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Umbral Calculus
The term umbral calculus has two related but distinct meanings. In mathematics, before the 1970s, umbral calculus referred to the surprising similarity between seemingly unrelated polynomial equations and certain shadowy techniques used to prove them. These techniques were introduced in 1861 by John Blissard and are sometimes called Blissard's symbolic method. They are often attributed to Édouard Lucas (or James Joseph Sylvester), who used the technique extensively. The use of shadowy techniques was put on a solid mathematical footing starting in the 1970s, and the resulting mathematical theory is also referred to as "umbral calculus". History In the 1930s and 1940s, Eric Temple Bell attempted to set the umbral calculus on a rigorous footing, however his attempt in making this kind of argument logically rigorous was unsuccessful. The combinatorialist John Riordan in his book ''Combinatorial Identities'' published in the 1960s, used techniques of this sort extensively. In ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Mathematics
Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many areas of mathematics, which include number theory (the study of numbers), algebra (the study of formulas and related structures), geometry (the study of shapes and spaces that contain them), Mathematical analysis, analysis (the study of continuous changes), and set theory (presently used as a foundation for all mathematics). Mathematics involves the description and manipulation of mathematical object, abstract objects that consist of either abstraction (mathematics), abstractions from nature orin modern mathematicspurely abstract entities that are stipulated to have certain properties, called axioms. Mathematics uses pure reason to proof (mathematics), prove properties of objects, a ''proof'' consisting of a succession of applications of in ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Binomial Coefficient
In mathematics, the binomial coefficients are the positive integers that occur as coefficients in the binomial theorem. Commonly, a binomial coefficient is indexed by a pair of integers and is written \tbinom. It is the coefficient of the term in the polynomial expansion of the binomial power ; this coefficient can be computed by the multiplicative formula : \binom nk = \frac, which using factorial notation can be compactly expressed as : \binom = \frac. For example, the fourth power of is : \begin (1 + x)^4 &= \tbinom x^0 + \tbinom x^1 + \tbinom x^2 + \tbinom x^3 + \tbinom x^4 \\ &= 1 + 4x + 6 x^2 + 4x^3 + x^4, \end and the binomial coefficient \tbinom =\tfrac = \tfrac = 6 is the coefficient of the term. Arranging the numbers \tbinom, \tbinom, \ldots, \tbinom in successive rows for gives a triangular array called Pascal's triangle, satisfying the recurrence relation : \binom = \binom + \binom . The binomial coefficients occur in many areas of mathematics, and espe ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Finite Difference
A finite difference is a mathematical expression of the form . Finite differences (or the associated difference quotients) are often used as approximations of derivatives, such as in numerical differentiation. The difference operator, commonly denoted \Delta, is the operator (mathematics), operator that maps a function to the function \Delta[f] defined by \Delta[f](x) = f(x+1)-f(x). A difference equation is a functional equation that involves the finite difference operator in the same way as a differential equation involves derivatives. There are many similarities between difference equations and differential equations. Certain Recurrence relation#Relationship to difference equations narrowly defined, recurrence relations can be written as difference equations by replacing iteration notation with finite differences. In numerical analysis, finite differences are widely used for #Relation with derivatives, approximating derivatives, and the term "finite difference" is often used a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Pochhammer Symbol
In mathematics, the falling factorial (sometimes called the descending factorial, falling sequential product, or lower factorial) is defined as the polynomial \begin (x)_n = x^\underline &= \overbrace^ \\ &= \prod_^n(x-k+1) = \prod_^(x-k) . \end The rising factorial (sometimes called the Pochhammer function, Pochhammer polynomial, ascending factorial, — A reprint of the 1950 edition by Chelsea Publishing. rising sequential product, or upper factorial) is defined as \begin x^ = x^\overline &= \overbrace^ \\ &= \prod_^n(x+k-1) = \prod_^(x+k) . \end The value of each is taken to be 1 (an empty product) when n=0. These symbols are collectively called factorial powers. The Pochhammer symbol, introduced by Leo August Pochhammer, is the notation (x)_n, where is a non-negative integer. It may represent ''either'' the rising or the falling factorial, with different articles and authors using different conventions. Pochhammer himself actually used (x)_n with yet another meaning, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Polynomial
In mathematics, a polynomial is a Expression (mathematics), mathematical expression consisting of indeterminate (variable), indeterminates (also called variable (mathematics), variables) and coefficients, that involves only the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and exponentiation to nonnegative integer powers, and has a finite number of terms. An example of a polynomial of a single indeterminate is . An example with three indeterminates is . Polynomials appear in many areas of mathematics and science. For example, they are used to form polynomial equations, which encode a wide range of problems, from elementary word problem (mathematics education), word problems to complicated scientific problems; they are used to define polynomial functions, which appear in settings ranging from basic chemistry and physics to economics and social science; and they are used in calculus and numerical analysis to approximate other functions. In advanced mathematics, polynomials are ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Forward Difference
