ideal element

British  

noun

1. any element added to a mathematical theory in order to eliminate special cases. The ideal element i = √–1 allows all algebraic equations to be solved and the point at infinity ( ideal point ) ensures that any two lines in projective geometry intersect

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Example Sentences

As the lightest metal on the periodic table, and the one most eager to shed its electrons, lithium is the ideal element to make powerful, portable batteries.

From Nature • Oct. 27, 2015

Denying that life has an ideal element, they take pains to mirror it, line for line, and blemish for blemish.

From The Poet's Poet : essays on the character and mission of the poet as interpreted in English verse of the last one hundred and fifty years by Atkins, Elizabeth

You cannot start in your investigations with a bare, self-identical, objective fact, stripped of every ideal element or contribution from thought.

From Mind and Motion and Monism by Romanes, George John

Yet it is just after such a perusal that the absolute lack of the ideal element is so strongly borne in upon us.

From Maria Edgeworth by Zimmern, Helen

He turned his eyes and saw her emotion, which greatly increased the ideal element in her expressive face.

From Desperate Remedies by Hardy, Thomas