Intersection (geometry)In geometry, an intersection is a point, line, or curve common to two or more objects (such as lines, curves, planes, and surfaces). The simplest case in Euclidean geometry is the line–line intersection between two distinct lines, which either is one point or does not exist (if the lines are parallel). Other types of geometric intersection include: Line–plane intersection Line–sphere intersection Intersection of a polyhedron with a line Line segment intersection Intersection curve Determination of the intersection of flats – linear geometric objects embedded in a higher-dimensional space – is a simple task of linear algebra, namely the solution of a system of linear equations.
Unit circleIn mathematics, a unit circle is a circle of unit radius—that is, a radius of 1. Frequently, especially in trigonometry, the unit circle is the circle of radius 1 centered at the origin (0, 0) in the Cartesian coordinate system in the Euclidean plane. In topology, it is often denoted as S1 because it is a one-dimensional unit n-sphere. If (x, y) is a point on the unit circle's circumference, then and are the lengths of the legs of a right triangle whose hypotenuse has length 1.
Spherical capIn geometry, a spherical cap or spherical dome is a portion of a sphere or of a ball cut off by a plane. It is also a spherical segment of one base, i.e., bounded by a single plane. If the plane passes through the center of the sphere (forming a great circle), so that the height of the cap is equal to the radius of the sphere, the spherical cap is called a hemisphere.
Spherical basisIn pure and applied mathematics, particularly quantum mechanics and computer graphics and their applications, a spherical basis is the basis used to express spherical tensors. The spherical basis closely relates to the description of angular momentum in quantum mechanics and spherical harmonic functions. While spherical polar coordinates are one orthogonal coordinate system for expressing vectors and tensors using polar and azimuthal angles and radial distance, the spherical basis are constructed from the standard basis and use complex numbers.
CylinderA cylinder () has traditionally been a three-dimensional solid, one of the most basic of curvilinear geometric shapes. In elementary geometry, it is considered a prism with a circle as its base. A cylinder may also be defined as an infinite curvilinear surface in various modern branches of geometry and topology. The shift in the basic meaning—solid versus surface (as in ball and sphere)—has created some ambiguity with terminology. The two concepts may be distinguished by referring to solid cylinders and cylindrical surfaces.
Maximum and minimumIn mathematical analysis, the maximum and minimum of a function are, respectively, the largest and smallest value taken by the function. Known generically as extremum, they may be defined either within a given range (the local or relative extrema) or on the entire domain (the global or absolute extrema) of a function. Pierre de Fermat was one of the first mathematicians to propose a general technique, adequality, for finding the maxima and minima of functions.
Separation of variablesIn mathematics, separation of variables (also known as the Fourier method) is any of several methods for solving ordinary and partial differential equations, in which algebra allows one to rewrite an equation so that each of two variables occurs on a different side of the equation. A differential equation for the unknown will be separable if it can be written in the form where and are given functions. This is perhaps more transparent when written using as: So now as long as h(y) ≠ 0, we can rearrange terms to obtain: where the two variables x and y have been separated.
Extreme value theoremIn calculus, the extreme value theorem states that if a real-valued function is continuous on the closed interval , then must attain a maximum and a minimum, each at least once. That is, there exist numbers and in such that: The extreme value theorem is more specific than the related boundedness theorem, which states merely that a continuous function on the closed interval is bounded on that interval; that is, there exist real numbers and such that: This does not say that and are necessarily the maximum and minimum values of on the interval which is what the extreme value theorem stipulates must also be the case.
Sphere packingIn geometry, a sphere packing is an arrangement of non-overlapping spheres within a containing space. The spheres considered are usually all of identical size, and the space is usually three-dimensional Euclidean space. However, sphere packing problems can be generalised to consider unequal spheres, spaces of other dimensions (where the problem becomes circle packing in two dimensions, or hypersphere packing in higher dimensions) or to non-Euclidean spaces such as hyperbolic space.
