Mathematics Stack Exchange
Mathematics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [notation]

Questions on the meaning, history, and usage of mathematical symbols and notation. Please remember to mention where (book, paper, webpage, etc.) you encountered any mathematical notation you are asking about.

Before asking a question on the site, please check if you can find your answer in Earliest Uses of Various Mathematical Symbols or the book A History of Mathematical Notations.

Alternatively, a textbook or paper usually takes the time to explain the notation they're using; please remember to mention where you've seen the notation you are asking about.

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Anti derivative notation?

For derivatives, we use $f'(x), f''(x),$ etc. until that comes too unwieldy so we just use $f^{(n)} (x)$ What about for anti derivatives? I've seen using $F(x)$ to denote the first antiderivative of $f(x)$, but what would one do if you want to find…
MT_
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Notation for Number of elements in vector

I have a matlab vector like s=[1 2 3 4]' and iterate over every element: for i=1:length(s) cal_function(s(i)); end what is the correct mathematic notation of the length-Function? I found some papers which write the length as $|s|$ but I don't…
jrast
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What does 'sign' mean in an equation?

I'm curious what sign means in the context of mathematical notation. I'm reading a paper right now and it uses: $$ sign \overrightarrow{\lambda} \cdot \overrightarrow{a} $$ Is that equivalent to $\pm$ ? I've never seen this before. Thanks.
Matt
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What is the meaning of the symbol $\pitchfork$?

I have seen this symbol in the formulation of this question. There, it is said: Let $f: X \to Y$ be a smooth map with $f \pitchfork Z$. I was googling, but I haven't found any answers.
Antoine
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About plus-minus sign

If, say, we know that $x=1$, is then the expression $x=\pm 1$ mathematically incorrect? I ask this because when we use $\pm$ sign in the discriminant formula we imply that any of the plus or minus cases is possible. But in this case only one case is…
Sunny88
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Mathematical symbol for "has"

Just out of curiosity, I was wondering if there was a symbol for "has" so intead of saying $x \in A$, we could say something like "$A$ has $x$", they both mean the same thing but I was just wondering if there was another way to say it. Thanks!
Jeel Shah
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What does $a^b$ mean?

Notation $a^b$ seems to be ubiquitous in mathematics and I think that most of us take it for granted. But, at least to me, it seems that it means totally different things depending on the context. In terms of general algebraic structures, if $a$ is…
Jimmy R
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Notation for an Array

What is the proper mathematical notation to deal with an array? Beginning with the declaration, I am used to the following format as a programmer: ARRAY: X[number of elements in array]; FOR i=1 TO 100 BEGIN X[i]=N[i]; END; Many thanks.
Stackguest
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what does the notation $g\colon X\to Y$ mean?

What does the notation $g\colon X \to Y$ mean in this Wikipedia page, under the section "Problem statement (supervised version)"?
Charles Lambert
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Reverse Square Bracket and it's Denotation (Notation)

Some one asked me to use reverse square bracket instead of parenthesis (.,.) to denote open interval, and I have confused with meaning of reverse square bracket and the notation (denotation) of it. So, can I get your help to know the meaning of…
Tsegay
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What is the difference between a vector and a ray?

I was researching rays recently, and found that they had the same notation as vectors (namely an arrow pointing in one direction). My question is why does these two clearly different concepts have the same notation?
Jamminermit
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What does the symbol $\otimes$ mean?

I am familiar with the direct sum of sets, $\oplus$.
user9248
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What is the difference between "$=$" and "$\equiv$"?

I was recently thinking about some of my past math classes, and depending on the context I recall my professors would sometimes use the "$\equiv$" symbol in places where I'd feel "$=$" to be more appropriate. For example, since this would often be…
PrincessEev
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Notation convention for $\{1,\ldots,n\}$

Is there any convention for a notational shorthand for the set $\{1,\ldots,n\}$ (defined as $\{k\in\mathbb{N} \mid k \le n\}$), where $n\in\mathbb{N}$, that the majority of mathematicians are familiar with? I find that in some cases in which these…
Anakhand
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What does the notation $\mathbb R^2_{++}$ mean?

Can anyone tell me what $\mathbb R^2_{++}$ means? Is it different from $\mathbb R^2_+$? Thank you so much! Edit (answer): This is what the author meant (I found it in the lecture notes by the same professor but of a different course): $\mathbb…
babbo natale
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