Concept
Parameter
Overview
A parameter (from Ancient Greek παρά (pará) 'beside, subsidiary' and μέτρον (métron) 'measure'), generally, is any characteristic that can help in defining or classifying a particular system (meaning an event, project, object, situation, etc.). That is, a parameter is an element of a system that is useful, or critical, when identifying the system, or when evaluating its performance, status, condition, etc.
Parameter has more specific meanings within various disciplines, including mathematics, computer programming, engineering, statistics, logic, linguistics, and electronic musical composition.
In addition to its technical uses, there are also extended uses, especially in non-scientific contexts, where it is used to mean defining characteristics or boundaries, as in the phrases 'test parameters' or 'game play parameters'.
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 Parameter is discussed.
Besides, Mayer's principle is not understood in this sense when it is applied to a limited system. It is then assumed that _p_ of our parameters vary independently, so that we only have _n_ - _p_ relations, generally linear, between our _n_ parameters and their derivatives. To simplify the enunciation, suppose that the sum of the work of the external forces is null, as well as that of the quantities of heat given…
Henri Poincaré, The Foundations of Science
names the idea; states what it is
On the other hand an event-particle is defined so as to exhibit this character of being a route of approximation marked out by entities posited in sense-awareness. A definite event-particle is defined in reference to a definite punct in the following manner: Let the condition {sigma} mean the property of covering all the abstractive elements which are members of that punct; so that an abstractive set which satisfies…
Alfred North Whitehead, The Concept of Nature The Tarner Lectures Delivered in Trinity College, November 1919
states what it is
The former we call soft, the latter hard, bodies. In some bodies the parts are so very easily separable, that they not only yield to a very moderate pressure, but easily receive the pressing body within them, and without much resistance allow it to traverse their extent in every possible direction. These are called Fluid, in contradistinction to those of which the parts not being so easily separable, are upon that…
Adam Smith, The Essays of Adam Smith
states what it is
We may, if we please, call the proposition, “Three is two and one,” a definition of the number three, and assert that arithmetic, as it has been asserted that geometry, is a science founded on definitions. But they are definitions in the geometrical sense, not the logical; asserting not the meaning of a term only, but along with it an observed matter of fact. The proposition, “A circle is a figure bounded by a line…
John Stuart Mill, A System of Logic, Ratiocinative and Inductive
states what it is
The idea of a number is also enlarged. These letters, standing for any numbers, are called sometimes variables and sometimes parameters. Their essential characteristic is that they are undetermined, unless, indeed, the algebraic conditions which they satisfy implicitly determine them. Then they are sometimes called unknowns.
Alfred North Whitehead, The organisation of thought, educational and scientific
states what it is; names the idea
Related ideas
- Artificial intelligence
- Function (mathematics)
- Mathematics
- Mechanics
- Linguistics
- Academic Press
- Statistics
- Science
- Dependent and independent variables
- Logic
- Mathematical analysis
- Bayesian probability
- Chemistry
- Computer programming
- Currying
- System
- Dag Prawitz
Opposing perspectives
Place in the tradition
Part of Determinism.