Mathematics
- Differential (mathematics) comprises multiple related meanings of the word, both in calculus and differential geometry, such as an infinitesimal change in the value of a function
- Differential algebra
- Differential calculus
- Differential of a function, represents a change in the linearization of a function
- Differential (infinitesimal) (e.g. dx, dy, dt etc.) are interpreted as infinitesimals
- Differential topology, in multivariable calculus, the differential of a smooth map between Euclidean spaces or differentiable manifolds is the approximating linear map between the tangent spaces, called pushforward (differential)
- Differential geometry, exterior differential, or exterior derivative, is a generalization to differential forms of the notion of differential of a function on a differentiable manifold
- Differential (coboundary), in homological algebra and algebraic topology, one of the maps of a cochain complex
- Differential cryptanalysis, a pair consisting of the difference, usually computed by XOR, between two plaintexts, and the difference of the corresponding ciphertexts
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Famous quotes containing the word mathematics:
“... though mathematics may teach a man how to build a bridge, it is what the Scotch Universities call the humanities, that teach him to be civil and sweet-tempered.”
—Amelia E. Barr (1831–1919)
“Mathematics alone make us feel the limits of our intelligence. For we can always suppose in the case of an experiment that it is inexplicable because we don’t happen to have all the data. In mathematics we have all the data ... and yet we don’t understand. We always come back to the contemplation of our human wretchedness. What force is in relation to our will, the impenetrable opacity of mathematics is in relation to our intelligence.”
—Simone Weil (1909–1943)
“The three main medieval points of view regarding universals are designated by historians as realism, conceptualism, and nominalism. Essentially these same three doctrines reappear in twentieth-century surveys of the philosophy of mathematics under the new names logicism, intuitionism, and formalism.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)