A good example of this can be found in an incredible algorithm with a terrible name: Fast inverse square root. It sounds like an algorithm for computing the in

A good example of this can be found in an incredible algorithm with a terrible name: Fast inverse square root. It sounds like an algorithm for computing the inverse of the square root function, so one might think it's for squaring non-negative numbers, or something along those lines. Not so. It's for computing the reciprocal (the 'multiplicative inverse') of the square root of a number. [0] Related to this: the way a superscript '2' next to a function means the function shall be applied twice (that is, composition with itself)... unless it's a trigonometric function, in which case it means the square of the result. [1] [2] [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fast_inverse_square_root [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_composition#Functional_powers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Function_composition#Functiona... [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trigonometric_identities#Pythagorean_identities https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_trigonometric_identiti...