Nitpicky word question: matrix vs. table?

Subject: Nitpicky word question: matrix vs. table?
From: "Hart, Geoff" <Geoff-H -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 14:22:13 -0500

Jenny Wood wonders <<what's the difference, technically speaking, between a
'table' and a 'matrix'? I have a colleague who likes to refer to everything
put into tabled format as a 'matrix'. I, on the other hand, prefer to call
a table a table.>>

A table is a matrix for the rest of us--or if you prefer, a matrix is a
table with an advanced university degree. <g> For all practical purposes
(i.e., unless your audience is mathematicians*), the words are synonymous,
but "matrix" will be considerably less familiar to a broad or general
audience. The only good reason to use "matrix" is if you're writing for
mathematicians or perhaps for programmers, but even programmers refer to
"lookup tables", not "lookup matrices", and even mathematicians in their
journal papers say "See Table 1 for the results of the study".

* Okay, I retract that comment. Mathematicians are practical too. <g>

--Geoff Hart, FERIC, Pointe-Claire, Quebec
geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
"User's advocate" online monthly at
www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/usersadvocate.html

"The problem with defending the purity of the English language is that
English is about as pure as a cribhouse whore. We don't just borrow words;
on occasion, English has pursued other languages down alleyways to beat them
unconscious and rifle their pockets for new vocabulary."-- James D. Nicoll

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