invariance
Americannoun
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invariances
plural
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the property of being invariant or of not being altered by transformations or other operations in mathematics or physics, such as rotation or translation.
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the quality of not being altered by circumstances or of not varying from the norm.
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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.
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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.
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This single neuron thus has semantic invariance for the concept of your grandmother.
From Salon ● Mar. 25, 2025
This is known as invariance, meaning that objects are perceived to be the same even if they show differences in those less important features.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023
The company is saying, “Amidst all this enthusiasm, what fundamental invariance can you bet on?”
From The Verge ● Mar. 22, 2022
String theory did away with the invariance of dimensions and M-theory did away with the invariance of strings.
From Scientific American ● Mar. 12, 2014
Importation of time and suppression of time as the classic devices of sciences.—The nature of invariance.
From Manhood of Humanity. by Alfred Korzybski
"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
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
"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
"They have learned to be invariant to these particular dimensions in the stimulus space, and it's model-specific, so other models don't have those same invariances."
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023
However, each of these models appeared to develop their own unique invariances.
From Science Daily ● Oct. 16, 2023
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
