Divergence (disambiguation) facts for kids
The word divergence means things moving apart or becoming different. It's the opposite of convergence, which means things coming together. You can find divergence in many areas, from math to science and even in stories.
What is Divergence?
In Math and Computers
In computer science, divergence can mean a computer program that never stops running. It might also mean a program that ends with an error.
In math, a divergent series is a list of numbers that doesn't settle on a single value. Imagine adding numbers forever; if the total keeps growing bigger and bigger without limit, it's divergent.
Sometimes, in stability theory, a system can show divergence. This means it becomes unstable and moves away from a balanced state.
Measuring Differences in Data
In statistics, divergence helps us measure how different two sets of data are. It shows how much one set of probabilities differs from another.
There are different ways to measure this difference, like:
- Bregman divergence
- f-divergence
- Jensen–Shannon divergence
- Kullback–Leibler divergence, also known as "information divergence"
- Rényi's divergence
In Science
Divergence also describes how things spread out or move away from each other in the natural world.
Eyes and Light
When your eyes look at something far away, they move slightly outward. This is called divergence (eye). It's the opposite of when your eyes turn inward to look at something close.
In optics, divergence is about light rays spreading out. When light leaves a source, like a flashlight, the rays spread. The angle at which they spread is called beam divergence.
Earth and Life
A divergent boundary is a place where two of Earth's huge tectonic plates are moving apart. This often happens in the middle of oceans, creating new seafloor.
Evolutionary divergence happens when groups of living things, like animals or plants, become more and more different over time. They might start as one species but then split into two or more new species. This happens as they adapt to different environments.
Genetic divergence is similar but focuses on the genes. It's when the genes of two or more groups from the same original species change independently. These changes build up over many generations.
Climate Clues
The divergence problem is a puzzle for scientists studying past climates. It's about how some tree ring records don't match up with actual temperature measurements from recent times.
Divergence in Stories and Entertainment
Books and Movies
The word Divergent is very famous because of a popular series of young adult science fiction books.
- The Divergent book series was written by Veronica Roth. It tells a story about a future society where people are divided into different groups based on their personalities.
- The first book in the series is called Divergent (novel), published in 2011.
- These books were so popular that they were made into a film series called The Divergent Series.
- The first movie, Divergent (film), came out in 2014. It also had its own soundtrack, Divergent (soundtrack).
Other stories also use the word:
- Divergence (novel) is a 1991 book by Charles Sheffield.
- Divergence is a 2007 novel by Tony Ballantyne.
- Diverge (film) is a 2016 American science fiction movie.
- Divergence (film) is a 2005 movie from Hong Kong.
On TV
- "Diverged (The Walking Dead)" is an episode from the TV show The Walking Dead.
- ""Divergence" (Star Trek: Enterprise)" is an episode from the TV show Star Trek: Enterprise.
See also
In Spanish: Divergencia para niños
- Convergence (disambiguation)
