resolution

[rez-uh-loo-shuh n] /ˌrɛz əˈlu ʃən/
noun
1.
a formal expression of opinion or intention made, usually after voting, by a formal organization, a legislature, a club, or other group.
Compare concurrent resolution, joint resolution.
2.
a decision or determination; a resolve: to make a firm resolution to do something.
Her resolution to clear her parents' name allowed her no other focus in life.
3.
the act determining upon an action or course of action, method, procedure, etc.; the act of resolving.
4.
firmness of purpose; the mental state or quality of being resolved or resolute:
She showed her resolution by not attending the meeting.
5.
the act or process of separating into constituent or elementary parts or resolving.
6.
the resulting state.
7.
Optics. the act, process, or capability of distinguishing between two separate but adjacent objects or sources of light or between two nearly equal wavelengths.
Compare resolving power.
8.
a solution, accommodation, or settling of a problem, controversy, etc.
9.
Music.
  1. the progression of a voice part or of the harmony as a whole from a dissonance to a consonance.
  2. the tone or chord to which a dissonance is resolved.
10.
reduction to a simpler form; conversion.
11.
Medicine/Medical. the reduction or disappearance of a swelling or inflammation without suppuration.
12.
the degree of sharpness of a computer-generated image as measured by the number of dots per linear inch in a hard-copy printout or the number of pixels across and down on a display screen.
Origin
1350-1400; Middle English < Latin resolūtiōn- (stem of resolūtiō), equivalent to resolūt(us) resolute + -iōn- -ion
Related forms
nonresolution, noun
preresolution, noun
Synonyms
4. resolve, determination, perseverance, tenacity; strength, fortitude.
Examples from the web for resolution
  • Their resolution never failed them, their fervour seemed never slackened.
  • They tried to attain by joint resolution a degree of editorial self-restraint which few individual editors had as yet acquired.
  • The great questions of philosophy have a way of defying easy resolution.
  • Philosophers earn public respect when they contribute to the resolution of practical problems of public importance.
  • One of the accessibility features that annoyed me was the low resolution cursor.
  • They are the highest resolution images ever taken on the surface of another planet.
British Dictionary definitions for resolution

resolution

/ˌrɛzəˈluːʃən/
noun
1.
the act or an instance of resolving
2.
the condition or quality of being resolute; firmness or determination
3.
something resolved or determined; decision
4.
a formal expression of opinion by a meeting, esp one agreed by a vote
5.
a judicial decision on some matter; verdict; judgment
6.
the act or process of separating something into its constituent parts or elements
7.
(med)
  1. return from a pathological to a normal condition
  2. subsidence of the symptoms of a disease, esp the disappearance of inflammation without the formation of pus
8.
(music) the process in harmony whereby a dissonant note or chord is followed by a consonant one
9.
the ability of a television or film image to reproduce fine detail
10.
(physics) another word for resolving power
Derived Forms
resolutioner, resolutionist, noun
Word Origin and History for resolution
n.

late 14c., "a breaking into parts," from Old French resolution (14c.) or directly from Latin resolutionem (nominative resolutio) "process of reducing things into simpler forms," from past participle stem of resolvere "loosen" (see resolve). Sense of "a solving" (as of mathematical problems) first recorded 1540s, as is that of "power of holding firmly" (cf. resolute). Sense of "decision or expression of a meeting" is from c.1600. Meaning "effect of an optical instrument" is from 1860.

resolution in Medicine

resolution res·o·lu·tion (rěz'ə-lōō'shən)
n.

  1. The subsiding or termination of an abnormal condition, such as a fever or an inflammation.

  2. The act or process of separating or reducing something into its constituent parts.

  3. The fineness of detail that can be distinguished in an image, as on a video display terminal.

resolution in Technology

1. the maximum number of pixels that can be displayed on a monitor, expressed as (number of horizontal pixels) x (number of vertical pixels), i.e., 1024x768. The ratio of horizontal to vertical resolution is usually 4:3, the same as that of conventional television sets.
2. A mechanical method for proving statements of first order logic, introduced by J. A. Robinson in 1965. Resolution is applied to two clauses in a sentence. It eliminates, by unification, a literal that occurs "positive" in one and "negative" in the other to produce a new clause, the resolvent.
For example, given the sentence:
(man(X) => mortal(X)) AND man(socrates).
The literal "man(X)" is "negative". The literal "man(socrates)" could be considered to be on the right hand side of the degenerate implication
True => man(socrates)
and is therefore "positive". The two literals can be unified by the binding X = socrates.
The truth table for the implication function is
A | B | A => B --+---+------- F | F | T F | T | T T | F | F T | T | T
(The implication only fails if its premise is true but its conclusion is false). From this we can see that
A => B == (NOT A) OR B
Which is why the left hand side of the implication is said to be negative and the right positive. The sentence above could thus be written
((NOT man(socrates)) OR mortal(socrates)) AND man(socrates)
Distributing the AND over the OR gives
((NOT man(socrates)) AND man(socrates)) OR mortal(socrates) AND man(socrates)
And since (NOT A) AND A == False, and False OR A == A we can simplify to just
mortal(socrates) AND man(socrates)
So we have proved the new literal, mortal(socrates).
Resolution with backtracking is the basic control mechanism of Prolog.
See also modus ponens, SLD Resolution.
3. address resolution.
(1996-02-09)
Encyclopedia Article for resolution

in chemistry, any process by which a mixture called a racemate (q.v.) is separated into its two constituent enantiomorphs. (Enantiomorphs are pairs of substances that have dissymmetric arrangements of atoms and structures that are nonsuperposable mirror images of one another.) Two important methods of resolution were employed by Louis Pasteur. The first of these, known as the method of spontaneous resolution, can be used if the racemic substance crystallizes as a conglomerate composed of observably different particles of the two enantiomorphs, which can be physically sorted. Only a few instances of this condition have been reported; consequently, this method, although of historical and theoretical interest, seldom is applicable. Pasteur's second method, however, is of much greater practicality: it is based upon the conversion of the mixture of enantiomorphs into a mixture of diastereoisomers (optical isomers that are not mirror images of one another), which differ in physical properties and therefore can be separated. This transformation requires the use of a previously obtained optically active substance. For example, Pasteur showed in 1853 that, when racemic acid is mixed with a naturally occurring base, such as cinchonine, the resulting salt is a mixture of diastereoisomers and no longer one of enantiomorphs. The two salts present in the mixture, therefore, have different solubilities and so are separable

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