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Antipodal Point
In mathematics, antipodal points of a sphere are those diametrically opposite to each other (the specific qualities of such a definition are that a line drawn from the one to the other passes through the center of the sphere so forms a true diameter). This term applies to opposite points on a circle or any n-sphere. An antipodal point is sometimes called an antipode, a back-formation from the Greek loan word ''antipodes'', meaning "opposite (the) feet", as the true word singular is ''antipus''. Theory In mathematics, the concept of ''antipodal points'' is generalized to spheres of any dimension: two points on the sphere are antipodal if they are opposite ''through the centre''; for example, taking the centre as origin, they are points with related vectors v and −v. On a circle, such points are also called diametrically opposite. In other words, each line through the centre intersects the sphere in two points, one for each ray out from the centre, and these two poi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Antipodes
In geography, the antipode () of any spot on Earth is the point on Earth's surface diametrically opposite to it. A pair of points ''antipodal'' () to each other are situated such that a straight line connecting the two would pass through Earth's center. Antipodal points are as far away from each other as possible. The North and South Poles are antipodes of each other. In the Northern Hemisphere, "the Antipodes" may refer to Australia and New Zealand, and Antipodeans to their inhabitants. Geographically, the antipodes of Britain and Ireland are in the Pacific Ocean, south of New Zealand. This gave rise to the name of the Antipodes Islands of New Zealand, which are close to the antipode of London. With the exception of a part of the Perth metropolitan area near Baldivis and Rockingham that is antipodal to Bermuda, the antipodes of Australia are in the North Atlantic Ocean, while parts of Spain, Portugal, France and Morocco are antipodal to New Zealand. Approximate ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Line (mathematics)
In geometry, a line is an infinitely long object with no width, depth, or curvature. Thus, lines are one-dimensional objects, though they may exist in two, three, or higher dimension spaces. The word ''line'' may also refer to a line segment in everyday life, which has two points to denote its ends. Lines can be referred by two points that lay on it (e.g., \overleftrightarrow) or by a single letter (e.g., \ell). Euclid described a line as "breadthless length" which "lies evenly with respect to the points on itself"; he introduced several postulates as basic unprovable properties from which he constructed all of geometry, which is now called Euclidean geometry to avoid confusion with other geometries which have been introduced since the end of the 19th century (such as non-Euclidean, projective and affine geometry). In modern mathematics, given the multitude of geometries, the concept of a line is closely tied to the way the geometry is described. For instance, in analyt ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projective Hilbert Space
In mathematics and the foundations of quantum mechanics, the projective Hilbert space P(H) of a complex Hilbert space H is the set of equivalence classes of non-zero vectors v in H, for the relation \sim on H given by :w \sim v if and only if v = \lambda w for some non-zero complex number \lambda. The equivalence classes of v for the relation \sim are also called rays or projective rays. This is the usual construction of projectivization, applied to a complex Hilbert space. Overview The physical significance of the projective Hilbert space is that in quantum theory, the wave functions \psi and \lambda \psi represent the same ''physical state'', for any \lambda \ne 0. It is conventional to choose a \psi from the ray so that it has unit norm, \langle\psi, \psi\rangle = 1, in which case it is called a normalized wavefunction. The unit norm constraint does not completely determine \psi within the ray, since \psi could be multiplied by any \lambda with absolute value 1 (the U(1) ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Projective Space
In mathematics, the concept of a projective space originated from the visual effect of perspective, where parallel lines seem to meet ''at infinity''. A projective space may thus be viewed as the extension of a Euclidean space, or, more generally, an affine space with points at infinity, in such a way that there is one point at infinity of each direction of parallel lines. This definition of a projective space has the disadvantage of not being isotropic, having two different sorts of points, which must be considered separately in proofs. Therefore, other definitions are generally preferred. There are two classes of definitions. In synthetic geometry, ''point'' and ''line'' are primitive entities that are related by the incidence relation "a point is on a line" or "a line passes through a point", which is subject to the axioms of projective geometry. For some such set of axioms, the projective spaces that are defined have been shown to be equivalent to those resulting from th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Degree Of A Continuous Mapping
In topology, the degree of a continuous mapping between two compact oriented manifolds of the same dimension is a number that represents the number of times that the domain manifold wraps around the range manifold under the mapping. The degree is always an integer, but may be positive or negative depending on the orientations. The degree of a map was first defined by Brouwer, who showed that the degree is homotopy invariant ( invariant among homotopies), and used it to prove the Brouwer fixed point theorem. In modern mathematics, the degree of a map plays an important role in topology and geometry. In physics, the degree of a continuous map (for instance a map from space to some order parameter set) is one example of a topological quantum number. Definitions of the degree From ''S''''n'' to ''S''''n'' The simplest and most important case is the degree of a continuous map from the n-sphere S^n to itself (in the case n=1, this is called the winding number): Let f\colon S^n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Identity Function
