2010 Top Ten of Polemic for Mathematics

Linear equation

In mathematics, a linear equation is an equation that may be put in the form where are the variables, and are the coefficients, which are often real numbers. The coefficients may be considered as parameters of the equation, and may be arbitrary expressions, provided they do not contain any of the variables. To yield a meaningful equation, the coefficients are required to not all be zero

Octagonal prism

In geometry, the octagonal prism is the sixth in an infinite set of prisms, formed by square sides and two regular octagon caps

All-pairs testing

In computer science, all-pairs testing or pairwise testing is a combinatorial method of software testing that, for each pair of input parameters to a system, tests all possible discrete combinations of those parameters. Using carefully chosen test vectors, this can be done much faster than an exhaustive search of all combinations of all parameters, by "parallelizing" the tests of parameter pairs

Regular polygon

In Euclidean geometry, a regular polygon is a polygon that is direct equiangular and equilateral. Regular polygons may be either convex or star. In the limit, a sequence of regular polygons with an increasing number of sides approximates a circle, if the perimeter or area is fixed, or a regular apeirogon, if the edge length is fixed

List of Mersenne primes and perfect numbers

Mersenne primes and perfect numbers are two deeply interlinked types of natural numbers in number theory. Mersenne primes, named after the friar Marin Mersenne, are prime numbers that can be expressed as 2p − 1 for some positive integer p. For example, 3 is a Mersenne prime as it is a prime number and is expressible as 22 − 1. The numbers p corresponding to Mersenne primes must themselves be prime, although not all primes p lead to Mersenne primes—for example, 211 − 1 = 2047 = 23 × 89. Meanwhile

Ascendency

Ascendency or ascendancy is a quantitative attribute of an ecosystem, defined as a function of the ecosystem's trophic network. Ascendency is derived using mathematical tools from information theory. It is intended to capture in a single index the ability of an ecosystem to prevail against disturbance by virtue of its combined organization and size

One-sided limit

In calculus, a one-sided limit refers to either one of the two limits of a function of a real variable as approaches a specified point either from the left or from the right

Bar chart

A bar chart or bar graph is a chart or graph that presents categorical data with rectangular bars with heights or lengths proportional to the values that they represent. The bars can be plotted vertically or horizontally. A vertical bar chart is sometimes called a column chart

Hexagonal prism

In geometry, the hexagonal prism is a prism with hexagonal base. This polyhedron has 8 faces, 18 edges, and 12 vertices

Graph of a function

In mathematics, the graph of a function is the set of ordered pairs , where In the common case where and are real numbers, these pairs are Cartesian coordinates of points in two-dimensional space and thus form a subset of this plane