This is interesting for it combines both the thermodynamic concept of a minimum Gibbs function for equilibrium and minimum mechanical potential energy for equilibrium.

The concept of the strain energy as a Gibbs function difference Af and exerting a force normal to the shearing face is compatible with the information obtained from optical birefringence studies of fluids undergoing shear.

271 - 307 ) indicate, that the concept of function in sociology has been built up from physiological and biological models, in which the notions of teleology, i.e., metaphysical purpose, are central.

A choice function is a function f, defined on a collection X of nonempty sets, such that for every set s in X, f ( s ) is an element of s. With this concept, the axiom can be stated:

The concept of binary function generalises to ternary ( or 3-ary ) function, quaternary ( or 4-ary ) function, or more generally to n-ary function for any natural number n.

The Copenhagen Interpretation denies that the wave function is anything more than a theoretical concept, or is at least non-committal about its being a discrete entity or a discernible component of some discrete entity.

Some argue that the concept of the collapse of a " real " wave function was introduced by Heisenberg and later developed by John Von Neumann in 1932.

This concept is very useful for iterated function systems where contraction mappings are often used.

A familiar example is the concept of the graph of a function.

In keeping with the concept of vacuous truth, when disjunction is defined as an operator or function of arbitrary arity, the empty disjunction ( OR-ing over an empty set of operands ) is often defined as having the result 0.

* Electron localization function, a concept in quantum mechanics

Today, the term " holomorphic function " is sometimes preferred to " analytic function ", as the latter is a more general concept.

* Integration, in mathematics, a fundamental concept of calculus — the operation of calculating the area between the curve of a function on the x-axis or y-axis

Dewey's most significant writings were " The Reflex Arc Concept in Psychology " ( 1896 ), a critique of a standard psychological concept and the basis of all his further work ; Democracy and Education ( 1916 ), his celebrated work on progressive education ; Human Nature and Conduct ( 1922 ), a study of the function of habit in human behavior ; The Public and its Problems ( 1927 ), a defense of democracy written in response to Walter Lippmann's The Phantom Public ( 1925 ); Experience and Nature ( 1925 ), Dewey's most " metaphysical " statement ; Art as Experience ( 1934 ), Dewey's major work on aesthetics ; A Common Faith ( 1934 ), a humanistic study of religion originally delivered as the Dwight H. Terry Lectureship at Yale ; Logic: The Theory of Inquiry ( 1938 ), a statement of Dewey's unusual conception of logic ; Freedom and Culture ( 1939 ), a political work examining the roots of fascism ; and Knowing and the Known ( 1949 ), a book written in conjunction with Arthur F. Bentley that systematically outlines the concept of trans-action, which is central to his other works.

Most notably, he introduced the concept of a function and was the first to write f ( x ) to denote the function f applied to the argument x.

In keeping with the concept of vacuous truth, when conjunction is defined as an operator or function of arbitrary arity, the empty conjunction ( AND-ing over an empty set of operands ) is often defined as having the result 1.

Thus for map projections we must introduce the concept of point scale, which is a function of position, and strive to keep its variation within narrow bounds.

A concept of responsibility is in process of articulation and establishment.

National responsibility for individual welfare is a concept not limited to the United States or even to the Western nations.

Recognizing that the Rule of Law is `` a dynamic concept which should be employed not only to safeguard the civil and political rights of the individual in a free society '', the Congress asserted that it also included the responsibility `` to establish social, economic, educational and cultural conditions under which his legitimate aspirations and dignity may be realized ''.

Whether a concept analogous to the principle of internal responsibility operates in a nation's external relations is less obvious and more difficult to establish.

) The concept of nationalism is the political principle that epitomizes and glorifies the territorial state as the characteristic type of socal structure.

Historically, however, the concept is one that has been of marked benefit to the people of the Western civilizational group.

But it is more than irony: one of the main reasons why nationalism is no longer a tenable concept is because it has spread throughout the planet.

It is interesting, however, that despite this strong upsurge in Southern writing, almost none of the writers has forsaken the firmly entrenched concept of the white-suited big-daddy colonel sipping a mint julep as he silently recounts the revenue from the season's cotton and tobacco crops ; ;

A broader concept of imitation is needed, one which acknowledges that true invention is important, that the artist's creativity in part transcends the non-artistic causal factors out of which it arises.

Who will deny that in a vast portion of the South the Federal action is incompatible with the Jeffersonian concept of `` the consent of the governed ''??

For it is their catastrophic concept of the Anglo-Saxon invasions rather than Kemble's gradualist approach which dominates the field.

