Hidden Variables

Hidden variables may refer to:

  • Hidden variable theories, in physics, the proposition that statistical models of physical systems (such as Quantum Mechanics) are inherently incomplete, and that the apparent randomness of a system depends not on collapsing wave functions, but rather due to unseen or unmeasurable (and thus "hidden") variables. In sharp contrast to the generally accepted Copenhagen Interpretation.
  • Latent variables, in statistics, variables that are inferred from other observed variables
  • Hidden transformation, in computer science, a way to transform a generic constraint satisfaction problem into a binary one by introducing new hidden variables
  • Confounding or hidden variables in general. That is, a variable that actually creates the illusion of a causal relation (e.g. firemen often appear after smoke, not because smoke causes firemen, but because fire causes both smoke and firemen)

Famous quotes containing the words hidden and/or variables:

    “One never gets to know a person’s character better than by watching his behavior during decisive moments.... It is always only danger which forces the most deeply hidden strengths and abilities of a human being to come forth.”
    —Stefan Zweig (18811942)

    “The variables of quantification, ‘something,’ ‘nothing,’ ‘everything,’ range over our whole ontology, whatever it may be; and we are convicted of a particular ontological presupposition if, and only if, the alleged presuppositum has to be reckoned among the entities over which our variables range in order to render one of our affirmations true.”
    —Willard Van Orman Quine (b. 1908)