differential

The differential gear in an automobile, etc.

A qualitative or quantitative difference between similar or comparable things.

One of two coils of conducting wire so related to one another or to a magnet or armature common to both, that one coil produces polar action contrary to that of the other.

A form of conductor used for dividing and distributing the current to a series of electric lamps so as to maintain equal action in all.

Calculus, Mathematics, Sciences A quantity representing an infinitesimal change in a variable, now only used as a heuristic aid except in nonstandard analysis but considered rigorous until the 20th century; a fluxion in Newtonian calculus, now usually written in Leibniz's notation as operatorname d!x.

Calculus, Mathematics, Sciences A function giving the change in the linear approximation of f at a point x over a small interval Δx or operatorname d!x, the function being called the differential of f and denoted operatorname d!f(x,Δx), operatorname d!f(x), or simply operatorname d!f.

The Jacobian matrix of a function of several variables.

The pushforward or total derivative of ϕ: a linear map from the tangent space at a point x in ϕ's domain to the tangent space at ϕ(x) which is, in a technical sense, the best linear approximation of ϕ at x; denoted operatorname d!ϕₓ.

Mathematics, Sciences Any of several generalizations of the concept(s) above: e.g. the Kähler differential in the setting of schemes, the quadratic differential in the theory of Riemann surfaces, etc.