views:

197

answers:

3

Is there a valid math term? I could just name this guy "sumXY", but that is (a) lame, and (b) not scalable, since going up a dimension would require a rename.

While typing I thought of "componentSum", but I'd love to know if there's a real name for it.

+1  A: 

Why not just name it vectorSum where vector is the name of the vector.

theycallmemorty
+6  A: 

If you're taking the sum of the absolute values, it's called the L1 norm (short for Lebesgue 1 norm).

If you're not taking absolute values, I'd suggest just calling it sum, or perhaps vector sum (as others have suggested).

EDIT:

After reading various comments, I'd suggest using the term "element sum". If your vector can contain negative values and you're not taking the absolute value of the elements before summing, it's wrong to use terms like "distance", "length", or "norm". All of those imply one is taking the absolute value of each element before summing.

Mr Fooz
yay, now I can remember what the L1 norm means ;-) +1
David Zaslavsky
Nope, not specifically absolutes. "Sum" and "Vector Sum" would just confuse me, since to me those both imply the sum of two vectors.Kudos for the L1 norm reference, though.
Sean
(Post-edit) Hmm, good point. Maybe I should go with "elementSum" or "componentSum"...
Sean
+1  A: 

If your vector is really a vector in the physical sense, there's pretty much no valid reason you would have to add up the components. So I suspect that what you're working with is really a list of numbers (i.e. a CS vector) rather than a true (physics) vector, and you shouldn't worry too much about the naming. 'componentSum' or 'cSum' or 'sigma' even... whatever makes sense to you.

David Zaslavsky
It's a vector in the physical sense and, yes, there is a valid reason.
Sean
I'm curious, what is it?
David Zaslavsky
I have objects, arranged in a 2d grid, which I need to sort so that their shadows don't overlap.
Sean
huh... I'm still not seeing why you would need to add up the components of a vector. Not that it matters, really :-/
David Zaslavsky