- #1
HJ Farnsworth
- 126
- 1
Greetings,
I used to sit in on an astrophysics course, where during derivations the professor would often absorb all of the constants in a given expression into a single ever-changing constant at the front of the expression. E.g., for a trivial example, let X be 3 times the circumference of a circle of radius r times the perimeter of a square of side length l, with k the constant in front:
X=kC(r)P(l)=krP(l)=krl.
The constant 3, the 2\pi from C(r), and the 4 from P(l) are all absorbed into k.
Is there a common name for this kind of device, which in the title of this thread I just called a "swallowing constant"? Also, is there a common notation for it?
Thanks for any help that you can give.
-HJ Farnsworth
I used to sit in on an astrophysics course, where during derivations the professor would often absorb all of the constants in a given expression into a single ever-changing constant at the front of the expression. E.g., for a trivial example, let X be 3 times the circumference of a circle of radius r times the perimeter of a square of side length l, with k the constant in front:
X=kC(r)P(l)=krP(l)=krl.
The constant 3, the 2\pi from C(r), and the 4 from P(l) are all absorbed into k.
Is there a common name for this kind of device, which in the title of this thread I just called a "swallowing constant"? Also, is there a common notation for it?
Thanks for any help that you can give.
-HJ Farnsworth
