extrapolationn.
/ˌɛkstrəpəʊˈleɪʃən/ Originally in Mathematics: the action or method of finding by a calculation based on the known terms of a series, other terms outside of them, whether preceding or following. Hence in extended use: the drawing of a conclusion about some future or hypothetical situation based on observed tendencies; the inference resulting from such a process. Cf. extrapolate v. 2b.
ΘΚΠ
the world > relative properties > number > algebra > [noun] > expression > method of calculation or analysis
extrapolation1872
functional analysis1876
inversion1880
Fourier analysis1929
formalism1940
linear programming1949
quadratic programming1951
simplex method1951
convex programming1963
deconvolution1967
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > reason, faculty of reasoning > process of reasoning, ratiocination > process of inferring, inference > [noun] > based on inferred laws
generalization1761
extrapolation1872
retrodiction1895
intrapolation1923
postdiction1940
1872 W. M. Watts Index of Spectra p. ix If the line..lies near to the two reference lines, but not between them, the interpolation formula..must be replaced by one of the two following extrapolation formulæ.
1874 W. S. Jevons Princ. Sci. II. xxii. 120 It is a matter of great scientific importance to apprehend precisely how far we can interpolate or extend experimental results by extrapolation.
1878 C. A. Young in S. Newcomb Pop. Astron. iii. ii. 279 The process is an unsafe extrapolation.
1889 Cent. Dict. (at cited word) The calculation of the population of the United States in 1900, from the population in 1870, 1880, and 1890, would be an extrapolation.
1903 A. M. Clerke Probl. Astrophysics 9 The necessity for having recourse to the risky expedient of ‘extrapolation’—that is, of applying unrestrictedly to the unknown, rules gathered from observation over a comparatively narrow area.
1922 J. Y. Simpson Man & Attainm. Immortality i. 16 By extrapolation of the curve of our knowledge we can reconstruct within the range of conceivability, if not of probability, the course of process.
1926 H. C. Macpherson Mod. Astron. 135 Dr. Hubble strongly combats the contention that all non-galactic nebulae are spirals, which he characterizes as a ‘daring extrapolation’, ‘not justified by our present knowledge of nebular forms’.
1965 J. D. North Measure of Universe xiv. 297 One of the chief concerns of all scientific theories..is to sanction extrapolation..and the expression of the distant and unknown in terms of what is familiar.
Derivatives
exˈtrapolative adj. characterized by or employing extrapolation.
ΘΚΠ
the mind > mental capacity > understanding > reason, faculty of reasoning > process of reasoning, ratiocination > process of inferring, inference > [adjective] > based on hypothesis
retrodictive1895
extrapolative1929
1929 Physical Rev. 2nd Ser. 34 34 The fact that levels of the same name are approaching the same grouping..might naturally have been expected from our extrapolative way of choosing the names.
1940 Mind 49 168 The extrapolative inference from the same set of data to an enormous number of independent propositions.
1968 Sci. Jrnl. Nov. 87/1 Extrapolative planning.
1986 G. K. Wolfe Crit. Terms for Sci. Fiction & Fantasy 22 Such tales differ from other science fiction in that they bear no real extrapolative or analogical relationship with our own society.
Draft additions 1993
exˈtrapolatory adj.
ΚΠ
1953 Rep. Progress Physics 16 332 We may call the cosmologies of kinematic relativity and of the steady-state theory ‘deductive’, and newtonian cosmology and relativistic cosmology ‘extrapolatory’.
1984 Statistician 33 103 The forecasts of increasing scarcity of oil were simply extrapolatory and have not been fulfilled.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1894; most recently modified version published online March 2019).
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n.1872