2013 Top Ten of Polemic for Mathematics
- Uses of trigonometry
- Amongst the lay public of non-mathematicians and non-scientists, trigonometry is known chiefly for its application to measurement problems, yet is also often used in ways that are far more subtle, such as its place in the theory of music; still other uses are more technical, such as in number theory. The mathematical topics of Fourier series and Fourier transforms rely heavily on knowledge of trigonometric functions and find application in a number of areas, including statistics
- Parallelogram
- In Euclidean geometry, a parallelogram is a simple (non-self-intersecting) quadrilateral with two pairs of parallel sides. The opposite or facing sides of a parallelogram are of equal length and the opposite angles of a parallelogram are of equal measure. The congruence of opposite sides and opposite angles is a direct consequence of the Euclidean parallel postulate and neither condition can be proven without appealing to the Euclidean parallel postulate or one of its equivalent formulations
- Twiddle factor
- A twiddle factor, in fast Fourier transform (FFT) algorithms, is any of the trigonometric constant coefficients that are multiplied by the data in the course of the algorithm. This term was apparently coined by Gentleman & Sande in 1966, and has since become widespread in thousands of papers of the FFT literature
- Killing tensor
- A Killing tensor, named after Wilhelm Killing, is a symmetric tensor, known in the theory of general relativity, that
- 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
- Names of large numbers
- This article lists and discusses the usage and derivation of names of large numbers, together with their possible extensions
- Surface area
- The surface area of a solid object is a measure of the total area that the surface of the object occupies. The mathematical definition of surface area in the presence of curved surfaces is considerably more involved than the definition of arc length of one-dimensional curves, or of the surface area for polyhedra, for which the surface area is the sum of the areas of its faces. Smooth surfaces, such as a sphere, are assigned surface area using their representation as parametric surfaces. This definition of
- Segment addition postulate
- In geometry, the Segment Addition Postulate states that given 2 points A and C, a third point B lies on the line segment AC if and only if the distances between the points satisfy the equation AB + BC = AC. This is related to the triangle inequality, which states that AB + BC AC with equality if and only if A, B, and C are collinear. This in turn is equivalent to the proposition that the shortest distance between two points lies on a straight line
- False (logic)
- In logic, false or untrue is the state of possessing negative truth value or a nullary logical connective. In a truth-functional system of propositional logic, it is one of two postulated truth values, along with its negation, truth. Usual notations of the false are 0, O, and the up tack symbol
- Cinquefoil knot
- In knot theory, the cinquefoil knot, also known as Solomon's seal knot or the pentafoil knot, is one of two knots with crossing number five, the other being the three-twist knot. It is listed as the 51 knot in the Alexander-Briggs notation, and can also be described as the (5,2)-torus knot. The cinquefoil is the closed version of the double overhand knot