segment(redirected from segmenting)
Also found in: Dictionary, Thesaurus, Medical, Legal, Financial.
in mathematics. A segment of a line is the set of points on the line that are located between two points A and B; in Russian usage, the segment includes both A and B. In other words, a segment is the set of points of a line such that the coordinates of the points satisfy the condition a ≤ x ≤ b, where a and b are the coordinates of the segment endpoints. Thus, the segment constitutes a closed interval and can be denoted by [a, b].
(1)A segment in the plane is a region bounded by a chord and the arc of the curve subtended by the chord. The area of the segment AmB of the circle in Figure 1 is the difference between the area of the sector OAmB and the triangle OAB.
(2) A segment in space is a part cut off from a solid by a plane. An example is a spherical segment.
(3) A segment of a line is the set of points on a line that are located between two points A and B. In Russian usage, the two points A and B are included in the segment. Thus, a segment is the set of points on a line whose coordinates satisfy the condition a≤ x ≤ b. (SeeINTERVAL AND SEGMENT.)
(also metamere), one of a series of homologous parts of the body of an animal, located along the long axis of the body. Segments may be similar to one another; for instance, among the most primitive annelids the entire complex of organs is repeated in each segment. Given the same general structure, complete similarity between segments may be destroyed by the absence of certain organs or by some change in the organs: these types of segments may be observed among arthropods. The segmentation of an animal’s body is also called metamerism.
2. <programming> A separately relocatable section of an executable program. Unix executables have a text segment (executable machine instructions), a data segment (initialised data) and a bss segment (uninitialised data).
3. <networking> network segment.
4. To experience a segmentation fault. Confusingly, the stress is often put on the first syllable, like the noun "segment", rather than the second like mainstream verb "segment". This is because it is actually a noun shorthand that has been verbed.
5. A block of memory in a segmented address space.
segment(1) Any partition, reserved area, partial component or piece of a larger structure. See overlay.
(2) One of the bars that make up a single character in an LED or LCD display.
(3) For DOS segment addressing, see paragraph.