I am just marking a couple of linear algebra papers in which one of the questions is to determine whether $(A+B)^2=A^2+2AB+B^2$ is true for 2-by-2 matrices or not. One of the students has chosen two numeric matrices one of which is double the other and concluded that the statement is true. I want to write something for her and I wonder which one of the following statements would describe the situation better:
You have chosen two specific matrices.
You have chosen two particular matrices.
Please consider that the question is not actually about what I should write for her or how I can help her and so on. The question is whether or not the words "specific" and "particular" are used interchangeably in mathematical (con)texts.
You can ignore this comment for now. I have an old interest in this question as you can see in this FLM paper and this ELU question.