variants vs. variables

[NearThere]

This is another set of "twins" I have trouble discerning. Could someone tell the differences between the 2. It seems to me they are identical in meaning, but are they? When do you use one over the other? Thanks a lot.

NT

 

[David L.]

a 'variant' is a form or version of something. Variants differ in some respect from some standard, and from each other. "favor' is a variant form (American) of the British word 'favour'.

a 'variable' : some factor which can show changes in its quantifiable measurement. For example, to predict the weather tomorrow, the meteorological bureau takes into account the variables of wind direction, wind force, cloud density, cloud type, temperature etc.

 

[NearThere]

David, I think I'm getting it. So would you say they are completely different and should not be compared with each other?

And also could you spare a moment, if you're not too busy of course, to give me examples that could demonstrate the differences between the 2? thanks

NT

 

[David L.]

completely different except for the root of the two words, meaning 'to vary'

Let me think about examples. Anyone else got some too?

 

[banderas]

David, I think I'm getting it. So would you say they are completely different and should not be compared with each other?

And also could you spare a moment, if you're not too busy of course, to give me examples that could demonstrate the differences between the 2? thanks

NT

from British Corpus:
"For example, consider a hypothetical experiment on the effect of drinking alcohol on reaction time: Subjects drank either water, one beer, three beers, or six beers and then had their reaction times to the onset of a stimulus measured. The independent variable would be the number of beers drunk (0, 1, 3, or 6) and the dependent variable would be reaction time."
Variabe is a value which my change.

there are 2000 variants of chees.
variant=kind which is based on its parent/root

 

[vil]

Attention: I’m not a teacher.

Hi NearThere,

There are some definitions and examples concerning the matter in question.

something that is slightly different from the usual form of something
variant of/on
This game is a variant of netball.
a variant on the typical Hollywood hero
variant = form
a slightly different form of a word or phrase:
spelling variants in British and American English

variable = something that may be different in different situations, so that you cannot be sure what will happen:
There are too many variables in the experiment to predict the result accurately.
a mathematical quantity which can represent several different amounts

Coincidentally, this example also illustrates he second variant : it is adventitious that the largest element among those available occurs in the first..
No scanning is needed in the third variant , where the diagonal elements are prescribed.
Each has variants; for each there are circumstances which favour its use.
This method has a number of variants.
The variants derive mainly from the choice of pivot.

You have just changed an independent variable .
The same procedure was then applied using only the Pugh score as independent variable to predict outcome at six weeks (Pugh model).
We have, therefore, treated as if it were an artificial variable .
The new non-basic variable must be labelled correctly: &sgr; J (or x J).
To complete an alternating BFS, we must find a further basic variable (with value 0) for each row.
This objective can be rewritten in terms of the structural variables as say.
The variables corresponding to the remaining edges on these paths will be reverse variables.

Regards.

V.

 

[NearThere]

I think I got it, thank you guys.

If I try to put it in a "cause and effect" kind of context with variables being the cause and variants being the effect, would this work?

Variables being geography, time, ect, there have come to be variants of Chinese language wich are Cantonese, Taiwanese, Southern dialects, Northern dialects and so forth.

Does this work?

Thanks

 

[vil]

Attention: I'm not a teacher.



Hi NearThere,

“there have come to be variants of Chinese language which are Cantonese, Taiwanese, Southern dialects, Northern dialects and so forth. “

Does this work?

It may safely be said: YES!

There are some more examples:


In Central Asia, most people spoke variations of Turkic languages. And in China, people spoke different variants of Chinese.


..the major spoken variant of Chinese used in Hong Kong. .

Regards.

V.