Concept
Formula
Overview
In science, a formula is a concise way of expressing information symbolically, as in a mathematical formula or a chemical formula. The informal use of the term formula in science refers to the general construct of a relationship between given quantities.
The plural of formula can be either formulas (from the most common English plural noun form) or, under the influence of scientific Latin, formulae (from the original Latin).
Overview adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 4.0; see the article history for authors).
In the original texts
Passages from public-domain books where Formula is discussed.
When a formula of this kind is discovered, it is no longer called an empirical formula, but a law of Nature; and is sooner or later made the basis of an hypothesis which is to explain it. These simple formulæ are not usually, if ever, exactly true, but they are none the less important for that; and the great triumph of the hypothesis comes when it explains not only the formula, but also the deviations from the…
Charles S. Peirce, Chance, Love, and Logic
names the idea; states what it is; opens on it
To briefly illustrate their respective powers--arithmetic can express in one formula the value of a _particular_ tangent to a _particular_ curve; algebra can express in one formula the values of _all_ tangents to a _particular_ curve; transcendental analysis can express in one formula the values of _all_ tangents to _all_ curves. Just as arithmetic deals with the common properties of lines, areas, bulks, forces…
Herbert Spencer, Essays on education and kindred subjects
names the idea; opens on it
Yes, the wise man too speaks, and acts, in Formulas; all men do so. And in general, the more completely cased with Formulas a man may be, the safer, happier is it for him. Thou who, in an All of rotten Formulas, seemest to stand nigh bare, having indignantly shaken off the superannuated rags and unsound callosities of Formulas,--consider how thou too art still clothed!
Thomas Carlyle, Past and Present Thomas Carlyle's Collected Works, Vol. XIII.
names the idea; opens on it
FIFTH FORMULA. _Things which coincide are equal._ The angles ABE and ACD are brought within this formula by the induction immediately preceding. This train of reasoning being also applicable, _mutatis mutandis_, to the angles EBC, DCB, these also are brought within the fifth formula. And, finally, SIXTH FORMULA. _The differences of equals are equal._ The angle ABC being the difference of ABE, CBE, and the angle ACB…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic
names the idea; opens on it
By virtue of this second characteristic property, the entire system of an immense science, such as geometry or mechanics, has been condensed into a small number of analytical formulas, from which the human mind can deduce, by certain and invariable rules, the solution of all particular problems.
Auguste Comte, The philosophy of mathematics
names the idea; opens on it
Philosophers who discussed Formula
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Place in the tradition
Part of Fuzzy logic.