The result of subdividing a region in time and/or space into smaller subregions. A rectangular region in the x,y-plane can thus be divided into smaller rectangles by lines parallel to the x- and y-axes. The points of intersection of the lines are called the mesh (or grid) points. A discretization method replaces differential equations defined in a region by a finite set of equations, which define approximations to the exact solution at the mesh points. The finite-difference and finite-element methods are important methods of this general type. See also adaptive meshing.