Calculus (disambiguation)

"Calculus" is Latin for pebble, and has a number of meanings in English:

In mathematics and computer science

"Calculus", in its most general sense, is any method or system of calculation. To modern theoreticians the answer to the question "what is a calculus?" is: any systematic way of reasoning [ [http://www.lfcs.inf.ed.ac.uk/reports/86/ECS-LFCS-86-1/ECS-LFCS-86-1.pdf Is Computing an Experimental Science?] ] .

* "Calculus", short for "Differential and Integral Calculus", which investigates motion and rates of change. The denotation "the" Calculus" is sometimes used to distinguish this from other mathematical meanings.
* Precalculus, a family of mathematical topics that prepare students to begin to study differential and integral calculus.
* the calculus of sums and differences, also called the finite-difference calculus, a discrete analogue of "the" Calculus.
* In symbolic logic:
** the propositional calculus, which specify the rules of inference governing the logic of propositions.
** the predicate calculus, which specify the rules of inference governing the logic of predicates.
** a proof calculus, a framework for expressing systems of logical inference.
** the sequent calculus, a proof calculus for first-order logic.
* Domain relational calculus, a calculus for the relational data model.
* Functional calculus, a way to apply various types of functions to operators.
* Join calculus, a theoretical model for distributed programming.
* Lambda calculus, a formulation of the theory of reflexive functions that has deep connections to computational theory.
* Matrix calculus, a specialized notation for multivariable calculus over spaces of matrices.
* Modal μ-calculus, a common temporal logic used by formal verification methods such as model checking.
* Non-standard calculus, an approach to infinitesimal calculus using Robinson's infinitesimals.
* Pi-calculus, a formulation of the theory of concurrent, communicating processes, invented by Robin Milner.
* Refinement calculus, a way of refining models of programs into efficient programs.
* Rho calculus, introduced as a general means to uniformly integrate rewriting and lambda calculus.
* Tuple calculus, a calculus for the relational data model, inspired the SQL language.
* Umbral calculus, the combinatorics of certain operations on polynomials.
* the calculus of variations, the study of extremal functionals.
* Vector calculus (also called vector analysis), comprising specialized notations for multivariable analysis of vectors in an inner-product space.

Other meanings

* Calculus (dental), deposits of calcium phosphate salts on teeth, also known as tartar.
* Calculus (medicine), a stone formed in the body such as a gall stone or kidney stone.
* Professor Cuthbert Calculus, a fictional character in the series "The Adventures of Tintin"
* "Calculus", a spider genus (Oonopidae).
* "Caseolus calculus", a species of small land snails.
* "Battlefield calculus", military factoring of all known factors into the decision making and action planning process

References