integrating factor

noun

, Mathematics.

1. a factor that upon multiplying a differential equation with the right-hand side equal to zero makes the equation integrable, usually by making the resulting expression an exact differential of some function.

Word History and Origins

Origin of integrating factor¹

First recorded in 1855–60

Example Sentences

Department of Health and Human Services should develop "a public population-based approach to dealing with pain as the singularly important integrating factor," Pizzo said.

From Scientific American

"It is necessary to turn the Communist Party into the integrating factor of all centrist forces," he says.

From Time Magazine Archive

He has lost the integrating factor—the moral—which binds human personality together.

From Project Gutenberg

Profoundly subjective, deeply individual, unique and irrepeatable, human sexuality has meaning only to the extent that it remains an integrating factor, relating individual destiny to that of the species.

From Project Gutenberg