What might "Understand a Function" mean?

J Davenport

doi:10.1007/978-3-540-73086-6_5

What might "Understand a Function" mean?

J Davenport

Research output: Chapter or section in a book/report/conference proceeding › Book chapter

1 Citation (SciVal)

Abstract

Many functions in classical mathematics are largely defined in terms of their derivatives, so Bessel’s function is “the” solution of Bessel’s equation, etc. For definiteness, we need to add other properties, such as initial values, branch cuts, etc. What actually makes up “the definition” of a function in computer algebra? The answer turns out to be a combination of arithmetic and analytic properties.

Original language	English
Title of host publication	Towards Mechanized Mathematical Assistants
Editors	M Kauers, M Kerber, R Miner, W Windsteiger
Publisher	Springer
Pages	55-65
Number of pages	11
Volume	4573
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-540-73086-6_5
Publication status	Published - 2007

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10.1007/978-3-540-73086-6_5

Cite this

@inbook{6f241eb094ae4ab4ad869ccf8b9e3544,

title = "What might {"}Understand a Function{"} mean?",

abstract = "Many functions in classical mathematics are largely defined in terms of their derivatives, so Bessel{\textquoteright}s function is {\textquotedblleft}the{\textquotedblright} solution of Bessel{\textquoteright}s equation, etc. For definiteness, we need to add other properties, such as initial values, branch cuts, etc. What actually makes up {\textquotedblleft}the definition{\textquotedblright} of a function in computer algebra? The answer turns out to be a combination of arithmetic and analytic properties. ",

author = "J Davenport",

year = "2007",

doi = "10.1007/978-3-540-73086-6\_5",

language = "English",

volume = "4573",

pages = "55--65",

editor = "M Kauers and M Kerber and R Miner and W Windsteiger",