In mathematics, physics, or logic, a term that is mathematically opposite or functionally opposite to another term, used to cancel it out.
From counter- + term. Term comes from Latin terminus. This technical term emerged in physics and mathematics in the 20th century to describe quantum field theory calculations and similar applications.
In physics, counterterms are basically ghost math—physicists realized their calculations gave infinity as an answer, so they invented fake mathematical counterterms to cancel infinity out, and it actually works!
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