What is "partition of unity"

n. (context mathematics English) A collection of non-negative-valued functions defined on a topological space, such that every point has only finitely many nonzero values, and these sum to one.

In mathematics, a partition of unity of a topological space X is a set R of continuous functions from X to the unit interval [0,1] such that for every point, x ∈ X,

• there is a neighbourhood of x where all but a finite number of the functions of R are 0, and
• the sum of all the function values at x is 1, i.e.,  ∑ρ(x) = 1.

Partitions of unity are useful because they often allow one to extend local constructions to the whole space. They are also important in the interpolation of data, in signal processing, and the theory of spline functions.