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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
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