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Encyclopedia > Ab initio

The Latin term ab initio means from the beginning and is used in several contexts: For other uses, see Latin (disambiguation). ...

  • when describing literature: told from the beginning as opposed to in medias res (meaning starting in the middle of the story)
  • as a legal term: refers to something being the case from the start or from the instant of the act, rather than from when the court declared it so. A judicial declaration of the invalidity of a marriage ab initio is a nullity.
  • in science: A calculation is said to be "ab initio" (or "from first principles") if it relies on basic and established laws of nature without additional assumptions or special models.
For example, an ab initio calculation of the properties of liquid water might start with the properties of the constituent hydrogen and oxygen atoms and the laws of electrodynamics. From these basics, the properties of isolated individual water molecules would be derived, followed by computations of the interactions of larger and larger groups of water molecules, until the bulk properties of water had been determined.
  • as part of some educational qualifications: foreign languages may be taken ab initio - for beginners.
  • in bioinformatics: a term used to define methods for making predictions about biological features using only a computational model without extrinsic comparison to existing data. In this context, it may be sometimes interchangeable with the latin term de novo.

  Results from FactBites:
 
Ab Initio International (739 words)
For this reason, we are presenting a special issue of Ab Initio, in which we present a series of interviews with many of the trainers.
Here they describe their experiences with the NBAS and how it has influenced their research and practice.
The primary aim of the new on-line AB INITIO international is to publish the latest ideas on newborn and infant development and on the NBAS in particular, and to facilitate communication among researchers, educators and clinicians, working with infants and families in different settings across the world.
Ab initio - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia (178 words)
The Latin term ab initio means from the beginning and is used in several contexts:
A calculation is said to be "ab initio" (or "from first principles") if it relies on basic and established laws of nature without additional assumptions or special models.
Experimental input in ab initio calculations is limited to the determination of values of fundamental physical constants
  More results at FactBites »

 

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