In mathematics, a reflection formula or reflection relation for a function f is a relationship between f(a − x) and f(x). It is a special case of a functional equation, and it is very common in the literature to use the term "functional equation" when "reflection formula" is meant.
Reflection formulas are useful for numerical computation of special functions. In effect, an approximation that has greater accuracy or only converges on one side of a reflection point (typically in the positive half of the complex plane) can be employed for all arguments.
Read more about Reflection Formula: Known Formulae
Famous quotes containing the words reflection and/or formula:
“A little reflection will enable any person to detect in himself that setness in trifles which is the result of the unwatched instinct of self-will and to establish over himself a jealous guardianship.”
—Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896)
“Given for one instant an intelligence which could comprehend all the forces by which nature is animated and the respective positions of the beings which compose it, if moreover this intelligence were vast enough to submit these data to analysis, it would embrace in the same formula both the movements of the largest bodies in the universe and those of the lightest atom; to it nothing would be uncertain, and the future as the past would be present to its eyes.”
—Pierre Simon De Laplace (1749–1827)