“Orthogonal” is a term used in mathematics and geometry to describe the relationship between two objects or vectors that are perpendicular to each other, meaning they meet at a right angle of 90 degrees. In a more general sense, “orthogonal” can describe any relationship between two things that are independent or unrelated to each other.
For example, in Euclidean space, two lines or vectors are orthogonal if their directions are perpendicular to each other. Similarly, in linear algebra, vectors are said to be orthogonal if their dot product is zero, indicating that they are perpendicular.
In a broader context, the term “orthogonal” can be used metaphorically to describe things that are independent or unrelated, such as orthogonal concepts in a philosophical discussion or orthogonal factors in a statistical analysis.