DISCOVERY

In Law, the act of revealing or disclosing any matter by a defendant in his answer to a bill in Chancery. See Chancery. DISCRETE PROPORTION (Lat. discretus, separated), in Arithmetic, is a proportion in which the ratio of the Jinteccdents to the consequents is different from the ratio of the consequent of the first pair of terms to the antecedent of the second. Tims, the proportion 2: 3:: 4: 6, is a discrete proportion; for the ratio of 2 to 3, or of 4 to 6, is different from the ratio of 3 to 4 Discrete is therefore opposed to continual, a continual proportion being that in which the ratio of every two contiguous numbers is the same throughout; thus, 2:4:: 8: IG. [s. 363]