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Math Symbols

Early mathematicians were finding it hard to solve equations because no symbols were used back then. So to answer this problem, they invented and used symbols, which mainly came from the Greek Alphabet to solve and express a mathematical statement.

The four fundamental operations namely addition, subtraction, multiplication and division were a few of the earliest operations used in Mathematics. They are the most basic mathematical operation so mathematicians also used basic symbols to represent them.

 

“+” is used to express addition; “-” for subtraction; “X” for multiplication and “÷” for division. They also quickly added the “=” symbol to represent equality in the equation.

 

 

 

Moreover, after the equality, the “¹”, “>” and “<” symbols are used to express that one term is not equal, greater than, or less than the other respectively. For higher mathematics, there are many symbols used such as in calculus, geometry, trigonometry and other fields or areas of math.

In geometry, “^” stands for perpendicularity which obviously describes the relationship of two lines.  The “//” symbol on the other hand signifies parallelism. Next, the symbol “\” is frequently used for saying “therefore” in proving some statements.

As for trigonometry, “p” is used to represent “pi” or the constant equivalent when the circumference of a circle is divided by its diameter. In addition to “q”, “β” are two of the many symbols used for naming angles.

When dealing with the other fields of mathematics, “å” the big Sigma stands for summation of terms. The “!” symbol is used for factorial; “¥” for infinity and “Ö” for the square root of a term.

Many more symbols are used in different areas of mathematics to help you solve and understand problems or mathematical statements. So, by paying a visit to MathComplete.Com, you are capable of having this advantage. The site will surely give you a wide array of mathematical symbols.