INVERSE • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Inverse

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/ɪnvˈərs/ Listen

adjective

Inverse adj.

1.

Opposite in order, relation, or effect; reversed; inverted; reciprocal; opposed to direct.

2.

(Bot.) Inverted; having a position or mode of attachment the reverse of that which is usual.

3.

(Math.) Opposite in nature and effect; said with reference to any two operations, which, when both are performed in succession upon any quantity, reproduce that quantity; as, multiplication is the inverse operation to division. The symbol of an inverse operation is the symbol of the direct operation with -1 as an index. Thus sin-1 x means the arc or angle whose sine is x.

Inverse figures (Geom.), two figures, such that each point of either figure is inverse to a corresponding point in the order figure.

Inverse points (Geom.), two points lying on a line drawn from the center of a fixed circle or sphere, and so related that the product of their distances from the center of the circle or sphere is equal to the square of the radius.

Inverse ratio, or Reciprocal ratio (Math.), the ratio of the reciprocals of two quantities.

Inverse proportion, or Reciprocal proportion, an equality between a direct ratio and a reciprocal ratio.

noun

Inverse n. That which is inverse. "Thus the course of human study is the inverse of the course of things in nature."

See images of 'Inverse'

Etymology of 'Inverse'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Inverse" Quotes from Famous Books

... actions of ourselves, but feelings of energy which are taken as energies of the visual forms and lines." So the idea belonging to the object, and the psychophysical effect of the object are only obverse and inverse of the same phenomenon. And our pleasure in the form of the column is rather our appreciation of energy than our feeling of favorable stimulation. Admitting this reasoning, the meaning of a picture would be the same as its beauty, it is said. The heroic art of J.-F. Millet, for example, would ...

— The Psychology of Beauty • Ethel D. Puffer

... see; Or thighs and knees, aprop upon the feet, Thuswise can bended be, that we might step With goodly strides ahead; or forearms joined Unto the sturdy uppers, or serving hands On either side were given, that we might do Life's own demands. All such interpretation Is aft-for-fore with inverse reasoning, Since naught is born in body so that we May use the same, but birth engenders use: No seeing ere the lights of eyes were born, No speaking ere the tongue created was; But origin of tongue came long before Discourse ...

— Of The Nature of Things • [Titus Lucretius Carus] Lucretius

... impossible for the Latin Commentary to have; and, therefore, it was impossible for it to be obedient. That to the Latin it would have been impossible, as is said, is evident by such an argument as this: each thing which proceeds by an inverse order is laborious, and consequently is bitter, and not sweet; even as to sleep by day and to wake by night, and to go backwards and not forwards. For the subject to command the sovereign, is to proceed ...

— The Banquet (Il Convito) • Dante Alighieri

... but also the best sportsmen and the boldest riders. The reason seems to me to be this: in Leicestershire you find the field composed largely of smart London men; and after a certain age a man "goes to hounds" in inverse ratio to the pace at which he travels as a man about town. The latter (with a few brilliant exceptions to prove the rule) is not so quick and determined when he sees a nasty piece of timber or ...

— A Cotswold Village • J. Arthur Gibbs

... schools. The luxury enjoyed by the present boy is a constant source of astonishment to us grandfathers. We were half starved, we were exceedingly dirty, we were systematically bullied, and we were flogged and caned as though the master's pleasure was in inverse ratio to ours. The inscription on the threshold should have ...

— Tracks of a Rolling Stone • Henry J. Coke

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