Ternary (from Latin ''ternarius'') or trinary is an adjective meaning "composed of
three
3 is a number, numeral, and glyph.
3, three, or III may also refer to:
* AD 3, the third year of the AD era
* 3 BC, the third year before the AD era
* March, the third month
Books
* '' Three of Them'' (Russian: ', literally, "three"), a 1901 ...
items". It can refer to:
Mathematics and logic
*
Ternary numeral system
A ternary numeral system (also called base 3 or trinary) has three as its base. Analogous to a bit, a ternary digit is a trit (trinary digit). One trit is equivalent to log2 3 (about 1.58496) bits of information.
Although ''ternary'' m ...
, a base-3 counting system
**
Balanced ternary
Balanced ternary is a ternary numeral system (i.e. base 3 with three digits) that uses a balanced signed-digit representation of the integers in which the digits have the values −1, 0, and 1. This stands in contrast to the standard (unbalanc ...
, a positional numeral system, useful for comparison logic
*
Ternary logic
In logic, a three-valued logic (also trinary logic, trivalent, ternary, or trilean, sometimes abbreviated 3VL) is any of several many-valued logic systems in which there are three truth values indicating ''true'', ''false'' and some indeterminat ...
, a logic system with the values ''true'', ''false'', and some other value
*
Ternary plot
A ternary plot, ternary graph, triangle plot, simplex plot, Gibbs triangle or de Finetti diagram is a barycentric plot on three variables which sum to a constant. It graphically depicts the ratios of the three variables as positions in an equ ...
or ternary graph, a plot that shows the ratios of three proportions
*
Ternary relation, a finitary relation in which the number of places in the relation is three
*
Ternary operation
In mathematics, a ternary operation is an ''n''-ary operation with ''n'' = 3. A ternary operation on a set ''A'' takes any given three elements of ''A'' and combines them to form a single element of ''A''.
In computer science, a ternary operator i ...
, an operation that takes three parameters
*
Ternary function, a function that takes three arguments
Computing
*
Ternary signal In telecommunication, a ternary signal is a signal that can assume, at any given instant, one of three states or significant conditions, such as power level, phase position, pulse duration, or frequency.
Examples of ternary signals are (a) a puls ...
, a signal that can assume three significant values
*
Ternary computer, a computer using a ternary numeral system
*
Ternary tree, a tree data structure in computer science
**
Ternary search tree, a ternary (three-way) tree data structure of strings
*
Ternary search A ternary search algorithm is a technique in computer science for finding the minimum or maximum of a unimodal function. A ternary search determines either that the minimum or maximum cannot be in the first third of the domain or that it cannot be ...
, a computer science technique for finding the minimum or maximum of a function
*
Ternary heap
Ternary (from Latin ''ternarius'') or trinary is an adjective meaning "composed of three items". It can refer to:
Mathematics and logic
* Ternary numeral system, a base-3 counting system
** Balanced ternary, a positional numeral system, useful ...
, a data structure in computer science
*
Ternary Golay code, a perfect
1, 6, 5ternary linear code
*
?:, a ternary conditional operator used for basic conditional expressions in several programming languages
Other uses
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Ternary complex, a complex formed by the interaction of three molecules
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Ternary compound
In inorganic chemistry and materials chemistry, a ternary compound or ternary phase is a chemical compound containing three different elements.
While some ternary compounds are molecular, ''e.g.'' chloroform (), more typically ternary phases r ...
, a type of chemical compound
*
Ternary form
Ternary form, sometimes called song form, is a three-part musical form consisting of an opening section (A), a following section (B) and then a repetition of the first section (A). It is usually schematized as A–B–A. Prominent examples inclu ...
, a form used for structuring music
*
Ternary name for any taxon below the rank of species
See also
*
Tertiary (disambiguation)
*
Binary (disambiguation)
*
Quaternary (disambiguation)
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