Discrete vs Quantum - What's the difference?
discrete | quantum |
Separate; distinct; individual; non-continuous.
That can be perceived individually and not as connected to, or part of something else.
(electrical engineering) Having separate electronic components, such as individual resistors and inductors — the opposite of integrated circuitry.
(audio engineering) Having separate and independent channels of audio, as opposed to multiplexed stereo or quadraphonic, or other multi-channel sound.
(topology) Having each singleton subset open: said of a topological space or a topology.
disjunctive; containing a disjunctive or discretive clause
* Burke
* 1749 , (Henry Fielding), Tom Jones , Folio Society 1973, p. 416:
*1997 , (Kiran Nagarkar), Cuckold , HarperCollins 2013, p. 375:
*:Otherwise I will have given the lie to my maxim that whether you work eight or twenty hours, the quantum of work that gets done on a normal day is the same.
* 2008 , The Times of India , 21 May 2008, [http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Business/India_Business/Fuel_price_hike_put_off_over_quantum/articleshow/3087364.cms]:
The amount or quantity observably present, or available.
*1979 , , Smiley's People , Folio Society 2010, p. 96:
*:Each man has only a quantum of compassion, he argued, and mine is used up for the day.
* 1999 , Joyce Crick, translating Sigmund Freud, The Interpretation of Dreams , Oxford 2008, p. 34:
(physics) The smallest possible, and therefore indivisible, unit of a given quantity or quantifiable phenomenon.
* 2002 , David C Cassidy et al., Understanding Physics , Birkhauser 2002, p. 602:
(math) A definite portion of a manifoldness, limited by a mark or by a boundary.
Of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages.
(informal) Of a change, significant.
(physics) Involving quanta.
* {{quote-magazine, date=2012-01
, author=Michael Riordan
, title=Tackling Infinity
, volume=100, issue=1, page=86
, magazine=
(computing theory) Relating to a quantum computer.
As adjectives the difference between discrete and quantum
is that discrete is separate; distinct; individual; non-continuous while quantum is of a change, sudden or discrete, without intermediate stages.As a noun quantum is
.discrete
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- "I resign my life, but not my honour" is a discrete proposition.
Usage notes
* Often confused with discreet.Derived terms
* discrete variable * discretenessAntonyms
* continuous * (electrical engineering) integrated * (audio engineering) multiplexedAnagrams
* ----quantum
English
(wikipedia quantum)Noun
(quanta)- without authenticating the quantum of the charges
- The reader will perhaps be curious to know the quantum of this present, but we cannot satisfy his curiosity.
- The Congress's core ministerial panel on Friday gave its green signal to raising motor fuel prices but the quantum of increase emerged as a hitch.
- The dream of flying, according to Strümpell, is the appropriate image used by the psyche to interpret the quantum of stimulus proceeding from the rise and fall of the lungs when the cutaneous sensation of the thorax has simultaneously sunk into unconsciousness.
- The quantum of light energy was later called a photon .
- (William Kingdon Clifford)
Adjective
(-)citation, passage=Some of the most beautiful and thus appealing physical theories, including quantum' electrodynamics and ' quantum gravity, have been dogged for decades by infinities that erupt when theorists try to prod their calculations into new domains. Getting rid of these nagging infinities has probably occupied far more effort than was spent in originating the theories.}}