Using Directed Acyclic Graphs in OLab

As a term, a ‘graph’ in mathematics is a shortening of ‘graphic formula’, essentially an image showing how a formula works visually rather than symbolically. The term ‘graphic’ comes from the Greek (via Latin ‘graphos’ meaning to write or draw). In English, words ending in -graphy reflect a sense of writing or otherwise representing something such that it involves representation for study. This is compared with -logy words which are to do with the study of something – biology is the study of life, biography is writing or representing one or more lives. Geology would be the study of rocks, geography is about representing or recording the earth. A graph then is a representation, an image, a recording, a visual abstraction.