Quick poll: gmean or geometric_mean

[Lawrence D’Oliveiro]

On Monday, July 11, 2016 at 2:30:00 AM UTC+12, Rustom Mody wrote:

> Force is given by the negative of the universal_gravitational_constant times
> the mass_of_first_body times mass_of_second_body divided by the square of
> the distance_between_the_bodies
> 
> Cobol anyone?

Look at it this way: the ancients (Greeks, Babylonians etc) were doing their maths in the equivalent of Cobol.

The reason why mathematicians invented short names for things was because it made the structure easier to see. Being able to easily manipulate that structure is key to solving mathematical problems.