Variable (mathematics)

In mathematics, a variable is a symbol which works as a placeholder for expression or quantities that may "vary" or change; is often used to represent the argument of a function or an arbitrary element of a set. In addition to numbers, variables are commonly used to represent vectors, matrices and functions.
Making algebraic computations with variables as if they were explicit numbers allows one to solve a range of problems in a single computation. A typical example is the quadratic formula, which allows one to solve every quadratic equation—by simply substituting the numeric values of the coefficients of the given equation for the variables that represent them.
In mathematical logic, a "variable" is either a symbol representing an unspecified term of the theory (i.e., meta-variable), or a basic object of the theory—which is manipulated without referring to its possible intuitive interpretation.
Etymology.
"Variable" comes from a Latin word, "variābilis", with "vari(us)"' meaning "various" and "-ābilis"' meaning "-able", meaning "capable of changing".
Genesis and evolution of the concept.
In the 7th century, Brahmagupta used different colours to represent the unknowns in algebraic equations in the "Brāhmasphuṭasiddhānta". One section of this book is called "Equations of Several Colours".
At the end of the 16th century, François Viète introduced the idea of representing known and unknown numbers by letters, nowadays called variables, and the idea of computing with them as if they were numbers—in order to obtain the result by a simple replacement. Viète's convention was to use consonants for known values, and vowels for unknowns.
In 1637, René Descartes "invented the convention of representing unknowns in equations by "x", "y", and "z", and knowns by "a", "b", and "c"". Contrarily to Viète's convention, Descartes' is still commonly in use.
Starting in the 1660s, Isaac Newton and Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz independently developed the infinitesimal calculus, which essentially consists of studying how an infinitesimal variation of a "variable quantity" induces a corresponding variation of another quantity which is a "function" of the first variable. Almost a century later, Leonhard Euler fixed the terminology of infinitesimal calculus, and introduced the notation for a function , its variable and its value . Until the end of the 19th century, the word "variable" referred almost exclusively to the arguments and the values of functions.
In the second half of the 19th century, it appeared that the foundation of infinitesimal calculus was not formalized enough to deal with apparent paradoxes such as a nowhere differentiable continuous function. To solve this problem, Karl Weierstrass introduced a new formalism consisting of replacing the intuitive notion of limit by a formal definition. The older notion of limit was "when the "variable" varies and tends toward , then tends toward ", without any accurate definition of "tends". Weierstrass replaced this sentence by the formula
in which none of the five variables is considered as varying.
This static formulation led to the modern notion of variable, which is simply a symbol representing a mathematical object that either is unknown, or may be replaced by any element of a given set (e.g., the set of real numbers).
Specific kinds of variables.
It is common for variables to play different roles in the same mathematical formula, and names or qualifiers have been introduced to distinguish them. For example, the general cubic equation
is interpreted as having five variables: four, , which are taken to be given numbers and the fifth variable, is understood to be an "unknown" number. To distinguish them, the variable is called "an unknown", and the other variables are called "parameters" or "coefficients", or sometimes "constants", although this last terminology is incorrect for an equation, and should be reserved for the function defined by the left-hand side of this equation.
In the context of functions, the term "variable" refers commonly to the arguments of the functions. This is typically the case in sentences like "function of a real variable", " is the variable of the function ", " is a function of the variable " (meaning that the argument of the function is referred to by the variable ).
In the same context, variables that are independent of define constant functions and are therefore called "constant". For example, a "constant of integration" is an arbitrary constant function that is added to a particular antiderivative to obtain the other antiderivatives. Because the strong relationship between polynomials and polynomial function, the term "constant" is often used to denote the coefficients of a polynomial, which are constant functions of the indeterminates.
This use of "constant" as an abbreviation of "constant function" must be distinguished from the normal meaning of the word in mathematics. A constant, or mathematical constant is a well and unambiguously defined number or other mathematical object, as, for example, the numbers 0, 1, and the identity element of a group.
Other specific names for variables are:
All these denominations of variables are of semantic nature, and the way of computing with them (syntax) is the same for all.
Dependent and independent variables.
In calculus and its application to physics and other sciences, it is rather common to consider a variable, say , whose possible values depend on the value of another variable, say . In mathematical terms, the "dependent" variable represents the value of a function of . To simplify formulas, it is often useful to use the same symbol for the dependent variable and the function mapping onto . For example, the state of a physical system depends on measurable quantities such as the pressure, the temperature, the spatial position, ..., and all these quantities vary when the system evolves, that is, they are function of the time. In the formulas describing the system, these quantities are represented by variables which are dependent on the time, and thus considered implicitly as functions of the time.
Therefore, in a formula, a dependent variable is a variable that is implicitly a function of another (or several other) variables. An independent variable is a variable that is not dependent.
The property of a variable to be dependent or independent depends often of the point of view and is not intrinsic. For example, in the notation , the three variables may be all independent and the notation represents a function of three variables. On the other hand, if and depend on (are "dependent variables") then the notation represents a function of the single "independent variable" .
Examples.
If one defines a function "f" from the real numbers to the real numbers by
then "x" is a variable standing for the argument of the function being defined, which can be any real number.
In the identity
the variable "i" is a summation variable which designates in turn each of the integers 1, 2, ..., "n" (it is also called index because its variation is over a discrete set of values) while "n" is a parameter (it does not vary within the formula).
In the theory of polynomials, a polynomial of degree 2 is generally denoted as "ax"2 + "bx" + "c", where "a", "b" and "c" are called coefficients (they are assumed to be fixed, i.e., parameters of the problem considered) while "x" is called a variable. When studying this polynomial for its polynomial function this "x" stands for the function argument. When studying the polynomial as an object in itself, "x" is taken to be an indeterminate, and would often be written with a capital letter instead to indicate this status.
Notation.
In mathematics, the variables are generally denoted by a single letter. However, this letter is frequently followed by a subscript, as in , and this subscript may be a number, another variable (), a word or the abbreviation of a word ( and ), and even a mathematical expression. Under the influence of computer science, one may encounter in pure mathematics some variable names consisting in several letters and digits.
Following the 17th century French philosopher and mathematician, René Descartes, letters at the beginning of the alphabet, e.g. "a", "b", "c" are commonly used for known values and parameters, and letters at the end of the alphabet, e.g. "x", "y", "z", and "t" are commonly used for unknowns and variables of functions. In printed mathematics, the norm is to set variables and constants in an italic typeface.
For example, a general quadratic function is conventionally written as:
where "a", "b" and "c" are parameters (also called constants, because they are constant functions), while "x" is the variable of the function. A more explicit way to denote this function is
which makes the function-argument status of "x" clear, and thereby implicitly the constant status of "a", "b" and "c". Since "c" occurs in a term that is a constant function of "x", it is called the constant term.
Specific branches and applications of mathematics usually have specific naming conventions for variables. Variables with similar roles or meanings are often assigned consecutive letters. For example, the three axes in 3D coordinate space are conventionally called "x", "y", and "z". In physics, the names of variables are largely determined by the physical quantity they describe, but various naming conventions exist.
A convention often followed in probability and statistics is to use "X", "Y", "Z" for the names of random variables, keeping "x", "y", "z" for variables representing corresponding actual values.
There are many other notational usages. Usually, variables that play a similar role are represented by consecutive letters or by the same letter with different subscript. Below are some of the most common usages.