Potential Function

The term potential function may refer to:

  • A mathematical function whose values are a physical potential.
  • The class of functions known as harmonic functions, which are the topic of study in potential theory.
  • The potential function of a potential game.
  • A function used in the potential method of amortized analysis to describe an investment of resources by past operations that can be used by future operations.

Famous quotes containing the words potential and/or function:

    “Silence is as full of potential wisdom and wit as the unhewn marble of great sculpture. The silent bear no witness against themselves.”
    —Aldous Huxley (1894–1963)

    “As a medium of exchange,... worrying regulates intimacy, and it is often an appropriate response to ordinary demands that begin to feel excessive. But from a modernized Freudian view, worrying—as a reflex response to demand—never puts the self or the objects of its interest into question, and that is precisely its function in psychic life. It domesticates self-doubt.”
    —Adam Phillips, British child psychoanalyst. “Worrying and Its Discontents,” in On Kissing, Tickling, and Being Bored, p. 58, Harvard University Press (1993)