Cal"cu*lus (?), n.;
pl. Calculi (#). [L, calculus. See Calculate, and Calcule.]
1. (Med.) Any solid concretion, formed in any
part of the
body, but most frequent in the organs that act as
reservoirs, and in the passages connected with them; as, biliary calculi; urinary calculi,
etc.
2. (Math.)
A method of computation; any process of reasoning by the use of symbols; any branch of mathematics that may involve calculation.
Barycentric calculus, a method of treating geometry by defining a point as the center of
gravity of certain other points to which coëfficients or weights are ascribed. -- Calculus of functions,
that branch of mathematics which treats of the forms of functions that shall satisfy given conditions.
-- Calculus of
operations, that branch of mathematical logic that treats of all operations that satisfy given conditions.
-- Calculus of
probabilities, the science that treats of the computation of the probabilities of events, or the application of numbers to chance. -- Calculus
of variations, a branch of mathematics in which the laws of dependence which bind the variable quantities together are themselves subject to change. -- Differential calculus, a method of investigating mathematical questions by
using the ratio of certain indefinitely small
quantities called differentials. The problems
are primarily of this form:
to find how
the change in some variable quantity alters
at each instant the value of a quantity dependent upon it. -- Exponential calculus, that part of algebra which treats of exponents. -- Imaginary calculus,
a method of investigating the relations of real or imaginary quantities by the use of the imaginary symbols and quantities of algebra. -- Integral calculus,
a method which in the
reverse of the differential, the primary object of which is to learn from the known ratio of the
indefinitely small
changes of two or more magnitudes, the relation of the magnitudes themselves, or, in other words, from having the differential of an algebraic expression to find the expression itself.
Hear it pronounced