Talk:Range of a function

message: Basically range is the largest number minus the smallest number of a set of data 
for example: the largest number is 9 and the smallest number is 3 so 9-3=6  —Preceding unsigned comment added by 213.249.237.201 (talk) 18:03, 10 November 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: That is a violation of WP:NOR for sure. See maybe google books has any info on that, or mathworld or the Springer encyclopedia. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 16:28, 25 March 2006 (UTC)
thread_title: Comments

message: In for example computer science and numerical computing, the range from a to b refers to a, a+1, … b, i.e. the sequence or series of integer numbers from a to b. Is this okay to mention in this article? Or what mathematical terminology (in words) is appropriate for this? Mange01 23:49, 3 December 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: I don't know if this was the case when you posted this, but your subject is found in Range (computer science) which can be reached from the disambiguation page for Range. Maghnus 23:28, 25 September 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Sequence of integer numbers 

message: If it is possible could someone add to the article a simple explanation of what a range is.
Thanks
59.100.252.71 (talk) 09:50, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: The first line says "the range of a function is the set of all "output" values produced by that function". I think it's hard to get simpler than that, assuming the reader knows what a set and a function is (and that should not be explained in every article mentioning the two concepts). PrimeHunter (talk) 13:52, 20 May 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Wordings 

message: The last line says "thus the range is [0, ∞)."
I actually came to this page to find out what the [ and ( represent. I know it has to do with whether the numbers are inclusive but couldn't remember which was which. the article uses them without giving a definition. It should explain what the [ and ( syntax represent. Mloren (talk) 04:12, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
replies: text: I've put a reference and example of interval (mathematics) in the introductory section along with the statistics meaning. Dmcq (talk) 11:38, 4 January 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Syntax 

message: Many ranges are of the form of an interval, e.g. [0,1) for the numbers from 0 to 1 including 0 and excluding 1. Thus intervals are often referred to as ranges.
Really?  We call an interval a "range" because the image of a function is sometimes an interval?  And usages such as "the range of data", a "salary range", the "range" of a singer, and "the range of possibilities" come from the range of a function?  I seriously doubt that.  If anything, I imagine it's the other way around. 68.239.116.212 (talk) 02:02, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: Those meanings are covered in Range (statistics). This is about the meaning of range in maths, in particular analysis. If you can phrase it better please do but consider that 'range' can also refer to all fair haired people or all the odd numbers for instance. Dmcq (talk) 08:09, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm not saying that any other meaning should be covered here.  I'm saying that Thus intervals are often referred to as ranges is false (because of the "thus").  Since the point being made is incorrect, I think both sentences should be removed. 68.239.116.212 (talk) 13:23, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I was not saying any other meaning should be covered. I was simply pointing out that you were picking particular types of range that suited your point rather than using the meaning of range in general. Someones removed the whole business which I also believe is wrong but you said you agree with. Would you agree with a neutral statement that an interval is sometimes referred to as a range or do you blieve that should be confined to the statistics view? I thought it occurred in other areas besides statistics. Dmcq (talk) 13:51, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: I'm failing to convey my meaning.  I'm not sure what you mean about "the statistics view".  Let me rephrase my original point.  The sentences in question made, in part, an etymological claim.  That claim is, I'm fairly certain, incorrect, so it should be removed.  The only remaining content is that intervals are often referred to as ranges.  This is of course true, but not particularly helpful here (indeed, I assumed that the whole point was to make the etymological connection).  Thus, removing the whole thing makes sense to me. 68.239.116.212 (talk) 14:26, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
replies: text: By the statistics view I meant Range (statistics), this is Range (mathematics) where it has two possible meanings relating to the output values of  function. I just had a look at the disambiguation page for Range and it gives as the first maths meaning an Interval (mathematics) - but that article never mentions the word range at all. I don't think anyone wanted to make an etymological claim here and I'm happy for the first part of that paragraph to go. I have just looked up google books and it is clear that intervals are occasionally referred to as ranges in mathematics besides statistics, statements like where x is in the range 0 to 1 where more properly they should say something like the domain is the closed interval 0 to 1, here they weren't even referring to output values of a function. I think I should see about getting Interval (mathematics) to refer to range and then come back here again with that as another meaning. Dmcq (talk) 17:46, 13 January 2010 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ranges and intervals 

