entry a ij Then the matrix of
cofactors is the matrix [A ij ] and adj A = [A ij]T For example, a
3 × 3 matrix A and its adjoint can be written
In the 2 × 2 case, a matrix A and its adjoint have the form
The adjoint is important because it can be used to find the
*inverse of a matrix From the properties of cofactors, it can
be shown that A adj A = (det A)I It follows that, when det A
≠ 0, the inverse of A is (1/det A) adj A.
adjugate =ADJOINT.
aerodynamic drag A body moving through the air, such as
an aeroplane flying in the Earth’s atmosphere, experiences aforce due to the flow of air over the surface of the body Theforce is the sum of the aerodynamic drag, which is tangential
to the flight path, and the LIFT, which is normal to the flightpath
affine geometry A geometry in which some properties are
preserved by *parallel projection from one plane to another
Trang 34However, others are not, and in particular *Euclid’s third andfourth axioms do not hold.
affine transformation A *transformation which preserves
*collinearity and therefore the straightness and parallel nature
of lines, and the ratios of distances
aggregate Census returns are used to construct aggregate
statistics concerning a wide range of characteristics such aseconomic, social, health, education, often grouped bygeographical region, gender, age, etc The name derives fromthe way they are compiled as counts from a large number ofindividual census returns Other examples of aggregatestatistics include indices such as the *retail price index
agree If f(x) and g(x) are defined on a set S, and f(x) = g(x) for
all x∈S, then f and g agree on the set S.
air resistance The resistance to motion experienced by an
object moving through the air caused by the flow of air overthe surface of the object It is a force that affects, for example,the speed of a drop of rain or of a parachutist falling towardsthe Earth’s surface As well as depending on the nature of theobject, air resistance depends on the speed of the object.Possible *mathematical models are to assume that themagnitude of the air resistance is proportional to the speed or
to the square of the speed
Aitken’s method (in numerical methods) If an iterative
formula x r+1 = f(x r) is to be used to solve an equation,Aitken’s method of accelerating convergence uses the initialvalue and the first two values obtained by the formula tocalculate a better approximation than the iterative formula
Trang 35would produce This can then be used as a new starting pointfrom which to repeat the process until the required accuracyhas been reached While this is computationally intensive, it
is the sort of process which spreadsheets handle very easily
If x0, x1, x2are the initial value and the first two iterations and
Δx r = x r+1 − x r, Δ2x r = Δx r+1 − Δx r are the forwarddifferences then
More generally this will be expressed as
aleph Any infinite *cardinal number, usually denoted by the
Hebrew letter א See alsoTRANSFINITE NUMBER.
aleph-null The smallest infinite cardinal number The
cardinality of any set which can be put in one-to-onecorrespondence with the set of natural numbers Such sets aresaid to be *countable or *denumerable One of the apparentparadoxes in number theory is that the set of rational numbersbetween 0 and 1, the set of all rational numbers, and the set ofnatural numbers all have the same cardinality The symbol א0
is used
algebra The area of mathematics related to the general
properties of arithmetic Relationships can be summarized by
using variables, usually denoted by letters x, y, n, … to stand
for unknown quantities, whose value(s) may be determined
by solving the resulting equations See also ABSTRACT ALGEBRAandLINEAR ALGEBRA.
Trang 36Algebra, Fundamental Theorem of See FUNDAMENTAL
THEOREM OFALGEBRA
algebra of sets The set of all subsets of a *universal set E is
closed under the binary operations ∪ (*union) and ∩(*intersection) and the unary operation ′ (*complementation).The following are some of the properties, or laws, that hold
for subsets A, B and C of E:
(i) A∪(B∪C) = (A∪B)∪C and A ∩ (B ∩ C) = (A ∩ B) ∩
C, the associative properties.
(ii) A ∪ B = B ∪ A and A ∩ B = B ∩ A, the commutative
∪B) ∩ (A∪C), the distributive properties.
(vii) A∪A′ = E and A ∩ A′ = Ø.
(viii) E′ = Ø and Ø′ = E.
(ix) (A′)′ = A.
