In mathematics, a quadratic form is a homogeneous polynomial of degree two in a number of variables. For example,
is a quadratic form in the variables x and y.
Quadratic forms occupy a central place in various branches of mathematics, including number theory, linear algebra, group theory (orthogonal group), differential geometry (Riemannian metric), differential topology (intersection forms of four-manifolds), and Lie theory (the Killing form).
Read more about Quadratic Form: Introduction, History, Real Quadratic Forms, Definitions, Equivalence of Forms, Geometric Meaning, Integral Quadratic Forms
Famous quotes containing the word form:
“While they stand at home at the door he is dead already,
The only son is dead.
But the mother needs to be better,
She with thin form presently drest in black,
By day her meals untouch’d, then at night fitfully sleeping, often waking,
In the midnight waking, weeping, longing with one deep longing,
O that she might withdraw unnoticed, silent from life escape and
withdraw,
To follow, to seek, to be with her dear dead son.”
—Walt Whitman (1819–1892)