message: :The following discussion is an archived discussion of a requested move. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on the talk page. Editors desiring to contest the closing decision should consider a move review. No further edits should be made to this section. 
The result of the move request was: no consensus and 14+ days stale Tiggerjay (talk) 08:22, 1 February 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Range (mathematics) →  – Looking at the feedback this article's gotten, it seems clear that the concept we're discussing here is not the concept they're looking for. I feel that the title is deceptive. We're discussing something too specific here to warrant having such a general title. Range (function) already exists and redirects here. I think that's backwards. This content should be at that page, and this page should redirect to the disambiguation page. Any thoughts? Aurochs (Talk | Block) 22:08, 11 January 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: By the way, range of a function would nicely match domain of a function, argument of a function, graph of a function, limit of a function, and zero of a function. — Tobias Bergemann (talk) 19:13, 13 January 2013 (UTC)
replies: text: Very good points. I hadn't considered that my proposal might cause that kind of confusion. Request edited. --Aurochs (Talk | Block) 20:02, 13 January 2013 (UTC)

text: The above discussion is preserved as an archive of a requested move.  Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section on this talk page or in a move review. No further edits should be made to this section.
While the proposal to move was closed with the result "No consensus", I humbly suggest that there is in fact some sort of consensus to move the article from Range (mathematics) to Range of a function, with one explicit supporting !vote by The Evil IP address, two implicit supporting !votes by Aurochs and myself, and one "Neutral" !vote by 76.65.128.43 (who was opposed to renaming the article to "Range (function)", assuming that the comments by the anonymous user with this IP address were in fact made by the same person). However, it certainly is true that there were very few participants which may mean that the name of the article is good enough for most readers. Nevertheless, I think that renaming the article from Range (mathematics) to Range of a function would be an improvement, and I would rename the article in a day or three if nobody complains, no disrespect intended. — Tobias Bergemann (talk) 10:09, 1 February 2013 (UTC)

text: I belatedly support Tobias's statement above. 50.193.171.69 (talk) 20:54, 2 February 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Proposal to move - current title is too ambiguous 

message: There is reference to Rudin for the line "To avoid any confusion, a number of modern books don't use the word "range" at all.[4]", however I looked at page 99 in the book and found nothing to back this up. In fact, Rudin himself uses the word range to refer to the image (in the book, R(T)). Can someone confirm or refute this reference? J.Dong820 (talk) 05:42, 28 January 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rudin 1991 Citation 

message: I agree with some of the above discussions; there is more ambiguity about the word "range" in math. Considering the verb "range", wiktionary says:
Of a variable, to be able to take any of the values in a specified range. Ex: The variable x ranges over all real values from 0 to 10.
So here we are in the domain! Strictly speaking, the context determines whether we use the noun or the verb, but the word is so confusing that I think that any good mathematician should avoid it!  78.15.201.195 (talk) 22:13, 21 June 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Ambiguity 

message: Do we really need an article about range of a function? It's just an ambiguous term, so a disambiguation page would be better? There are cons about this, though.  18:32, 3 August 2020 (UTC)
replies: text: Agreed: there's no third concept, as might be misinterpreted by a casual reader. Furthermore, page is currently linked from a large number of articles: . They should link to either of the two more precise terms. fgnievinski (talk) 01:57, 6 December 2023 (UTC)
replies: text: Your interpretation (that the existence of an article that begins "In mathematics, the range of a function may refer to either of two closely related concepts" might lead people to believe that it refers to three concepts) seems deeply implausible to me.  Moreover it's not at all clear how your solution would address that problem (if it were a problem), since a reader would still have to read the first sentence.  You are welcome to try to refine incoming links, but I think in many cases it is not possible to unambiguously choose, because for many purposes it does not matter whether the codomain is the image or something larger, often in these cases one does not specify, and so the use of range could equally well mean either concept.  --JBL (talk) 17:13, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

text: I think it's helpful to have an article about the term 'range', precisely because it's an ambiguous term. The way disambiguation pages are structured (by policy) on Wikipedia is not sufficient to clear up potential reader confusion about the distinction between various definitions of 'range', and there are many inbound wikilinks pointed here (which it would IMO be disruptive to go change all at once). So what we want is sort of halfway between an article and a disambiguation page, more or less what we have currently, focused mostly on the term and its usage rather than the concepts of codomain or image (but it could be expanded and clarified a bit). The term 'range' is encountered frequently enough that there are going to be a significant number of readers looking it up in search engines / looking it up on Wikipedia trying to figure out what the definition is and possibly confused about differences in definition from one source to another (this article typically gets about 100–150 page views per day). In my opinion leaving this as either a disambiguation page or a redirect with hatnote is going to poorly serve these readers, and is much more likely to leave them confused. –jacobolus (t) 02:10, 6 December 2023 (UTC)

text: Note: The discussion continues at Wikipedia_talk:WikiProject_Mathematics#Disambiguation_of_links_to_Range_of_a_function. fgnievinski (talk) 03:17, 7 December 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Disambiguation