A characteristic is a distinguishing feature of a person or thing. It may refer to:
Computing
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Characteristic (biased exponent), an ambiguous term formerly used by some authors to specify some type of exponent of a floating point number
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Characteristic (significand), an ambiguous term formerly used by some authors to specify the significand of a floating point number
Science
*''I–V'' or
current–voltage characteristic, the current in a circuit as a function of the applied voltage
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Receiver operating characteristic
Mathematics
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Characteristic (algebra)
In mathematics, the characteristic of a ring , often denoted , is defined to be the smallest number of times one must use the ring's multiplicative identity (1) in a sum to get the additive identity (0). If this sum never reaches the additive id ...
of a ring, the smallest common cycle length of the ring's addition operation
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Characteristic (logarithm), integer part of a common logarithm
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Characteristic function, usually the indicator function of a subset, though the term has other meanings in specific domains
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Characteristic polynomial
In linear algebra, the characteristic polynomial of a square matrix is a polynomial which is invariant under matrix similarity and has the eigenvalues as roots. It has the determinant and the trace of the matrix among its coefficients. The ...
, a polynomial associated with a square matrix in linear algebra
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Characteristic subgroup, a subgroup that is invariant under all automorphisms in group theory
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Characteristic value, another name for the eigenvalue of a matrix
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Characteristic vector (disambiguation), another name for eigenvector of a matrix
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Characteristic word, a subclass of Sturmian word
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Euler characteristic
In mathematics, and more specifically in algebraic topology and polyhedral combinatorics, the Euler characteristic (or Euler number, or Euler–Poincaré characteristic) is a topological invariant, a number that describes a topological spac ...
, a topological invariant
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Method of characteristics, a technique for solving partial differential equations
Other uses
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Light characteristic
A light characteristic is all of the properties that make a particular navigational light identifiable. Graphical and textual descriptions of navigational light sequences and colours are displayed on nautical charts and in Light Lists with the ch ...
, pattern of a lighted beacon
* Another name for
ability score
In the ''Dungeons & Dragons'' role-playing game, game mechanics and dice rolls determine much of what happens. These mechanics include:
* Ability scores, the most basic statistics of a character, which influence all other statistics
* Armor cla ...
in ''Dungeons & Dragons''
See also
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* ''
Characteristicks'', a 1711 philosophical treatise by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 3rd Earl of Shaftesbury
{{disambiguation