What is an easing function?

Question

What is meant by easing function in the context of animation. It seems that dojo, jquery, silverlight, flex and other UI systems have the notion of easing function. I could

Answer 1

An easing function is an algorithm that controls the speed of an animation to give a desired effect (bouncing, zoom in and slow, etc.).

Check out what MSDN has to say about them for a little more detail.