What do semicolons mean in math

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Ayman Hourieh John John 1 1 gold badge 4 4 silver badges 5 5 bronze badges. To denote colon product of two dyads. Grossman, J. Managing Ed. Weisstein, Eric W. Explore thousands of free applications across science, mathematics, engineering, technology, business, art, finance, social sciences, and more.

Walk through homework problems step-by-step from beginning to end. Hints help you try the next step on your own. Unlike other variables, though, parameters are variables used to narrow down a specific group of solutions.

If you see a semicolon, what comes before it is a variable and what comes after it is a parameter. To reiterate, a variable is a letter that represents an unknown number, while a parameter is a variable for which you have been given a specific value or values. The semicolon, then, allows someone to give you more information to either solve an equation or plot it on a chart.

Here it is clear that x is the variable, while m and b are parameters to keep in mind while solving for x or plotting the function on a chart. The instructions on the cat food say to give one cup a day per five pounds of cat. Now imagine we got a different type of cat food that says to feed one cup per four pounds of cat.

Since both are obscure and require an advanced understanding of complicated mathematical topics, this article will not go into detail about either. For basic descriptions of each, see below. Differential geometry is the study of geometry using differential calculus, integral calculus and linear algebra.

Several free online textbooks exist for those who want to learn more about this topic. In differential geometry, semicolons are used to describe covariant derivatives.