indeterminate
An indeterminate is simply a variable that is not known or solvable. It is usually denoted by a mathematical alphabet (, , , or , , etc…). It is important to distinguish between a variable and an indeterminate in that a variable is solvable, at least conditionally. To make this more precise, let’s see two examples:
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1.
Let be a variable such that , where . Then . Here is solvable conditioned on the equation given. Any values of and will yield a value for .
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2.
Let be an indeterminate such that , where . Since can not be solved, we have and . Note that if and are previously assigned to be values other than 2 and 3 respectively, then is no longer an indeterminate.
Title | indeterminate |
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Canonical name | Indeterminate |
Date of creation | 2013-03-22 14:47:33 |
Last modified on | 2013-03-22 14:47:33 |
Owner | CWoo (3771) |
Last modified by | CWoo (3771) |
Numerical id | 5 |
Author | CWoo (3771) |
Entry type | Definition |
Classification | msc 00A05 |
Related topic | Parameter |