The term figurate number is used by different writers for members of different sets of numbers, generalizing from triangular numbers to different shapes (polygonal numbers) and different dimensions (polyhedral numbers). The term can mean
- polygonal number
- a number represented as a discrete r-dimensional regular geometric pattern of r-dimensional balls such as a polygonal number (for r = 2) or a polyhedral number (for r = 3).
- a member of the subset of the sets above containing only triangular numbers, pyramidal numbers, and their analogs in other dimensions.
Read more about Figurate Number: Terminology, History, Triangular Numbers, Gnomon
Famous quotes containing the word number:
“Among a hundred windows shining
dully in the vast side
of greater-than-palace number such-and-such
one burns
these several years, each night
as if the room within were aflame.”
—Denise Levertov (b. 1923)