Signe (arithmétique)vignette|Les symboles plus et moins sont utilisés pour indiquer le signe d'un nombre En arithmétique, le signe d'un nombre réel qualifie sa position par rapport à zéro. Un nombre est dit positif s'il est supérieur ou égal à zéro ; il est dit négatif s'il est inférieur ou égal à zéro. Le nombre zéro lui-même est donc à la fois positif et négatif. Le signe arithmétique est souvent noté à l'aide des signes algébriques « + » et « − » (plus et moins), notamment dans un tableau de signe.
Deformation (mathematics)In mathematics, deformation theory is the study of infinitesimal conditions associated with varying a solution P of a problem to slightly different solutions Pε, where ε is a small number, or a vector of small quantities. The infinitesimal conditions are the result of applying the approach of differential calculus to solving a problem with constraints. The name is an analogy to non-rigid structures that deform slightly to accommodate external forces.
Great-circle navigationGreat-circle navigation or orthodromic navigation (related to orthodromic course; ) is the practice of navigating a vessel (a ship or aircraft) along a great circle. Such routes yield the shortest distance between two points on the globe. The great circle path may be found using spherical trigonometry; this is the spherical version of the inverse geodetic problem. If a navigator begins at P1 = (φ1,λ1) and plans to travel the great circle to a point at point P2 = (φ2,λ2) (see Fig.
Hearing the shape of a drumTo hear the shape of a drum is to infer information about the shape of the drumhead from the sound it makes, i.e., from the list of overtones, via the use of mathematical theory. "Can One Hear the Shape of a Drum?" is the title of a 1966 article by Mark Kac in the American Mathematical Monthly which made the question famous, though this particular phrasing originates with Lipman Bers. Similar questions can be traced back all the way to physicist Arthur Schuster in 1882. For his paper, Kac was given the Lester R.
