A function refers to the activity or the set of activities that one or more elements can perform at the same time, obviously in a complementary way, in order to achieve a defined objective.
Although, undoubtedly, this activity and objective is can present in different contexts, whereby the function term It is applied indistinctly in fields such as computer science, mathematics, artistic, technical and semiotic among others.
In the case of mathematics so loved by some and so hated by others, which appeared to all of us at some point during the school stage, a function is the correspondence or relationship of the elements of a set "A" with the elements of a set "B". To this end, the progressive complexity of the concept of function in mathematics gives rise to the progressive configuration of graphs, theorems and finally the so-called mathematical analysis, a basic substrate of other disciplines among which physics and information sciences stand out.
On the other hand, in the context of computing, the function is some subprogram or subroutine that, in addition to executing a specific task, returns a value. In the early days of programming, subprograms were part of the everyday models of flowcharts and strategies in languages such as Basic or C; today, the functions that give rise to the applets are integrated into the main programming environments.
In semiotics, which we also mentioned above, a function is the set of elements and the relationships that exist between them and that are absolutely necessary when defining structures. In this way, the understanding of signs and symbols, as well as the strategies for their application in advertising or the scientific field, would be really impossible without the use of functions.
Whereas, when we talked about a function and gave it an artistic context, we were referring to the artistic representations of a play. Under the same scope, the exhibition in other settings is cited as a "function", such as music recitals, the presentation of a film production or other disciplines of the arts; In this model, it is very common to substitute the word function for Anglicism Show, widely used today.
And finally, for the technical area, a function is the passage, using a suitable device, from the initial state of the system to another desired final state. Thus, the idea of function is still applied to define a series of physical, chemical or biological phenomena in a living being. We speak then of cardiac function to refer to the task of the heart as a pump and of the multitude of blood vessels for the transport of blood. Likewise, we point out as a mental function the capacities of human beings for memory, relationship life, problem solving and many other facets of our brain activity.
Therefore, functions are part of our daily life in every imaginable setting and procedure. Perhaps without them, our reality would be very different ...
