John Nash's "variability" (was Re: Scholarly importance of Barry Popik's ...

[Mark A Mandel]

On Fri, 9 Aug 2002, James A. Landau wrote:

#English-speaking mathematicians habitually contract "modulo" to "mod", i.e.
#the following are exact synonyms:
#     18 is congruent to 23 modulo 5
#     18 is congruent to 23 mod 5

In programming languages this is extended to a function, the modulo or
mod function, which is the remainder left when one number is divided by
another (usu. both integers):
        23 mod 5 = 3
        18 mod 5 = 3

#I also find it interesting that this usage was collected by a Brazilian,
#Carlos Cesar de Araujo.  And when he teamed up with the Uruguayan
#mathematician Julio Gonzalez Cabillon, I knew mathematical etymology had
#crossed the Rubicon.

Not the Rio Grande or the Panama Canal?

-- Mark M.