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invariance

American  
[in-vair-ee-uhns] / ɪnˈvɛər i əns /

noun

  • invariances
    plural
  1. the property of being invariant or of not being altered by transformations or other operations in mathematics or physics, such as rotation or translation.

  2. the quality of not being altered by circumstances or of not varying from the norm.


invariance Scientific  
/ ĭn-vâr′ē-əns /
  1. The property of remaining unchanged regardless of changes in the conditions of measurement. For example, the area of a surface remains unchanged if the surface is rotated in space; thus the area exhibits rotational invariance. In physics, invariance is related to conservation laws. For example, conservation of angular momentum is directly related to rotational invariance (the laws of physics don't depend on the angle of the reference point), conservation of energy is related to invariance over time (the laws of physics remain the same over time), and conservation of momentum is related to invariance over translations through space (the laws of physics don't depend on the position of the reference point). A form of invariance called Lorenz invariance is fundamental to the theory of Special Relativity. Invariance is also called symmetry.

  2. See also Noether's theorem


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Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

See Examples For:

At this point, water displays scale invariance symmetry, and its behavior can be captured using conformal field theory.

From Science Daily ● Dec. 16, 2025

This single neuron thus has semantic invariance for the concept of your grandmother.

From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2025

The lower-dimensional theory also had an additional symmetry, called conformal invariance, where the physical laws don’t change for all transformations of spacetime that preserve angles.

From Scientific American ● Nov. 30, 2022

The company is saying, “Amidst all this enthusiasm, what fundamental invariance can you bet on?”

From The Verge ● Mar. 22, 2022

Importation of time and suppression of time as the classic devices of sciences.—The nature of invariance.

From Manhood of Humanity. by Alfred Korzybski

They term these stimuli "model metamers," reviving an idea from classical perception research whereby stimuli that are indistinguishable to a system can be used to diagnose its invariances.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023

The findings suggest that the models have somehow developed their own invariances that are different from those found in human perceptual systems.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023

"Classically, the way that we have thought about sensory systems is that they build up invariances to all those sources of variation that different examples of the same thing can have," Feather says.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023

"It could also be used to evaluate how idiosyncratic the invariances are within a given model, which could help uncover potential ways to improve our models in the future."

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023

This suggests that these models build up their own idiosyncratic "invariances" -- meaning that they respond the same way to stimuli with very different features.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023

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