Dictionary:

superposition

  (sū'pər-pə-zĭsh'ən)

1. The act of superposing or the state of being superposed: “Yet another technique in the forensic specialist's repertoire is photo superposition” (Patrick Nuyghe).
2. Geology. The principle that in a group of stratified sedimentary rocks the lowest were the earliest to be deposited.

The noun has 3 meanings:

Meaning #1: (geology) the deposition of one geological stratum on another

Meaning #2: (geology) the principle that in a series of stratified sedimentary rocks the lowest stratum is the oldest
  Synonym: principle of superposition

Meaning #3: the placement of one thing on top of another

The term superposition can have several meanings:

In physics and mathematics it may refer to the overlapping of waves, or to the overlapping of solutions to linear differential equations:

• The combination of sound or light waves
• Quantum superposition, or as applied in Quantum computation
• Superposition theorem, in electronics
• Superposition principle applies to linear systems of algebraic equations, linear differential equations, or systems of linear differential equations. Two important classes of quantities that occur in linear systems are Vector Fields and Time-Varying Signals.

In logic, superposition may refer to Superposition calculus, used for equational first-order reasoning.

In other physical sciences, it has other meanings:

• Law of superposition in geology and archaeology

External references

• Superposition of sound waves

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