3

For example: 1, 12, 34, 41 are well spread-out, but 1, 2, 3, 4 are not well spread-out. I guess spread-out can work, but I am looking for a single-word or a non-composite adjective to say this.

Improve this question
5
  • spread out compared to what? 1, 12, 34, and 41 are very close together if we are talking about numbers that reach into the thousands or more. In mathematics, integers are adjacent if they are right next to each other, but 1 and 3 are not (however 11 and 13 are adjacent primes)
    – michael
    Commented Apr 29, 2020 at 1:57
  • On the contrary, at least in terms of a pattern, I would say that 1,2,3,4 is much more evenly spread out than 1, 12, 34, and 41. (If you look at the lowest number and the highest number, and then the distribution of the numbers in between.)
    – Jason Bassford
    Commented Apr 29, 2020 at 1:59
  • 1
    1,2,3,4 (each a difference of 1) are as evenly spaced as 1,11,21,31 (each a difference of 10) so I agree that 1,12,34, and 41 are (as Jason suggests) not as evenly spaced (or spread out) as 1,2,3,4
    – michael
    Commented Apr 29, 2020 at 2:06
  • Maybe "dispersed" or "scattered". You might need to specify the space available for the numbers (such as integers 0 to 100) for any term to have meaning. But if you define terms in what you are writing, you could use anything you want.
    – Jack O'Flaherty
    Commented Apr 29, 2020 at 5:19
  • Do you consider {1,2,3,41} to be spread out?
    – Micah Windsor
    Commented Apr 29, 2020 at 12:14

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
1

I would say the first has a larger range than the second. My second choice is "notnexttoeachother", where the idea of running words together is borrowed from German. Another more serious choice is disparate.

Improve this answer
1
  • An upvote as a thank you for making me laugh! Oh, German...
    – Kman3
    Commented May 3, 2020 at 2:53
0

After puzzling over this for a good long time, I decided to adapt this question and then ask the experts over at math.stackexchange.com. Looks like the best word for your situation, since you are dealing with sets of numbers, is dispersion. The set {1,2,3,4} is far less dispersed than the set {1,12,34,41}. One way to measure dispersion is range, which can be found by evaluating the highest number in the set minus the lowest number in the set. There are many other more complicated methods of measurement listed on the linked Wikipedia page for dispersion if you are mathematically minded.

Hope this helps!

Improve this answer

You must log in to answer this question.