orthogonal

5 definitions found

orthogonal - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Orthogonal \Or*thog"o*nal\, a. [Cf. F. orthogonal.]
     Right-angled; rectangular; as, an orthogonal intersection of
     one curve with another.
     [1913 Webster]
  
     Orthogonal projection. See under Orthographic.
        [1913 Webster]

orthogonal - WordNet (r) 2.1 (2005) :

  orthogonal
      adj 1: not pertinent to the matter under consideration; "an
             issue extraneous to the debate"; "the price was
             immaterial"; "mentioned several impertinent facts before
             finally coming to the point" [syn: extraneous,
             immaterial, impertinent, orthogonal]
      2: statistically unrelated
      3: having a set of mutually perpendicular axes; meeting at right
         angles; "wind and sea may displace the ship's center of
         gravity along three orthogonal axes"; "a rectangular
         Cartesian coordinate system" [syn: orthogonal,
         rectangular]

orthogonal - Free On-line Dictionary of Computing (26 May 2007) :

  orthogonal
  
     <geometry> At 90 degrees (right angles).
  
     N mutually orthogonal vectors span an N-dimensional
     vector space, meaning that, any vector in the space can be
     expressed as a linear combination of the vectors.  This is
     true of any set of N linearly independent vectors.
  
     The term is used loosely to mean mutually independent or well
     separated.  It is used to describe sets of primitives or
     capabilities that, like linearly independent vectors in
     geometry, span the entire "capability space" and are in some
     sense non-overlapping or mutually independent.  For example,
     in logic, the set of operators "not" and "or" is described as
     orthogonal, but the set "nand", "or", and "not" is not
     (because any one of these can be expressed in terms of the
     others).
  
     Also used loosely to mean "irrelevant to", e.g. "This may be
     orthogonal to the discussion, but ...", similar to "going off
     at a tangent".
  
     See also orthogonal instruction set.
  
     [Jargon File]
  
     (2002-12-02)
  

orthogonal - Jargon File (4.4.4, 14 Aug 2003) :

  orthogonal
   adj.
  
     [from mathematics] Mutually independent; well separated; sometimes,
     irrelevant to. Used in a generalization of its mathematical meaning
  to
     describe sets of primitives or capabilities that, like a vector basis
     in geometry, span the entire `capability space' of the system and are
     in some sense non-overlapping or mutually independent. For example,
  in
     architectures such as the PDP-11 or VAX where all or nearly all
     registers can be used interchangeably in any role with respect to any
     instruction, the register set is said to be orthogonal. Or, in logic,
     the set of operators not and or is orthogonal, but the set nand, or,
     and not is not (because any one of these can be expressed in terms of
     the others). Also used in comments on human discourse: "This may be
     orthogonal to the discussion, but...."
  

orthogonal - Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 :

  35 Moby Thesaurus words for "orthogonal":
     cube-shaped, cubed, cubic, cubiform, cuboid, diced, foursquare,
     normal, oblong, orthodiagonal, orthometric, perpendicular, plumb,
     plunging, precipitous, quadrangular, quadrate, quadriform,
     quadrilateral, rectangular, rhombic, rhomboid, right-angle,
     right-angled, right-angular, sheer, square, steep, straight-up,
     straight-up-and-down, tetragonal, tetrahedral, trapezohedral,
     trapezoid, up-and-down