• DocumentCode
    1593586
  • Title

    What is an Equation?

  • Author

    Marcus, Svoboda ; Watt, Stephen M.

  • Author_Institution
    Romanian Acad. of Sci., Bucharest, Romania
  • fYear
    2012
  • Firstpage
    23
  • Lastpage
    29
  • Abstract
    The equation concept is one of the most fundamental in mathematics, yet the word "equation" means different things to different people. It is used not only with various precise technical meanings, but also as a metaphor for complex situations. We review some of the history of the equation and its present meaning and use in a variety of settings. Although some languages make distinctions among ideas such equations that are always satisfied versus those that may not be, or between equations with variables and relations without, we observe that it may not be possible to decide into which of these cases a particular equality falls.
  • Keywords
    equations; mathematical analysis; complex situations; equality; equation concept; mathematics; precise technical meanings; Algebra; Databases; Dictionaries; Equations; Europe; History; equation; history of mathematics; mathematical terminology; mathematical translation;
  • fLanguage
    English
  • Publisher
    ieee
  • Conference_Titel
    Symbolic and Numeric Algorithms for Scientific Computing (SYNASC), 2012 14th International Symposium on
  • Conference_Location
    Timisoara
  • Print_ISBN
    978-1-4673-5026-6
  • Type

    conf

  • DOI
    10.1109/SYNASC.2012.79
  • Filename
    6481007