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geometric problems of antiquity

(Encyclopedia)geometric problems of antiquity, three famous problems involving elementary geometric constructions with straight edge and compass, conjectured by the ancient Greeks to be impossible but not proved to...

absolute value

(Encyclopedia)absolute value, magnitude of a number or other mathematical expression disregarding its sign; thus, the absolute value is positive, whether the original expression is positive or negative. In symbols,...

Federer, Roger

(Encyclopedia)Federer, Roger, 1981–, Swiss tennis player, b. Basel. He was an outstanding junior player, ranking number one in 1998, the year he turned pro. Federer won his first Association of Tennis Professiona...

probability

(Encyclopedia)probability, in mathematics, assignment of a number as a measure of the “chance” that a given event will occur. There are certain important restrictions on such a probability measure. In any exper...

chromosome

(Encyclopedia)chromosome krōˈməsōmˌ [key], structural carrier of hereditary characteristics, found in the nucleus of every cell and so named for its readiness to absorb dyes. The term chromosome is usually res...

strangler fig

(Encyclopedia)strangler fig, common name for a number of tropical plant species, most of them are in the family Moraceae (fig family). They include the golden fig, Ficus aurea, of the SE United States. The name str...

scientific notation

(Encyclopedia)scientific notation, means of expressing very large or very small numbers in a compact form that is easy to use in computations. In this notation, any number is expressed as a number between 1 and 10 ...

polyhedron

(Encyclopedia)CE5 Polyhedrons polyhedron pŏlˌēhēˈdrən [key], closed solid bounded by plane faces; each face of a polyhedron is a polygon. A cube is a polyhedron bounded by six polygons (in this case squar...

periodic law

(Encyclopedia)periodic law, statement of a periodic recurrence of chemical and physical properties of the elements when the elements are arranged in order of increasing atomic number. Such an arrangement in the for...

inequality

(Encyclopedia)inequality, in mathematics, statement that a mathematical expression is less than or greater than some other expression; an inequality is not as specific as an equation, but it does contain informatio...