Please allow me to ask a potentially dumb question (or maybe more precisely, a question floating on clouds of ignorance):
Why is a max-plus algebra called a tropical algebra?
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Please allow me to ask a potentially dumb question (or maybe more precisely, a question floating on clouds of ignorance):
Why is a max-plus algebra called a tropical algebra?
Best Answer
A lot of sources mention that the adjective "tropical" is given in honor of Imre Simon, but it seems hard to find who precisely coined the term. I found some sources which attribute this to some French mathematicians. Here is what Bryan Hayes writes on the topic: