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Snippet from Wikipedia: Variable (mathematics)

In mathematics, a variable (from Latin variabilis, "changeable") is a symbol that represents a mathematical object. A variable may represent a number, a vector, a matrix, a function, the argument of a function, a set, or an element of a set.

Algebraic computations with variables as if they were explicit numbers solve a range of problems in a single computation. For example, the quadratic formula solves any quadratic equation by substituting the numeric values of the coefficients of that equation for the variables that represent them in the quadratic formula. In mathematical logic, a variable is either a symbol representing an unspecified term of the theory (a meta-variable), or a basic object of the theory that is manipulated without referring to its possible intuitive interpretation.

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Snippet from Wikipedia: Function (mathematics)

In mathematics, a function from a set X to a set Y assigns to each element of X exactly one element of Y. The set X is called the domain of the function and the set Y is called the codomain of the function.

Functions were originally the idealization of how a varying quantity depends on another quantity. For example, the position of a planet is a function of time. Historically, the concept was elaborated with the infinitesimal calculus at the end of the 17th century, and, until the 19th century, the functions that were considered were differentiable (that is, they had a high degree of regularity). The concept of a function was formalized at the end of the 19th century in terms of set theory, and this greatly enlarged the domains of application of the concept.

A function is often denoted by a letter such as f, g or h. The value of a function f at an element x of its domain (that is the element of the codomain that is associated to x) is denoted by f(x); for example, the value of f at x = 4 is denoted by f(4). Commonly, a specific function is defined by means of an expression depending on x, such as ${\displaystyle f(x)=x^{2}+1;}$ in this case, some computation, called function evaluation, may be needed for deducing the value of the function at a particular value; for example, if ${\displaystyle f(x)=x^{2}+1,}$ then ${\displaystyle f(4)=4^{2}+1=17.}$

Given its domain and its codomain, a function is uniquely represented by the set of all pairs (x, f (x)), called the graph of the function, a popular means of illustrating the function. When the domain and the codomain are sets of real numbers, each such pair may be thought of as the Cartesian coordinates of a point in the plane.

Functions are widely used in science, engineering, and in most fields of mathematics. It has been said that functions are "the central objects of investigation" in most fields of mathematics.

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Fair Use Sources:

• Calculus Simplified (CSMMt MMMt)
• Redefinition of the Derivative - Why the Calculus Works — and Why It Doesn't (DerivMMt)
• Miles Math (MMMt)
• Mathematical Functions for Archive Access for Fair Use Preservation, quoting, paraphrasing, excerpting and/or commenting upon