|
Orthogonal - Dictionary Definition and Overview |
|
Orthogonal : adj
1: not pertinent to the matter under consideration; "an issue
extraneous to the debate"; "the price was immaterial";
"mentioned several impertinent facts before finally
coming to the point" [syn: extraneous, immaterial,
impertinent]
2: statistically unrelated
3: having a set of mutually perpendicular axes; meeting at
right angles; "wind and sea may displace the ship's center
of gravity along three orthogonal axes"; "a rectangular
Cartesian coordinate system" [syn: rectangular]
Based on WordNet 2.0
|
|
Orthogonal : \Or*thog"o*nal\, a. [Cf. F. orthogonal.]
Right-angled; rectangular; as, an orthogonal intersection of
one curve with another.
Orthogonal projection. See under Orthographic.
Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
|
|
Orthogonal :
At 90 degrees (right angles).
N mutually orthogonal vectors span an N-dimensional
vector space, meaning that, any vector in the space can be
expressed as a linear combination of the vectors. This is
true of any set of N linearly independent vectors.
The term is used loosely to mean mutually independent or well
separated. It is used to describe sets of primitives or
capabilities that, like linearly independent vectors in
geometry, span the entire "capability space" and are in some
sense non-overlapping or mutually independent. For example,
in logic, the set of operators "not" and "or" is described as
orthogonal, but the set "nand", "or", and "not" is not
(because any one of these can be expressed in terms of the
others).
Also used loosely to mean "irrelevant to", e.g. "This may be
orthogonal to the discussion, but ...", similar to "going off
at a tangent".
See also orthogonal instruction set.
[{Jargon File]
(2002-12-02)
Based on the Online Dictionary of Computing [Computer_Dictionary]:
|
|
Orthogonal : adj. [from mathematics] Mutually independent; well
separated; sometimes, irrelevant to. Used in a generalization of its
mathematical meaning to describe sets of primitives or capabilities
that, like a vector basis in geometry, span the entire `capability
space' of the system and are in some sense non-overlapping or mutually
independent. For example, in architectures such as the PDP-11 or VAX
where all or nearly all registers can be used interchangeably in any
role with respect to any instruction, the register set is said to be
orthogonal. Or, in logic, the set of operators `not' and `or' is
orthogonal, but the set `nand', `or', and `not' is not (because any one
of these can be expressed in terms of the others). Also used in comments
on human discourse: "This may be orthogonal to the discussion, but...."
Based on the Online Dictionary of Computing [Computer_Dictionary]:
|
|
|
|
|