But beginning, for all practical purposes, with Frederick Seebohm's English Village Community scholars have had to reckon with a theory involving institutional and agrarian continuity between Roman and Anglo-Saxon times which is completely at odds with the reigning concept of the Anglo-Saxon invasions.

It is ironic that Washington is having to struggle so for a concept that for six years it bypassed as unreasonable.

The concept of labor as a special class is outmoded, and in the task confronting America as bastion of the free world, labor must learn to put the national interest first if it is itself to survive.

The most fundamental concept of the new approach to economic aid is the focusing of our attention, our resources, and our energies on the effort to promote the economic and social development of the less developed countries.

While it is easy enough to ridicule Hawkins' pronouncement in Pleas Of The Crown from a metaphysical point of view, the concept of the `` oneness '' of a married couple may reflect an abiding belief that the communion between husband and wife is such that their actions are not always to be regarded by the criminal law as if there were no marriage.

That we had the wit and wisdom to adopt Mr. Lowell's concept and make it the base for our processes of selection is one reason why our selections have been, it may be said truly, pretty uniformly good.

It is this sort of experience that makes the concept of high fidelity of real musical significance for the home music listener.

The concept of trans-illumination ( as shown by the photo on p. 92 ), as just one example, offers an entirely new approach to lighting problems -- no matter what industry is involved.

The positive Kohnstamm reactivity in Condition 1 ( ( the naive state ) is not adequately explained by such a concept as suggestibility ( if suggestibility is defined as the influence on behavior by verbal cues ).

Asynchronous Transfer Mode ( ATM ) is, according to the ATM Forum, " a telecommunications concept defined by ANSI and ITU ( formerly CCITT ) standards for carriage of a complete range of user traffic, including voice, data, and video signals ," and is designed to unify telecommunication and computer networks.

Many associate the term " born again " with the revelation of a new concept, or an experience of conversion, defined as mental assent to the acceptance of Jesus Christ as one's personal Savior ; though some believe that this experience or mental assent ( See Gnosticism ) is not alone sufficient to merit Christian salvation.

The related concept of " standard " numbers, which can only be defined within a finite time and space, is used to motivate axiomatic internal set theory, and provide a workable formulation for illimited and infinitesimal number.

This observation motivates the theoretical concept of an abstract data type, a data structure that is defined indirectly by the operations that may be performed on it, and the mathematical properties of those operations ( including their space and time cost ).

This is a concept of distance expressed by means of a smooth positive definite symmetric bilinear form defined on the tangent space at each point.

The electric field was formally defined as the force exerted per unit charge, but the concept of potential allows for a more useful and equivalent definition: the electric field is the local gradient of the electric potential.

The concept of metapopulations was defined in 1969 as " a population of populations which go extinct locally and recolonize.

The concept of energy emerged out of the idea of vis viva ( living force ), which Gottfried Leibniz defined as the product of the mass of an object and its velocity squared ; he believed that total vis viva was conserved.

In classical thermodynamics, the concept of entropy is defined phenomenologically by the second law of thermodynamics, which states that the entropy of an isolated system always increases or remains constant.

Ephemeris time was a first application of the concept of a dynamical time scale, in which the time and time scale are defined implicitly, inferred from the observed position of an astronomical object via the dynamical theory of its motion.

Drawing on his long-term research, and using the criteria of course, outcome and prognosis, he developed the concept of dementia praecox, which he defined as the " sub-acute development of a peculiar simple condition of mental weakness occurring at a youthful age.

If one concept is defined by another, and the other is defined by the first, this is known as circular definition, somewhat similar to a circular reasoning: neither offers us any enlightenment about what we wanted to know.

There is some disagreement amongst authorities about how the concept of a fractal should be formally defined.

This usage of the word is the origin of the modern concept of Germanic languages, but it was not defined strictly by language.

Though his sources on Gnosticism were secondary, since the texts in the Nag Hammadi library were not yet widely available, Eric Voegelin ( 1901 – 1985 ), partially building on the concept of gnosis as used by Plato and the followers of Gnosticism, along with how it was defined by Hans Jonas, defined the gnosis of the followers of Gnosticism as religious philosophical teachings that are the foundations of cults.

Shannon himself defined an important concept now called the unicity distance.

According to this viewpoint, International English is a concept of English that minimises the aspects defined by either the colonial imperialism of Victorian Britain or the so-called " cultural imperialism " of the 20th century United States.

The Dirks case also defined the concept of " constructive insiders ," who are lawyers, investment bankers and others who receive confidential information from a corporation while providing services to the corporation.