Talk:Isocline

Doubtful information

The implication this articvle makes regarding ordinary differential equations is incorrect. Yes, ODEs use isoclines, but the isoclines in ODEs are not defined the way they are given in this article. Given a first order ODE, an isocline is a curve on which the solution has a fixed slope.—Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.179.98.51 (talk) 17:37, 23 August 2007 (UTC)[reply]

Since the previous comment, the text of the article has been added to, and Image:Isoclines.GIF has been changed to Image:Isocline_3.png. But some points still seem wrong to me:

The article starts "An Isocline is a series of lines ..." but dictionaries define it as "a line". For example, the OED Online says "A line (imaginary or on a map) connecting points of equal gradient".
The article says the word comes from κλίση, but that would result in a word such as "isoclise". It is more believable that it is derived from κλίνειν which is the origin that the OED Online gives for isoclinal.
Perhaps in population dynamics the word does refer to sizes at which the rate of change is zero, and I have not seen a copy of Metapopulation Ecology to check. However, in geomagnetics there is a separate term aclinic line for a line of points of zero slope that is different to the general term isoclinic line.

JonH (talk) 09:57, 9 March 2010 (UTC)[reply]

disambiguation needed?

Since I found a link from the article on Fold_(geology), there seems to be at least kinds of isoclines, namely mathematical and geological. What to do? 219.111.178.147 (talk) 05:45, 7 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thanks for noticing this. See my comment at Talk:Fold (geology)#Isoclinal. JonH (talk) 09:41, 7 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]

Thank you for the fix. I think it is now OK. (I noticed the double usage of the word when I was teaching a course on dynamical systems and asked one of the students, what an isocline is, and the student started to speak of something he saw on the web about geology.) 211.10.39.3 (talk) 03:42, 8 July 2012 (UTC)[reply]