A finite difference is a mathematical expression of the form . Finite differences (or the associated difference quotients) are often used as approximations of derivatives, such as in numerical differentiation. The difference operator, commonly denoted \Delta, is the operator that maps a function to the function \Delta /math> defined by \Delta x) = f(x+1)-f(x). A difference equation is a functional equation that involves the finite difference operator in the same way as a differential equation involves derivatives. There are many similarities between difference equations and differential equations. Certain recurrence relations can be written as difference equations by replacing iteration notation with finite differences. In numerical analysis, finite differences are widely used for approximating derivatives, and the term "finite difference" is often used as an abbreviation of "finite difference approximation of derivatives". Finite differences were introduced by Brook Taylor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Analytic Function
In mathematics, an analytic function is a function that is locally given by a convergent power series. There exist both real analytic functions and complex analytic functions. Functions of each type are infinitely differentiable, but complex analytic functions exhibit properties that do not generally hold for real analytic functions. A function is analytic if and only if for every x_0 in its domain, its Taylor series about x_0 converges to the function in some neighborhood of x_0 . This is stronger than merely being infinitely differentiable at x_0 , and therefore having a well-defined Taylor series; the Fabius function provides an example of a function that is infinitely differentiable but not analytic. Definitions Formally, a function f is ''real analytic'' on an open set D in the real line if for any x_0\in D one can write f(x) = \sum_^\infty a_ \left( x-x_0 \right)^ = a_0 + a_1 (x-x_0) + a_2 (x-x_0)^2 + \cdots in which the coefficients a_0, a_1, \dots a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Complex-valued Function
Complex analysis, traditionally known as the theory of functions of a complex variable, is the branch of mathematical analysis that investigates functions of complex numbers. It is helpful in many branches of mathematics, including algebraic geometry, number theory, analytic combinatorics, and applied mathematics, as well as in physics, including the branches of hydrodynamics, thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and twistor theory. By extension, use of complex analysis also has applications in engineering fields such as nuclear, aerospace, mechanical and electrical engineering. As a differentiable function of a complex variable is equal to the sum function given by its Taylor series (that is, it is analytic), complex analysis is particularly concerned with analytic functions of a complex variable, that is, ''holomorphic functions''. The concept can be extended to functions of several complex variables. Complex analysis is contrasted with real analysis, which deals with th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Real-valued Function
In mathematics, a real-valued function is a function whose values are real numbers. In other words, it is a function that assigns a real number to each member of its domain. Real-valued functions of a real variable (commonly called ''real functions'') and real-valued functions of several real variables are the main object of study of calculus and, more generally, real analysis. In particular, many function spaces consist of real-valued functions. Algebraic structure Let (X,) be the set of all functions from a set to real numbers \mathbb R. Because \mathbb R is a field, (X,) may be turned into a vector space and a commutative algebra over the reals with the following operations: *f+g: x \mapsto f(x) + g(x) – vector addition *\mathbf: x \mapsto 0 – additive identity *c f: x \mapsto c f(x),\quad c \in \mathbb R – scalar multiplication *f g: x \mapsto f(x)g(x) – pointwise multiplication These operations extend to partial functions from to \mathbb R, with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Derivative
In mathematics, the derivative is a fundamental tool that quantifies the sensitivity to change of a function's output with respect to its input. The derivative of a function of a single variable at a chosen input value, when it exists, is the slope of the tangent line to the graph of the function at that point. The tangent line is the best linear approximation of the function near that input value. For this reason, the derivative is often described as the instantaneous rate of change, the ratio of the instantaneous change in the dependent variable to that of the independent variable. The process of finding a derivative is called differentiation. There are multiple different notations for differentiation. '' Leibniz notation'', named after Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz, is represented as the ratio of two differentials, whereas ''prime notation'' is written by adding a prime mark. Higher order notations represent repeated differentiation, and they are usually denoted in Leib ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
Taylor Series
In mathematics, the Taylor series or Taylor expansion of a function is an infinite sum of terms that are expressed in terms of the function's derivatives at a single point. For most common functions, the function and the sum of its Taylor series are equal near this point. Taylor series are named after Brook Taylor, who introduced them in 1715. A Taylor series is also called a Maclaurin series when 0 is the point where the derivatives are considered, after Colin Maclaurin, who made extensive use of this special case of Taylor series in the 18th century. The partial sum formed by the first terms of a Taylor series is a polynomial of degree that is called the th Taylor polynomial of the function. Taylor polynomials are approximations of a function, which become generally more accurate as increases. Taylor's theorem gives quantitative estimates on the error introduced by the use of such approximations. If the Taylor series of a function is convergent, its sum is the limit ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] [Amazon] |
