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.

12848 questions
2
votes
3 answers

Is there an existing mathematical notation for representing a repeated number after a decimal point?

Sometimes you encounter numbers likes 1.3332 in mathematics. Is there a more concise notation for representing a number with the same repeating digit after the decimal point that exists in common mathematical notation? Of course if you encounter…
beakr
  • 133
2
votes
1 answer

Notation in a paper

I'm looking at a paper from H Fuchs called Optimal Surface Reconstruction from Planar Contours dated 1977. It can be found here. On page 2 of the PDF (stamped as page 694) the notation $+_k$ is introduced to denote addition modulo k. I understand…
PeteUK
  • 1,570
2
votes
3 answers

What does the notation $||u||$ mean?

I know this is basic, but I am just a little unsure of this. What does the notation $||u||$ mean? $u$ is a vector
Chrene
  • 135
2
votes
0 answers

Preferred Notation for Indexing the Naturals from $0$

Depending on circumstantial factors, I occasionally want to index the natural numbers $\mathbb{N}$ from $0$, and at other times, from $1$: i.e. $\mathbb{N} = \{0,1,2,3,\ldots\} \text{ or } \{1,2,3,\ldots\}$, respectively. Here's my question: is…
Newb
  • 17,672
  • 13
  • 67
  • 114
2
votes
1 answer

Mathematical notation

Is there some generally accepted notation for squarefree, cubefree, etc. numbers? And is there also some notation for squareful, cubeful, etc. numbers?
martin
  • 8,998
2
votes
0 answers

The most appropriate way to cite a mathematical notation

I am writing a report with some mathematical formulae. I have a well-known book along side, very often, I just use the same notation as the paper. For instance, at the moment I write: $((x_n, val_n))_{n \in \mathbb{N}} \in (\mathbb{X} \times…
SoftTimur
  • 346
2
votes
1 answer

Difference between colon and membership symbol?

For my discrete math class, my instructor has told us that the following notation is incorrect: $\exists x \in \mathbb{N} | x > 0 \bullet x < 3$ . And we should instead write: $\exists x : \mathbb{N} | x > 0 \bullet x < 3$ . What is the difference?…
Schala
  • 172
2
votes
1 answer

Style when typesetting functions and operators

I've been making an effort to type all function names and operators in roman font. For example $$\int \operatorname{f}(x) \, \operatorname{d}\!x$$ This was all well and good until I tried to write out the rule for integration by parts. The usual…
Fly by Night
  • 32,272
2
votes
0 answers

Is there any way to simplify this expression so that a term only appears once?

I have an expression: $$ \frac{x+z}{y+z} $$ Can I reorganize it so that any variable only appears once?
user98072
  • 21
2
votes
1 answer

What is this strange symbol called :=?

I want to Google it but I don't even know what to call it. It looks like some sort of assignment used in computer science or math. Here it is again := It is used to describe CS algorithms…
Bill - The Butcher - Cutting
  • 121
2
votes
1 answer

How to prove $2^n = \omega (n^k)$

I'm trying to prove $2^n = \omega (n^k)$ but the problem is that, I could not find any examples of proving little/ small omega, and what makes it confusing is that I could not even find a way to deal with $k$. I tried this: $$2^n > c (n^k).$$ If I…
Naif Alghamdi
  • 23
  • 1
  • 3
2
votes
1 answer

Antiquated Notation with number preceded by L

I am reading Fourier's "Analytical Theory of Heat" and I am not certain what the meaning of a number preceded by an L (as if it were a bracket). I am guessing that it is the factorial operation - from the context in the picture below, the equation…
Jordan McBain
  • 133
2
votes
1 answer

Is there any meaningful difference between $\phi$ and $\varphi$?

Are $\phi$ and $\varphi$ characters that symbolise the same thing, and have variations only for stylistic purposes, or do the represent distinct characters?
Forelie
  • 49
2
votes
1 answer

Mathematical notation for computer codes

How to write in mathematical notation the following procedure? 1) For each element of matrix A assign the sum of distances between it and all other elements. Distance is simply difference in indices. 2) Let be b sum of all elements of A. so for 1)…
Developer
  • 163
2
votes
0 answers

Proper notation of a nested square root - is there a notation akin to tetration which extends to roots

In the way in which $x^{x^{x^{x}}}$ can be written as $x$ tetrated to 4 is there such a method to writing $\sqrt[...\sqrt{2}]{2}$ extending out to the left.
MrMez
  • 39
  • 2
1 2 3
…
99 100