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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Parameter | 4/4 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parameter | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T07:24:40.755713+00:00 | kb-cron |
== Engineering == In engineering (especially involving data acquisition) the term parameter sometimes loosely refers to an individual measured item. This usage is not consistent, as sometimes the term channel refers to an individual measured item, with parameter referring to the setup information about that channel. "Speaking generally, properties are those physical quantities which directly describe the physical attributes of the system; parameters are those combinations of the properties which suffice to determine the response of the system. Properties can have all sorts of dimensions, depending upon the system being considered; parameters are dimensionless, or have the dimension of time or its reciprocal." The term can also be used in engineering contexts, however, as it is typically used in the physical sciences.
== Environmental science == In environmental science and particularly in chemistry and microbiology, a parameter is used to describe a discrete chemical or microbiological entity that can be assigned a value: commonly a concentration, but may also be a logical entity (present or absent), a statistical result such as a 95 percentile value or in some cases a subjective value.
== Linguistics == Within linguistics, the word "parameter" is almost exclusively used to denote a binary switch in a Universal Grammar within a Principles and Parameters framework.
== Logic == In logic, the parameters passed to (or operated on by) an open predicate are called parameters by some authors (e.g., Prawitz's Natural Deduction; Paulson's Designing a theorem prover). Parameters locally defined within the predicate are called variables. This extra distinction pays off when defining substitution (without this distinction special provision must be made to avoid variable capture). Others (maybe most) just call parameters passed to (or operated on by) an open predicate variables, and when defining substitution have to distinguish between free variables and bound variables.
== Music ==
In music theory, a parameter denotes an element which may be manipulated (composed), separately from the other elements. The term is used particularly for pitch, loudness, duration, and timbre, though theorists or composers have sometimes considered other musical aspects as parameters. The term is particularly used in serial music, where each parameter may follow some specified series. Paul Lansky and George Perle criticized the extension of the word "parameter" to this sense, since it is not closely related to its mathematical sense, but it remains common. The term is also common in music production, as the functions of audio processing units (such as the attack, release, ratio, threshold, and other variables on a compressor) are defined by parameters specific to the type of unit (compressor, equalizer, delay, etc.).
== See also == Coefficient Coordinate system Function parameter Occam's razor (with regards to the trade-off of many or few parameters in data fitting)
== References ==