Representatsioon

Representatsioon is a concept used across disciplines to denote the act or result of presenting or standing for something else. A representation is an encoding or model that captures essential properties of a system while leaving out extraneous details. Representations enable analysis, communication and manipulation across different domains, from abstract theories to concrete devices.

In mathematics, a representation usually means a way to realize an abstract structure as concrete objects, typically linear transformations of a vector space or module. For example, a group representation assigns to each group element a linear automorphism of a vector space, preserving the group operation. Representation theory studies the classification, construction and properties of these realizations, with tools like characters, irreducible components and tensor products.

In computing and information science, representation concerns how data and numbers are encoded, stored and processed. Common numerical representations include binary, decimal and floating point; character encodings convert text to binary sequences (ASCII, UTF-8); data structures provide representations for complex information. The choice of representation affects efficiency, precision and interoperability.

In philosophy of mind and cognitive science, representational theories describe how objects, states or events are symbolically or structurally represented in the mind. Representations are analyzed in terms of content, accuracy and the relationship between mental representations and external reality, with implications for perception, reasoning and communication.