Null (mathematics)
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- See also Null for use in computing and other fields
In mathematics, the word null (from German null and Norwegian null, which is from Latin nullus, both meaning "zero", or "none")[1] may or may not have a meaning different from zero. Sometimes the symbol ∅ is used to distinguish "null" from 0.
In a vector space the null vector is the zero vector; in set theory, the null set is the set with zero elements; and in measure theory, a null set is a set with zero measure.
A mathematical mapping is said to be null potent (or nilpotent) if repeated application can map the whole domain into the null element.
A null space of a mapping is the part of the domain that is mapped into the null element of the image (the inverse image of the null element).
In statistics, a null hypothesis is a proposition presumed true unless statistical evidence indicates otherwise.
[edit] References
- ^ (2004) ""null"". The Oxford English Dictionary, Draft Revision March 2004. Retrieved on 2007-04-05.