Talk:Hamming distance
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[edit] Distance vs. difference
Why the difference between the bits called as "Hamming distance" and not "Hamming difference" —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 163.152.45.51 (talk • contribs).
- I don't know the historical reasons, but I can think of a couple of plausible explanations. First, Hamming distance forms a metric and functions with that property are often called distances. Second, the difference of A and B is a quantity that, when added back to B, gives A again; that is, it is inverse to addition. Hamming distance doesn't have that property, so it doesn't make sense to call it a difference. One function that is called a difference and is closely related to Hamming distance is the symmetric difference. —David Eppstein 04:53, 5 January 2007 (UTC)
[edit] 2-D graph
What about the hamming distance between two points in a 2-D graph for example? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 128.200.69.104 (talk • contribs).
