A doorknob of whatever roundish shape is effectively a continuum of levers, with the axis of the latching mechanism—known as the spindle—being the fulcrum about which the turning takes place. Applying a force tangential to the knob is essentiallyequivalent to applying one perpendicular to a radial line defining the lever.
Equivalent sets should, by rights, have the same "number" of elements. For this reason we sometimes say thatequivalent sets have the samecardinality.
2006, Joseph Breuer,Introduction to the Theory of Sets,page41:
The equivalence theorem:If both M isequivalent to a subset N1 of N and N isequivalent to a subset M1 of M, then the sets M and N areequivalent to each other.
In mathematics, this adjective can be used in phrases like “A and B are equivalent”, “A is equivalent to B”, and, less commonly, “A is equivalent with B”.
Our decision about energy will test the character of the American people and the ability of the President and the Congress to govern. This difficult effort will be the "moralequivalent of war" — except that we will be uniting our efforts to build and not destroy.
Sometimes the nounequivalent to denote a comparable option is assailed for falsely implying absence of difference (false equivalence); when this problem arises, the nouncounterpart, or a collocation such asrough equivalent ornear equivalent, is sometimes a less misleading choice. In some contexts, the nounsanalog orhomolog areapt.
