Mathematics Stack Exchange
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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
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Simplification that I don't understand

There's this following rewrite that I don't get. I have little to no experience with $o$'s and $\epsilon(x)s$ other than basic knowledge from a definition. $$(o((x-a)^n) = \frac{1}{n!}\epsilon(x)(x-a)^n$$ I get the $\epsilon(x)(x-a)^n$ part from…
Tutmunto Daten
  • 61
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1 answer

Is this notation standard?

In a book I'm reading, "Sets: An introduction, by M.D.Potter", the symbol $\iota$ is used to mean "a definite", so that: $\iota ! y(x\in y \iff \Phi(x))=\{x:\Phi(x)\}$ is read as $\{x:\Phi(x)\}$ is a definite unique $y$ such that $x\in y\iff…
Nethesis
  • 3,986
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1 answer

How to define a subset with proper mathematical notation

My question is related to set notation. How can I differentiate with proper mathematical notation between the following 2 subset selection approaches? From an initial set $S=\left\{q_{i}\right\}_{i=1}^{K}$ with $K$ items, with…
user53785
  • 53
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1 answer

What do these notations actually mean?

I apologize if this question sounds weird, but I have come across this function (which I am trying to replicate using C# code), which has left me a bit confused. The way I am understanding, is that this function states that the total amount of…
npinti
  • 123
2
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1 answer

Notation for difference of two dates

I am not looking for a formula to calculate the difference of two dates. I am looking for a notation to express the difference of two dates in a formula. Is there a common way to do that? If not what would be a good way to express that? I am…
elevendollar
  • 123
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0 answers

Under what context is notation $\frac{\delta f(x)}{\delta x}$ acceptable as a derivative?

$\frac{\delta f(x)}{\delta x}$ seems to be a totally abused notation whenever an author (usually in control theory or thermodynamics or some engineering discipline) decides to quantify "slight variation" More frustrating is that attempt results…
Olórin
  • 5,415
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3 answers

Notation question, parentheses

Hi this is simple question, but it's been troubling me for some time because I can't find anywhere what does it actually mean (algebra) - $(a,b)=1$ is it GCD of those two values?
I I
  • 931
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2 answers

Is there a symbol for exponentiation?

When we define a structure, let's say a group, we write $(G ,\oplus )$ for an operation $\oplus$. In case I want to define a structure with operation exponentiation I just define the $\oplus$ so that $a \oplus b = a^b$, which is what I have done…
eslukas
  • 241
2
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0 answers

For all/Exists in both ways

Is there a more compact expression to write (without repeating the "same" sentence and using the conjunction): $\forall a \in A \exists b\in B | d(a,b) < 100 \wedge \forall b \in B \exists a \in A | d(a, b) < 100$ ?
user206695
  • 129
2
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1 answer

What is the meaning of the notation $]1, 1[$?

This may look like a silly question but I am struck in my work with this notation in one of the papers. What is meant by $]1,1[$ ?
Rajesh_Sharma
  • 37
2
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2 answers

Symbol for zero element

Is there a symbol used for an element which a function sends to zero? Like this: $f(?) = 0$, where "$?$" would be the symbol for which I am wondering if exists. I think this could be useful for instance in factoring polynomials: $ax^2+bx+c =…
Frank Vel
  • 5,339
2
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2 answers

What is the meaning of the notation $]a,b[$?

I've seen the notation $]a,b[$ in several questions on this site, but I am not familiar with it. Can someone clue me in?
Tim Raczkowski
  • 20,046
2
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1 answer

Notation to express affine relationship

As you know, if we have a linear relationship between two variables $x$ and $y$ : $y=ax$, this is usually denoted by , $y\varpropto x $ y is proportional to x. The question is if they are affinely related to each other, i.e. $y=ax +b$, what is the…
ehsank
  • 415
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2 answers

Are the definitions of dot product and cross product the wrong way round?

This is something that has been bugging me since I started studying again. It seems to me that the definitions and symbols for the dot and cross products are backwards. When I first learnt multiplication at school it was with the symbol 'x' as in…
onepointsix
  • 31
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0 answers

What are numbers with E in them called?

I know that this is a very stupid question, and that I will get flamed for it, but I cannot find any information what-so-ever about it on the internet, because Google doesn't include some characters while querying. What is a number with E in it…
user194401
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