normalize, v.
(ˈnɔːməlaɪz)
[f. normal a. + -ize.]
1. a. trans. To make normal or regular.
| 1865 Pall Mall G. No. 175. 1/1 To normalize an abnormal condition. 1880 R. G. White Every-Day Engl. 72 A scheme for simplifying and normalizing orthography. |
| absol. 1892 tr. Schäffle's Impossib. Soc. Democracy 100 We must normalize also according to work. |
b. intr. To become normal.
| 1923 Contemp. Rev. Mar. 366 If a rise in the price of tin should follow on the already normalising price of materials. |
2. Metallurgy.
trans. To heat (steel) to above the transformation range (about 700°C or more) and allow to cool in still air at room temperature, so as to remove any effects of strain-hardening, produce a finer grain structure, and improve the mechanical properties and machinability.
| 1902 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. LXI. plate XIV (caption) Mr. Stead's Austenite normalized. 1916 Ibid. XCIV. 26 (heading) Effect of heating to 850°C., quenching in oil and tempering at 550°C., compared with the same steels simply normalized by heating to 1000°C. and cooling in air. 1937 R. T. Rolfe Steels for User vi. 114 Since quenching in a liquid medium was for a long time prohibited, these castings were either annealed or normalised, followed by a tempering process. 1970 E. N. Simons Dict. Ferrous Metals 155 The rate of cooling differs according to the mass of the piece, a thin cross-section cooling more rapidly than a thick, so that in the large masses the core is annealed rather than normalized. 1971 B. Scharf Engin. & its Lang. ii. 13 Steel is often normalised before hardening or machining. |
3. a. Chiefly
Math. and
Physics. To multiply (a series, function, or variable) by a factor that makes the norm or some associated quantity (as an integral) equal to a particular value,
usu. unity.
| 1921 Proc. Lond. Math. Soc. XX. 125 The sequence {ob}ψn(x){cb} being normalised and orthogonal. 1929 Condon & Morse Quantum Mech. i. 30 Of course, when ΨΨ is to be used as probability it has to be so normalized, by choice of a constant multiplier for Ψ, that ∫ΨΨ dv = 1. .. The same normalization is required from the distributed charge standpoint to express the fact that the total charge is e. 1934 W. V. Houston Princ. Math. Physics ix. 134 A function can be normalized by multiplying it by a constant. When it is normalized, ∫ b / a Ri2 dx = 1. 1956 Math. Tables & Other Aids to Computation X. 2 The fundamental sequence was normalized so that - 1 {slle} uj {slle} 1. 1961 Powell & Crasemann Quantum Mech. ix. 286 A vector of unit norm is said to be normalized... Every nonzero vector can be normalized. 1975 Nature 13 Feb. 563/1 To normalise variations among tissues, responses are reported as percentage of the maximum increase, calculated for each preparation. |
b. Computers. To express (a number in floating-point representation) in the standard form as regards the position of the radix point, which is usually immediately preceding the first non-zero digit.
| 1946 Ann. Computation Lab. Harvard Univ. I. 495 The quantity to be normalized lies in storage counter A. 1957 D. D. McCracken Digital Computer Programming xvii. 205 The first two steps convert the code number into an unnormalized floating point form. The third does nothing but normalize it, i.e., it brings the first nonzero digit into position three of the accumulator. 1962 Huskey & Korn Computer Handbk. xv. 23 It is desirable to obtain as many significant figures in the answers as possible. In floating-point systems this can be accomplished by normalizing the nonzero numbers at each step. 1973 H. Dinter Introd. Computing v. 167 The decimal exponent will be a value that is adjusted for normalizing the number. For example, if the number 26·5 is to be expressed in normalized form, it will be presented as ·265 × 102. |
Hence
ˈnormalized ppl. a.| 1880 Academy 9 Oct. 256 Prose texts in a consistently normalised spelling. 1894 J. R. C. Hall A.-S. Dict. Pref., Prof. Toller has chosen a..normalised form. |