Graph of the identity function on the real numbers In mathematics, an identity function, also called an identity relation, identity map or identity transformation, is a function that always returns the value that was used as its argument, unchanged. That is, when is the identity function, the equality is true for all values of to which can be applied. Definition Formally, if is a set, the identity function on is defined to be a function with as its domain and codomain, satisfying In other words, the function value in the codomain is always the same as the input element in the domain . The identity function on is clearly an injective function as well as a surjective function, so it is bijective. The identity function on is often denoted by . In set theory, where a function is defined as a particular kind of binary relation, the identity function is given by the identity relation, or ''diagonal'' of . Algebraic properties If is any function, then we h ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Homotopy
In topology, a branch of mathematics, two continuous functions from one topological space to another are called homotopic (from grc, ὁμός "same, similar" and "place") if one can be "continuously deformed" into the other, such a deformation being called a homotopy (, ; , ) 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. Algebraic topologists work with compactly generated spaces, CW complexes, or spectra. Formal definition Formally, a homotopy between two continuous functions ''f'' and ''g'' from a topological space ''X'' to a topological space ''Y'' is defined to be a continuous function H: X \times ,1\to Y from the product of the space ''X'' with the unit interval , 1to ''Y'' such that H(x,0) = f(x) and H(x,1) = g(x) for all x \in X. If we think of the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Continuous Function
In mathematics, a continuous function is a function such that a continuous variation (that is a change without jump) of the argument induces a continuous variation of the value of the function. This means that there are no abrupt changes in value, known as '' discontinuities''. More precisely, a function is continuous if arbitrarily small changes in its value can be assured by restricting to sufficiently small changes of its argument. A discontinuous function is a function that is . Up until the 19th century, mathematicians largely relied on intuitive notions of continuity, and considered only continuous functions. The epsilon–delta definition of a limit was introduced to formalize the definition of continuity. Continuity is one of the core concepts of calculus and mathematical analysis, where arguments and values of functions are real and complex numbers. The concept has been generalized to functions between metric spaces and between topological spaces. The latter are t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Algebraic Topology
Algebraic topology is a branch of mathematics that uses tools from abstract algebra to study topological spaces. The basic goal is to find algebraic invariants that classify topological spaces up to homeomorphism, though usually most classify up to homotopy equivalence. Although algebraic topology primarily uses algebra to study topological problems, using topology to solve algebraic problems is sometimes also possible. Algebraic topology, for example, allows for a convenient proof that any subgroup of a free group is again a free group. Main branches of algebraic topology Below are some of the main areas studied in algebraic topology: Homotopy groups In mathematics, homotopy groups are used in algebraic topology to classify topological spaces. The first and simplest homotopy group is the fundamental group, which records information about loops in a space. Intuitively, homotopy groups record information about the basic shape, or holes, of a topological space. Homology ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Borsuk–Ulam Theorem
In mathematics, the Borsuk–Ulam theorem states that every continuous function from an ''n''-sphere into Euclidean ''n''-space maps some pair of antipodal points to the same point. Here, two points on a sphere are called antipodal if they are in exactly opposite directions from the sphere's center. Formally: if f: S^n \to \R^n is continuous then there exists an x\in S^n such that: f(-x)=f(x). The case n=1 can be illustrated by saying that there always exist a pair of opposite points on the Earth's equator with the same temperature. The same is true for any circle. This assumes the temperature varies continuously in space. The case n=2 is often illustrated by saying that at any moment, there is always a pair of antipodal points on the Earth's surface with equal temperatures and equal barometric pressures, assuming that both parameters vary continuously in space. The Borsuk–Ulam theorem has several equivalent statements in terms of odd functions. Recall that S^n is the ''n'' ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vector (geometry)
In mathematics, physics, and engineering, a Euclidean vector or simply a vector (sometimes called a geometric vector or spatial vector) is a geometric object that has magnitude (or length) and direction. Vectors can be added to other vectors according to vector algebra. A Euclidean vector is frequently represented by a '' directed line segment'', or graphically as an arrow connecting an ''initial point'' ''A'' with a ''terminal point'' ''B'', and denoted by \overrightarrow . A vector is what is needed to "carry" the point ''A'' to the point ''B''; the Latin word ''vector'' means "carrier". It was first used by 18th century astronomers investigating planetary revolution around the Sun. The magnitude of the vector is the distance between the two points, and the direction refers to the direction of displacement from ''A'' to ''B''. Many algebraic operations on real numbers such as addition, subtraction, multiplication, and negation have close analogues for vectors, operat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Digon On Circle
In geometry, a digon is a polygon with two sides (edges) and two vertices. Its construction is degenerate in a Euclidean plane because either the two sides would coincide or one or both would have to be curved; however, it can be easily visualised in elliptic space. A regular digon has both angles equal and both sides equal and is represented by Schläfli symbol . It may be constructed on a sphere as a pair of 180 degree arcs connecting antipodal points, when it forms a lune. The digon is the simplest abstract polytope of rank 2. A truncated ''digon'', t is a square, . An alternated digon, h is a monogon, . In Euclidean geometry The digon can have one of two visual representations if placed in Euclidean space. One representation is degenerate, and visually appears as a double-covering of a line segment. Appearing when the minimum distance between the two edges is 0, this form arises in several situations. This double-covering form is sometimes used for defining deg ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
