title: Descent
text: # Descent
  
  Descent may refer to:
  
  ## As a noun
  
  ### Genealogy and inheritance
  
  * Common descent, concept in evolutionary biology
  * Kinship, one of the major concepts of cultural anthropology
     * Pedigree chart or family tree
     * Ancestry
     * Lineal descendant
     * Heritage
     * Royal descent - lineal descent from a monarch
  * Phylogenetics
     * Tree diagram (disambiguation)
  * Inheritance (law and property)
  
  ### Mathematics
  
  * Infinite descent, a method going back to Fermat to solve Diophantine equations
  * Descent (mathematics), an idea extending the notion of "gluing" in topology
  * Hadamard's method of descent, a technique for solving partial differential equations
  * Gradient descent, a first-order optimization algorithm going back to Newton
  * Descents in permutations, a classical permutation statistic in combinatorics
  
  ### Other uses
  
  * Descent (aeronautics), the decrease of an aircraft in altitude during flight
  * Descent (font), the distance that a typeface descends below the baseline in typography
  * Katabasis
  
  ## As a proper name
  
  ### Film
  
  * The Descent, a 2005 horror film
     * The Descent Part 2, the 2009 sequel to the 2005 film
  * Descent (2007 film), a thriller film starring Rosario Dawson
  * Descent (2017 film), a Nigerian film
  
  ### Gaming
  
  * Descent (video game), first in a series from Interplay Entertainment and Parallax Software
     * Descent II, sequel to Descent
     * Descent 3, sequel to Descent II
  * Descent: FreeSpace – The Great War, a 1998 space combat simulation computer game
  * Descent: Journeys in the Dark, a 2005 board game by Fantasy Flight Games
  * Dragon Age: Inquisition – The Descent, a 2015 downloadable content pack for Dragon Age: Inquisition
  
  ### Literature
  
  * Descent: An Irresistible Tragicomedy of Everyday Life, a 2004 novel by Sabrina Broadbent
  * The Descent (novel), by Jeff Long
  * Descent (magazine), a magazine about caving
  * Descent (journal), a genealogy journal published by the Society of Australian Genealogists
  
  ### Music
  
  * Descent, an album by the band This Burning Effigy
  * "Descent" (song), a song by Fear Factory from Obsolete
  * "Descent", a song by Godflesh from Us and Them
  * "Descent", a song by Knut from Bastardiser
  * "Descent", a song by Neurosis from Times of Grace
  * "A Descent", a song by Born of Osiris from A Higher Place
  * "The Descent", a song by Insomnium from Shadows of the Dying Sun (bonus track)
  * "The Descent", a song by Polaris from The Death of Me
  
  ### Television
  
  * "Descent" (Star Trek: The Next Generation), a two-part 1993 episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation
  * "Descent" (The Outer Limits), a 1999 episode of The Outer Limits
  * "Descent" (Stargate SG-1), a 2002 episode of Stargate SG-1
  * "The Descent" (The Vampire Diaries), a 2011 episode of The Vampire Diaries
  * "Descent", a 2013 episode of NCIS: Los Angeles
  