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In mathematics, a variable (from Latin variabilis, "changeable") is a symbol, typically a letter, that refers to an unspecified mathematical object. [1] [2] [3] One says colloquially that the variable represents or denotes the object, and that any valid candidate for the object is the value of the variable.
The term Variable is relevant to several contexts, and is especially important to mathematics and computer science. Scientists and engineers will often use mathematical variables in formulae and equations, such as E = m c 2; they will also have their own special uses of the term. The term Variable can also occur in other contexts, such as ...
Data is a set of values of qualitative or quantitative variables; restated, pieces of data are individual pieces of information. Data in computing (or data processing) is represented in a structure that is often tabular (represented by rows and columns), a tree (a set of nodes with parent-children relationship), or a graph (a set of connected ...
For example, (,) means that the distribution of the random variable X is standard normal. [2] 6. Notation for proportionality. See also ∝ for a less ambiguous symbol. ≡ 1. Denotes an identity; that is, an equality that is true whichever values are given to the variables occurring in it. 2.
Variable binding relates three things: a variable v, a location a for that variable in an expression and a non-leaf node n of the form Q(v, P). Note: we define a location in an expression as a leaf node in the syntax tree. Variable binding occurs when that location is below the node n. In the lambda calculus, x is a bound variable in the term M ...
The notation is also used to denote the characteristic function in convex analysis, which is defined as if using the reciprocal of the standard definition of the indicator function. A related concept in statistics is that of a dummy variable .
Variables allow mathematicians to describe the operations that have to be done on the numbers represented using mathematical formulas. [ 34 ] Until the 19th century, algebra consisted mainly of the study of linear equations (presently linear algebra ), and polynomial equations in a single unknown , which were called algebraic equations (a term ...
In mathematics, a function is a rule for taking an input (in the simplest case, a number or set of numbers) [5] and providing an output (which may also be a number). [5] A symbol that stands for an arbitrary input is called an independent variable, while a symbol that stands for an arbitrary output is called a dependent variable. [6]