Because linear equations are so much easier to solve than nonlinear ones, much research across a range of disciplines is devoted to finding linear approximations of nonlinear phenomena.

Childs’ team used Carleman linearization, an out-of-fashion mathematical technique from the 1930s, to transform nonlinear problems into an array of linear equations. Unfortunately, that list of ...

Dollar duration, sometimes called money duration or DV01, is based on a linear approximation of how a bond's value will change in response to changes in interest rates.

William F. Sharpe, A Linear Programming Approximation for the General Portfolio Analysis Problem, The Journal of Financial and Quantitative Analysis, Vol. 6, No. 5 (Dec., 1971), pp. 1263-1275 ...