The process of transforming statistical data, such as some sort of measurements, into that usually combine a number of independent is called factor analysis. The techniques for determining or estimating various parameters in such algebraic...

Factors can be thought of as the multiplying building blocks for integers. A factor is an integer that divides another integer without leaving a remainder. In general, an integer x is a factor of the integer y if is also an integer. Becau...

Felix Klein is arguably one of the most influential mathematicians of the 19th century. He is best known for building the mathematical community at the University of Göttingen which became a model for research facilities in mathematic...

The classic problem of squaring the circle had intrigued mathematicians since the time of Euclid. Only in 1882, however, when Ferdinand Lindemann proved that is a transcendental number, was this problem finally resolved. While Lindemann is...

Statement that there are no natural numbers &math.x;, &math.y;, and &math.z; such that &math.x;&math.n; + &math.y;&math.n; = &math.z;&math.n;, in which &math.n; is a natural number greater than 2. About this, Pierre de Fermat wrote in 1637...

The Italian mathematician and merchant Leonardo Fibonacci (ca. 1180-ca. 1250), also known as Leonardo of Pisa, was the most original and capable mathematician of the medieval Christian world. Leonardo Fibonacci was born in Pisa and was bro...

A "field" is the name given to a pair of numbers and a set of operations which together satisfy several specific laws. A familiar example of a field is the set of rational numbers and the operations addition and multiplication. An example ...

Mathematicians define a sequence as a function which maps some subset of the positive integers onto some subset of the real numbers. In simplest terms, a sequence is an ordered list of elements. In this article, we will take these elements...

In 1665 Isaac Newton, an English mathematician, introduced the concept of a fluxion. Fluxion was the early term for what we now call a derivative, which is just the instantaneous rate of change of a function with respect to a variable. Whi...

Formalism is the mathematical school of thought which holds that mathematics consists of symbols, rules for combining those symbols, some minimal number of assumptions or axioms, and certain agreed upon rules of inference. Formalism was in...

In mathematics, an infinite series used to solve special types of differential equations. It consists of an infinite sum of sines and cosines, and because it is periodic (i.e., its values repeat over fixed intervals), it is a useful tool i...

In arithmetic, a number expressed as a quotient, in which a numerator is divided by a denominator. In a simple fraction, both are integers. A complex fraction has a fraction in the numerator or denominator. In a proper fraction, the numera...

The English mathematician and philosopher Frank Plumpton Ramsey (1903-1930) was recognized as an authority in mathematical logic. Frank Ramsey was born on Feb. 22, 1903. His father, Arthur Ramsey, was president of Magdalen College. Ramsey'...

The German astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel (1784-1846) established the modern ideals and standards of precision in astronomy and obtained the first measurement of the distance to a star. Friedrich Wilhelm Bessel was born in Minden, Nor...

Henri Poincare (1854-1912) discovered the fundamental group (also known as the Poincare group or the first homotopy group) of a manifold (or more generally, any topological space) and used it to classify manifolds. A manifold is a topologi...

Basic principle of calculus. It relates the derivative to the integral and provides the principal method for evaluating definite integrals (&see; differential calculus; integral calculus). In brief, it states that any function that is cont...