Definition
Formally, an analytic function ƒ(z) of the real or complex variables z1,…,zn is transcendental if z1, …, zn, ƒ(z) are algebraically independent, i.e., if ƒ is transcendental over the field C(z1, …,zn).
A transcendental function is a function that "transcends" algebra in the sense that it cannot be expressed in terms of a finite sequence of the algebraic operations of addition, multiplication, power, and root extraction.
Read more about this topic: Transcendental Function
Famous quotes containing the word definition:
“The physicians say, they are not materialists; but they are:MSpirit is matter reduced to an extreme thinness: O so thin!But the definition of spiritual should be, that which is its own evidence. What notions do they attach to love! what to religion! One would not willingly pronounce these words in their hearing, and give them the occasion to profane them.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Scientific method is the way to truth, but it affords, even in
principle, no unique definition of truth. Any so-called pragmatic
definition of truth is doomed to failure equally.”
—Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on life (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)