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Orthogonality is also used with various meanings that are often weakly related or not related at all with the mathematical meanings.

Etymology[edit]

The word comes from the Ancient Greek ὀρθός (orthós), meaning "upright",[1] and γωνία (gōnía), meaning "angle".[2]


The Ancient Greek ὀρθογώνιον (orthogṓnion) and Classical Latin orthogonium originally denoted a rectangle.[3] Later, they came to mean a right triangle. In the 12th century, the post-classical Latin word orthogonalis came to mean a right angle or something related to a right angle.[4]

Art[edit]

In art, the perspective (imaginary) lines pointing to the vanishing point are referred to as "orthogonal lines". The term "orthogonal line" often has a quite different meaning in the literature of modern art criticism. Many works by painters such as Piet Mondrian and Burgoyne Diller are noted for their exclusive use of "orthogonal lines" — not, however, with reference to perspective, but rather referring to lines that are straight and exclusively horizontal or vertical, forming right angles where they intersect. For example, an essay at the web site of the Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum states that "Mondrian ... dedicated his entire oeuvre to the investigation of the balance between orthogonal lines and primary colours." Archived 2009-01-31 at the Wayback Machine

Statistics, econometrics, and economics[edit]

When performing statistical analysis, independent variables that affect a particular dependent variable are said to be orthogonal if they are uncorrelated,[10] since the covariance forms an inner product. In this case the same results are obtained for the effect of any of the independent variables upon the dependent variable, regardless of whether one models the effects of the variables individually with simple regression or simultaneously with multiple regression. If correlation is present, the factors are not orthogonal and different results are obtained by the two methods. This usage arises from the fact that if centered by subtracting the expected value (the mean), uncorrelated variables are orthogonal in the geometric sense discussed above, both as observed data (i.e., vectors) and as random variables (i.e., density functions). One econometric formalism that is alternative to the maximum likelihood framework, the Generalized Method of Moments, relies on orthogonality conditions. In particular, the Ordinary Least Squares estimator may be easily derived from an orthogonality condition between the explanatory variables and model residuals.

Taxonomy[edit]

In taxonomy, an orthogonal classification is one in which no item is a member of more than one group, that is, the classifications are mutually exclusive.

System reliability[edit]

In the field of system reliability orthogonal redundancy is that form of redundancy where the form of backup device or method is completely different from the prone to error device or method. The failure mode of an orthogonally redundant back-up device or method does not intersect with and is completely different from the failure mode of the device or method in need of redundancy to safeguard the total system against catastrophic failure.

Neuroscience[edit]

In neuroscience, a sensory map in the brain which has overlapping stimulus coding (e.g. location and quality) is called an orthogonal map.

Philosophy[edit]

In philosophy, two topics, authors, or pieces of writing are said to be "orthogonal" to each other when they do not substantively cover what could be considered potentially overlapping or competing claims. Thus, texts in philosophy can either support and complement one another, they can offer competing explanations or systems, or they can be orthogonal to each other in cases where the scope, content, and purpose of the pieces of writing are entirely unrelated.

Other examples[edit]

Stereo vinyl records encode both the left and right stereo channels in a single groove. The V-shaped groove in the vinyl has walls that are 90 degrees to each other, with variations in each wall separately encoding one of the two analogue channels that make up the stereo signal. The cartridge senses the motion of the stylus following the groove in two orthogonal directions: 45 degrees from vertical to either side.[26] A pure horizontal motion corresponds to a mono signal, equivalent to a stereo signal in which both channels carry identical (in-phase) signals.

Orthogonal ligand-protein pair

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