Pathological: Adj. 1. [scientific Computation] Used Of A Data Set That Is Grossly Atypical Of Normal Expected Input, Esp.

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:pathological: adj. 1. [scientific computation] Used of a data set
that is grossly atypical of normal expected input, esp. one that
exposes a weakness or bug in whatever algorithm one is using. An
algorithm that can be broken by pathological inputs may still be
useful if such inputs are very unlikely to occur in practice.
2. When used of test input, implies that it was purposefully
engineered as a worst case. The implication in both senses is that
the data is spectacularly ill-conditioned or that someone had to
explicitly set out to break the algorithm in order to come up with
such a crazy example. 3. Also said of an unlikely collection of
circumstances. "If the network is down and comes up halfway
through the execution of that command by root, the system may just
crash." "Yes, but that's a pathological case." Often used to
dismiss the case from discussion, with the implication that the
consequences are acceptable, since they will happen so infrequently
(if at all) that it doesn't seem worth going to the extra trouble
to handle that case (see sense 1).
-- The AI Hackers Dictionary

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