(x) (A∪ B)′ = A′ ∩ B′ and (A ∩ B)′ = A′ ∪B′, De Morgan’s
laws
Trang 37The application of these laws to subsets of E is known as the
algebra of sets Despite some similarities with the algebra ofnumbers, there are important and striking differences
algebraic closure The extension of a given set to include all
the roots of polynomials with coefficients in the given set
The smallest algebraically closed set of numbers is C, the set
of complex numbers, since the very simple equation x2 + 1 =
0 has a complex solution
algebraic geometry The area of mathematics related to the
study of *geometry by algebraic methods
algebraic number A real number that is the root of a
*polynomial equation with integer coefficients All *rational
numbers are algebraic, since a/b is the root of the equation bx
− a = 0 Some *irrational numbers are algebraic; for example,
is the root of the equation x2 − 2 = 0 An irrationalnumber that is not algebraic (such as π) is called a
*transcendental number
algebraic structure The term used to describe an abstract
concept defined as consisting of certain elements withoperations satisfying given axioms Thus, a *group or a *ring
or a *field is an algebraic structure The purpose of thedefinition is to recognize similarities that appear in differentcontexts within mathematics and to encapsulate these bymeans of a set of axioms
algebraic system A set together with the *operations and
*relations defined on that set
Trang 38algorithm A precisely described routine procedure that can
be applied and systematically followed through to aconclusion
algorithmic complexity The number of steps required in an
algorithm depends on the process and on the number of itemsbeing operated on An algorithm where the number of stepsincreases in direct proportion to the number of items is said tohave linear complexity, so if there are three times as manyitems the algorithm will have three times as many steps If thealgorithm was of quadratic complexity then there would havebeen nine times as many steps
aliquant part A number or expression which is not an exact
divisor of a given number or expression For example, 2 is an
aliquant part of any odd number, and x + 1 is an aliquant part
of x2+ 1
aliquot part A number or expression which is an exact
divisor of a given number or expression, and is usuallyrequired to be a proper divisor For example, 2 is an aliquot
part of any even number larger than 2, and x + 1 is an aliquot part of x2− 1
almost all (almost everywhere) Holding for all values except
on a set of *zero measure The most striking example of a set
of zero measure is
the set of rational numbers, so if f(x) = a when x is rational, and f(x) = b when x is irrational, and g(x) = b everywhere, then f and g agree almost everywhere.
almost surely = ALMOST EVERYWHERE in a probabilitymeasure
Trang 39al-Khwārizmī See under KHWĀRIZMĪ, MUHAMMAD IBN
MŪSĀ AL-
alternate angles SeeTRANSVERSAL.
alternative hypothesis SeeHYPOTHESIS TESTING.
alternating group The *subgroup of the *symmetric group,
S n , containing all the *even permutations of n objects It has order n!/2 For n > 4, it is the only proper, *normal subgroup
of S n apart from the *empty set The alternating group is a
*simple group
alternating series A series in which the sign alternates
between positive and negative So any series in the form a n =(−1)np nor (−1)n−1p n where all p n> 0 is alternating
altitude A line through one vertex of a triangle and
perpendicular to the opposite side The three altitudes of atriangle are concurrent at the *orthocentre
ambiguous case The case where two sides of a triangle are
known, and an acute angle which is not the angle between theknown sides There can often be two possible triangles whichsatisfy all the given information, hence the name
Trang 40If you know the length of AB, and of BC, and the acute angle
at A, you can construct the triangle as follows Draw AB From A draw a line making the required angle to AB Place the point of a compass at B and draw an arc of a circle with radius equal to the required length of BC Where the line from
A and the arc intersect is the position of C Unless the angle at
C is
exactly 90° or the given information is inconsistent, there will
be two different points of intersection and hence two possibletriangles
• An animation showing the construction of the two possiblesolutions
amicable numbers A pair of numbers with the property that
each is equal to the sum of the positive divisors of the other.(For the purposes of this definition, a number is not included
as one of its own divisors.) For example, 220 and 284 areamicable numbers because the positive divisors of 220 are 1,
2, 4, 5, 10, 11, 20, 22, 44, 55 and 110, whose sum is 284, and