Conjugate diametersIn geometry, two diameters of a conic section are said to be conjugate if each chord parallel to one diameter is bisected by the other diameter. For example, two diameters of a circle are conjugate if and only if they are perpendicular. For an ellipse, two diameters are conjugate if and only if the tangent line to the ellipse at an endpoint of one diameter is parallel to the other diameter. Each pair of conjugate diameters of an ellipse has a corresponding tangent parallelogram, sometimes called a bounding parallelogram (skewed compared to a bounding rectangle).
Duality (optimization)In mathematical optimization theory, duality or the duality principle is the principle that optimization problems may be viewed from either of two perspectives, the primal problem or the dual problem. If the primal is a minimization problem then the dual is a maximization problem (and vice versa). Any feasible solution to the primal (minimization) problem is at least as large as any feasible solution to the dual (maximization) problem.
Coherent dualityIn mathematics, coherent duality is any of a number of generalisations of Serre duality, applying to coherent sheaves, in algebraic geometry and complex manifold theory, as well as some aspects of commutative algebra that are part of the 'local' theory. The historical roots of the theory lie in the idea of the adjoint linear system of a linear system of divisors in classical algebraic geometry. This was re-expressed, with the advent of sheaf theory, in a way that made an analogy with Poincaré duality more apparent.
Rotation of axes in two dimensionsIn mathematics, a rotation of axes in two dimensions is a mapping from an xy-Cartesian coordinate system to an x′y′-Cartesian coordinate system in which the origin is kept fixed and the x′ and y′ axes are obtained by rotating the x and y axes counterclockwise through an angle . A point P has coordinates (x, y) with respect to the original system and coordinates (x′, y′) with respect to the new system. In the new coordinate system, the point P will appear to have been rotated in the opposite direction, that is, clockwise through the angle .
Trefoil knotIn knot theory, a branch of mathematics, the trefoil knot is the simplest example of a nontrivial knot. The trefoil can be obtained by joining together the two loose ends of a common overhand knot, resulting in a knotted loop. As the simplest knot, the trefoil is fundamental to the study of mathematical knot theory. The trefoil knot is named after the three-leaf clover (or trefoil) plant. The trefoil knot can be defined as the curve obtained from the following parametric equations: The (2,3)-torus knot is also a trefoil knot.
ManifoldIn mathematics, a manifold is a topological space that locally resembles Euclidean space near each point. More precisely, an -dimensional manifold, or -manifold for short, is a topological space with the property that each point has a neighborhood that is homeomorphic to an open subset of -dimensional Euclidean space. One-dimensional manifolds include lines and circles, but not lemniscates. Two-dimensional manifolds are also called surfaces. Examples include the plane, the sphere, and the torus, and also the Klein bottle and real projective plane.
Seifert surfaceIn mathematics, a Seifert surface (named after German mathematician Herbert Seifert) is an orientable surface whose boundary is a given knot or link. Such surfaces can be used to study the properties of the associated knot or link. For example, many knot invariants are most easily calculated using a Seifert surface. Seifert surfaces are also interesting in their own right, and the subject of considerable research. Specifically, let L be a tame oriented knot or link in Euclidean 3-space (or in the 3-sphere).
Alexander polynomialIn mathematics, the Alexander polynomial is a knot invariant which assigns a polynomial with integer coefficients to each knot type. James Waddell Alexander II discovered this, the first knot polynomial, in 1923. In 1969, John Conway showed a version of this polynomial, now called the Alexander–Conway polynomial, could be computed using a skein relation, although its significance was not realized until the discovery of the Jones polynomial in 1984.
HomotopyIn topology, a branch of mathematics, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic (from ὁμός "same, similar" and τόπος "place") if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy (həˈmɒtəpiː, ; ˈhoʊmoʊˌtoʊpiː, ) between the two functions. A notable use of homotopy is the definition of homotopy groups and cohomotopy groups, important invariants in algebraic topology. In practice, there are technical difficulties in using homotopies with certain spaces.
