Phase Variance

What field? There's a phase variance in electronics, there's one in quantum mechanics that's quite different, and for all I know there's a phase variance in sociology. Insufficient data; does not compute.

well that answers part of my question.
i didn't know it was a multi-field term.

watching enough Star Trek you hear that term all the time.
so i figure it would be a flip between electronics or quantum mechanics.
sorry:

too few parameters

perhaps what you need, perhaps not :/

Stock response when studying waves:
Teacher: What do you know about phasors?
Ben: They have two states, sir: stun and kill.

In Star Trek: The Next Generation and those after it they use the term "phase" to mean just about anything. They're always talking about phase discriminators, phase inducers, phase inverters, metaphasic sheilding and so on. Geordi and Ensign Ro get trapped "out of phase" with "normal matter" and can walk through walls in the episode "The Next Phase" (but for no reason they can still walk on the floor and breathe the air fine). In "Time's Arrow" the aliens attacking people in 19th Century earth are initially invisible because they have a 4% "phase variance". Data's head has a "Type-L phase discriminator". I wouldn't take the term any more seriously than "warp drive" or "verterons".

The wikipedia entry refers to the usual meaning of the word phase. Since wavelike forms come up a lot the term has a widespread use.