Sum

Sum

Summation is the operation of adding a sequence of numbers; the result is their sum or total. If numbers are added sequentially from left to right, any intermediate result is a partial sum, prefix sum, or running total of the summation. The numbers to be summed (called addends, or sometimes summands) may be integers, rational numbers, real numbers, or complex numbers. Besides numbers, other types of values can be added as well: vectors, matrices, polynomials and, in general, elements of any additive group (or even monoid). For finite sequences of such elements, summation always produces a well-defined sum (possibly by virtue of the convention for empty sums).

Read more about Sum.

Famous quotes containing the word sum:

    To sum up our most serious objections in a few words, we should say that Carlyle indicates a depth—and we mean not impliedly, but distinctly—which he neglects to fathom.
    Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)

    I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that’s my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again ... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul.
    —J.G. (James Graham)

    Lest darkness fall and time fall
    In a long night when learned arteries
    Mounting the ice and sum of barbarous time
    Shall yield, without essence, perfect accident.
    We are the eyelids of defeated caves.
    Allen Tate (1899–1979)