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  1. Xref: sparky sci.physics:18738 sci.math:14811
  2. Newsgroups: sci.physics,sci.math
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  4. From: pratt@Sunburn.Stanford.EDU (Vaughan R. Pratt)
  5. Subject: Re: graphical humping terminology
  6. Message-ID: <1992Nov12.033957.7029@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU>
  7. Sender: news@CSD-NewsHost.Stanford.EDU
  8. Organization: Computer Science Department,  Stanford University.
  9. References: <ETHANB.92Nov9155340@ptolemy.astro.washington.edu> <1992Nov10.190554.11097@sfu.ca> <1992Nov11.063332.22820@galois.mit.edu>
  10. Date: Thu, 12 Nov 1992 03:39:57 GMT
  11. Lines: 15
  12.  
  13. In article <1992Nov11.063332.22820@galois.mit.edu> jbaez@riesz.mit.edu (John C. Baez) writes:
  14. >>In article <ETHANB.92Nov9155340@ptolemy.astro.washington.edu>
  15. >>ethanb@ptolemy.astro.washington.edu (Ethan Bradford) writes:
  16. >>>The simple explaination of why yellow monochromatic light looks the
  17. >>>same as equal combinations of green and red light is that the color
  18. >
  19. >(Picturesque solutions deleted.)  I agree with your annoyance
  20. >completely.  Gaussians are very useful but pretending that every
  21. >molehill or mountain is a Gaussian can lead to lots of errors - so it's
  22. >good that mathematicians have a technical term for the kind of function
  23. >you are referring to.  It's called a "bump function", or "bump".
  24.  
  25. Vision physiologists call it a "peak function" or "peak".
  26. -- 
  27. Vaughan Pratt
  28.