Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Not in a straight line.
- adjective Occurring as a result of an operation that is not linear.
- adjective Containing a variable with an exponent other than one. Used of an equation.
- adjective Of or relating to a system of equations whose effects are not proportional to their causes. Such a set of equations can be chaotic.
- adjective Of or relating to a device whose behavior is described by a set of nonlinear equations and whose output is not proportional to its input.
- adjective Of or relating to the output of such a device.
from The Century Dictionary.
- Not linear; in mathematics, not of the first degree.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective (Math.) Not depictable graphically as a straight line; not changing by a constant amount for each unit of time, distance, or other independent variable. Opposite of
linear . - adjective (Math.) Containing variables of greater than the first degree; -- of an equation. Opposite of
linear . - adjective (Physics) Represented by equations containing variables of greater than the first degree; -- of physical processes or relationships. Opposite of
linear .
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective of a set of points not lying on a
straight line - adjective chemistry, of a molecule whose
atoms do not lie in a straight line - adjective mathematics, of a function having a product of independent variables, or a variable with an
exponent not equal to one - adjective of a system whose
output is notdirectly proportional to itsinput - adjective
erratic andunpredictable ; tending to jump back and forth
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective designating or involving an equation whose terms are not of the first degree
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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I am quite familiar with the standard scientific application of ˜irreducible complexity 'in nonlinear science.
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I am quite familiar with the standard scientific application of 'irreducible complexity' in nonlinear science.
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My research in nonlinear optics continued with special emphasis on interactions of picosecond and femtosecond laser pulses with condensed matter and of collision-induced optical coherences.
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Digital-power mavens also brag about "nonlinear" - control approaches, but these loops prevent you from connecting a network analyzer on digital-power chips.
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Digital-power mavens also brag about "nonlinear" - control approaches, but these loops prevent you from connecting a network analyzer on digital-power chips.
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A further analysis, where G. Nicolis played a key role, showed that an unexpected phenomenon appeared while one considered the fluctuation problem in nonlinear systems far from equilibrium: the distribution law of fluctuations depends on their scale, and only "small fluctuations" follow the law proposed by Einstein. 29 After a prudent reception, this result is now widely accepted, and the theory of non-equilibrium fluctuations is fully developing now, so as to allow us to expect important results in the following years.
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The U.S. tax code is highly complex (what mathematicians would call nonlinear and discontinuous) and small differences in your circumstances can make a big difference in determining whether converting is for you.
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The U.S. tax code is highly complex (what mathematicians would call nonlinear and discontinuous) and small differences in your circumstances can make a big difference in determining whether converting is for you.
The Do-It-Yourself Roth Conversion Calculator Daniel Royer 2010
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There have been hundreds of manpower hours and computer resources spent on the so called nonlinear normal mode initialization NNMI procedure.
Exponential Growth in Physical Systems #2 « Climate Audit 2007
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So the company uses a so-called nonlinear, or "frequency doubling," crystal.
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