Definition of "homotopic" [homotopic]

• Such that there is an interval of maps joining one to the other. (adjective)

Wiktionary.org : Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License

• "If a pair of nuclei can be interchanged by rotation about an axis of symmetry of the molecule then they are chemically equivalent and are called homotopic. e.g. the pair of protons in dichloromethane are chemically equivalent."
• "Let us pass to another analogy for now: a particle moves around in a topological space, and we wish to describe its path as simply as possible, and such that two paths that may be deformed into each other (i.e., are homotopic), are given the same description."
• "To prove carefully that paths going around the circle different numbers of times are not homotopic to each other requires a bit more machinery than is developed in this article."