Fixed Point

"Fixed point" has many meanings in science, most of them mathematical.

  • Fixed point (mathematics)
  • Fixed-point iteration, a general method to compute the fixed point of an iterated function.
  • Fixed-point combinator
  • For "Fixed-point join" in databases, see Recursive join
  • Fixed-point arithmetic, a manner of doing arithmetic on computers
  • Benchmark (surveying), fixed points used by geodesists
  • For “fixed points” in physics, see Renormalization group
  • Fixed points are necessary for a watercraft to be moored to a quay.
  • Archimedes said δῶς μοι πᾶ στῶ καὶ τὰν γᾶν κινάσω, which is sometimes translated as “Give me a fixed point and I will move the world.”

Famous quotes containing the words fixed and/or point:

    “The whole point about the true unconscious is that it is all the time moving forward, beyond the range of its own fixed laws or habits. It is no good trying to superimpose an ideal nature upon the unconscious.”
    —D.H. (David Herbert)

    ““What we know, is a point to what we do not know.” Open any recent journal of science, and weigh the problems suggested concerning Light, Heat, Electricity, Magnetism, Physiology, Geology, and judge whether the interest of natural science is likely to be soon exhausted.”
    —Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)