functionals
- 1Plural of functional.
In the calculus of variations, functionals assign a single number to each candidate function.
The textbook introduced linear functionals before moving on to dual spaces.
Note
A plural that belongs only to the noun: the adjective functional, meaning working or useful, never takes an -s. The noun is technical in three directions. In analysis it is a function that takes functions as its argument. In linear algebra it is a scalar-valued linear function on a vector space. In programming it is an object wrapping a function pointer. The surrounding field decides which is meant, and "linear functionals" points to the algebra.
functionals is a form of functional
functional, noun: In linear algebra, a linear map from a vector space to its field of scalars. Full entry
- Forms
- functionalfunctionals plural
- Spelling
- functional → functionals: add -s
- Sound
- The ending sounds like /z/.
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