Talk:Independence (disambiguation)

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This wording in Independence (disambiguation)

In mathematics and sciences, independence is a relationship between two variables meaning that a change in one of them doesn't imply a change in the other.

was replaced by

in mathematics and science:

as part of an edit that was primarily a cut-and-paste at 18:20, 2004 Mar 15 from Independence, which used to be the disamb page. I left the article text as i found it:

02:26, 2004 Mar 16 . . Jerzy (rv to last of Docu, which is probably preferable, after getting the two dozen words into the history of *this* page where it's relevant)

02:22, 2004 Mar 16 . . Jerzy (Restore a couple dozen words whose deletion is not reflected in this page's history (Pasted from Revision as of 17:28, 2004 Mar 15 of Independence))

18:33, 2004 Mar 15 .

But my goal was to get that into the history of Independence (disambiguation), rather than have it exist only in the history of Independence, which is solely about politics.

I think the first, longer wordiing is poorly thought through, but IMO it may be a hint at some further disamb worth doing: what struck me about the first wording is that it doesn't capture the sense of independent in experiment design, which is not a matter of disconnection, but rather a matter of the direction of connection. The independent variable is the one the experimenter varies directly, hoping to confirm or disconfirm the hypothesis that the variable being measured is a dependent one in that the independent variable's behavior does cause it to change. --Jerzy (t) 02:42, 2004 Mar 16 (UTC)

maybe the etymology of the word should be looked at to see how its applied, or in some cases misapplied till its the common usage. Sreyan 20:16, 5 Apr 2004 (UTC)

should this be the main page?[edit]

I'm surprised that a search for 'independence' takes you straight to the page on politics, and not a disambiguation page, but then, I live in the home counties and I was looking for Independence (probability theory) at the time. Is this a culture thing? Should we assume that the political meaning is the most common one? Should the disambiguation page state that meaning first, as if all others are obscure? When I think of independence, I think of a child growing up, getting a job, and leaving home, or of a system where two parts are able to operate without consideration for each another, such as a car in two-wheel drive, where the front and rear axles can rotate at different speeds or in different directions. Yes, I think of political independence too, but it's certainly not the only thing that jumps to mind. I propose renaming Independence to 'Independence (politics)' or some such, and having Independence redirect to Independence (disambiguation). But perhaps this discussion has happened already. J Alexander D Atkins (talk) 21:41, 15 May 2011 (UTC)[reply]