Parameter

Question

Hi, how are you? Hope your health is good, and that your heart is full.

I've been thinking of the word "parameter."

I'm a cosmetic chemist, and so in the course of my experiments and their analyses I use "parameters" in doing math. Now, you work with parameters in math whereas you may want to be clear of "parameters" before you start a discussion, the latter meaning guidelines.

I just don't seem to be able to correlate the "parameter" meaning an intermediary variable with the "parameter" meaning a guideline. How has one thing been derived from another? I can use "parameters" for math, but I can't the other "parameters."

Please help.

Best,

Hiro

Philip · Accepted Answer

HSSHi, how are you? Hope your health is good, and that your heart is full.

I've been thinking of the word "parameter."

I'm a cosmetic chemist, and so in the course of my experiments and their analyses I use "parameters" in doing math. Now, you work with parameters in math whereas you may want to be clear of "parameters" before you start a discussion, the latter meaning guidelines.

I just don't seem to be able to correlate the "parameter" meaning an intermediary variable with the "parameter" meaning a guideline. How has one thing been derived from another? I can use "parameters" for math, but I can't the other "parameters."

Please help.

Best,

Hiro

If I understand your question correctly, you may use "parameters" in other situations. "In your new job, you will be given a job description and the parameters of your responsibilities (and authority)".

HSS · Answer

PhilipIf I understand your question correctly, you may use "parameters" in other situations. "In your new job, you will be given a job description and the parameters of your responsibilities (and authority)".

Thanks, Philip, and sorry I may very well have confused you.

What I wanted to know is how the meaning of parameters in math is derived from that of parameters meaning guidelines, or theother way around.

Hiro

Clive · Answer

Hi,

I'd like to add a comment to this discussion.

I think the first time I encountered the word 'parameter' was quite a few years ago when I began my career as a computer programmer/analyst. When you write programs, parameters and variables are common terms. Possibly that is the route by which the word entered common, everyday language?

Best wishes, Clive

HSS · Answer

How do you use "parameters" as meaning "guidelines"? How differently, if slightly, do you use it from just "guidelines"?

Hiro

CalifJim · Answer

I don't use parameters to mean guidelines. I don't even see much of a connection.

Parameters are variables or, more accurately, arbitrary constants, as far as I can tell. Each parameter has a particular value within a particular context. So even in non-mathematical usage, a parameter is more-or-less the name of the variable. Stating the values of these variables is stating the "parameter settings" for the particular case. The parameters of a job are such things as expected arrival time, expected leaving time, number and length of breaks, amount of pay, what insurance is provided, your list of duties, the person to whom you report, etc., just as the parameters of weather are temperature, barometric pressure, humidity, amount of precipitation, etc. In each case, we are given the measure of a particular measurable aspect of the entire situation.

When we speak of "working within the given parameters" we may mean, for example, that the budget only allows $100,000 to complete a project and that we must finish the project within that "parameter", i.e., within that budget amount. Parameter (name) = budgeted amount; parameter setting/value = $100,000. Or we may mean that only three employees will be available to work on the project. Then parameter (name) = number of 'human resources' available; parameter setting = 3.

Guidelines may explain broadly how to go about a particular procedure, but I don't see them as parameters. Not at all.

CJ

Nef · Answer

This word often confuses me because of its different possible meanings. As people said, it seems to have originated in one field, but then spread to more general language. I think the last two definitions are very different from the first three.

from www.dictionary.com

pa?ram?e?ter

–noun

1.	Mathematics. a. a constant or variable term in a function that determines the specific form of the function but not its general nature, as a in f(x) = ax, where a determines only the slope of the line described by f(x). b. one of the independent variables in a set of parametric equations.

2.	Statistics. a variable entering into the mathematical form of any distribution such that the possible values of the variable correspond to different distributions.

3.	Computers. a variable that must be given a specific value during the execution of a program or of a procedure within a program.

4.	Usually, parameters. limits or boundaries; guidelines: the basic parameters of our foreign policy.

5.	characteristic or factor; aspect; element: a useful parameter for judging long-term success.

HSS · Answer

Hello, all.

I seem to be getting the gist of it thanks to you. It looks like the meaning "variables" existed first, and by extension the meaning stretched to mean "guidelines," as the word is often used in such a way as in, as CJ mentioned, "work within that parameter." Parameter being an upper limit.

Variable in a system >>> constant (after plugging in an arbituary number) >>> often used in such an example as "work within the parameter." >>> means a boundary or limit.

Many thanks.

Best,

Hiro

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