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Commutator vs Commutation - What's the difference?

commutator | commutation |

As nouns the difference between commutator and commutation

is that commutator is an electrical switch, in a generator or motor, that periodically reverses the direction of an electric current while commutation is a passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.

commutator

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • an electrical switch, in a generator or motor, that periodically reverses the direction of an electric current
  • (mathematics) (of a group'') an element of the form ''ghg?1h?1'' where ''g'' and ''h'' are elements of the group; it is equal to the group's identity if and only if ''g'' and ''h commute
  • (mathematics) (of a ring'') an element of the form ''ab-ba'', where ''a'' and ''b'' are elements of the ring, it is identical to the ring's zero element if and only if ''a'' and ''b commute
  • (wikipedia commutator)

    See also

    * anticommutator ----

    commutation

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (obsolete) A passing from one state to another; change; alteration; mutation.
  • (obsolete) The act of giving one thing for another; barter; exchange.
  • Substitution of one thing for another; interchange.
  • Specifically, the substitution of one kind of payment for another, especially a switch to monetary payment from obligations of labour.
  • * 1969 , Philip Ziegler, The Black Death , Folio Society 2006, p. 213:
  • Professor Postan has argued in favour of a rapid move towards commutation in the twelfth century which slackened or even went into reverse in the course of the thirteenth.
  • (legal) The change to a lesser penalty or punishment by the State
  • * 1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p. 23:
  • Monsieur the Marquis de Sade [was] now holed up in one of his châteaux while his wife worked for the commutation of a sentence passed on him recently for poisoning and buggery.
  • (linguistics) Substitution, as a means of discriminating between phonemes.
  • (electronics) The reversal of an electric current.