[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dubinse) writes:
> I often see (and use) the term "metric" as a particular kind of
> measure. However, I have had difficulty in finding a clear definition.
> This is made more difficult because of the more common use of
> "metric" as an adjective denoting the system of measurement units.
> Please tell me what I mean when I call something "a metric."
It is difficult to say without seeing an example; however, one possible
meaning would be any function on pairs of elements of a set that satisfies
the four formal mathematical axioms of a ``distance'' function: positivity,
symmetry, non-degeneracy, and the triangle inequality.
Alternatively, it has regrettably become trendy to abuse the word
``metric'' to mean a ``quantitative measure'' (e.g., ``can we find
some sort of performance-metric for that?'').
-- Gordon D. Pusch
perl -e '$_ = "gdpusch\@NO.xnet.SPAM.com\n"; s/NO\.//; s/SPAM\.//; print;'
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