Karl's Calculus Tutor - Math Notation http://www.karlscalculus.org/notation.

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Prependix A: Math Notation On

KCT
© 1996 & 1999 by Karl Hahn

Math Notation over the Web

Click here for notes on sending math notation over the email.

Contents of this Page

1. The Problem
2. Parentheses
3. Addition and Subtraction
4. Multiplication
5. Division
6. Exponents
7. Absolute Values
8. Radicals
9. Inequalities and Relational Symbols
10. Variables
11. The Greek Alphabet
12. Ordered Pairs
13. Factorial Expressions
14. Binomial Coefficients
15. The Sigma Summation Symbol
16. Infinity
17. Limits
18. Derivatives
19. Partial Derivatives
20. Integrals
21. Logical Implication Symbols

The Problem

Math symbology over the web is difficult but not impossible. Over the years the web standards

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have evolved to include more standard math symbols, and today most of them useful to these
web pages can be readily rendered on web pages. If you can't seem to get all the wonderful
glyphs that the recent standards offer, click here and read the browser notes for some tips.

As of the year 2009, I am making an effort to make many of the pages available here also
available in printer-friendly PDF format. Pages for which a PDF version is available will have
an annotation to that effect with a link in the upper right just under the logo. Note that PDF
allows perfect rendering of all traditional math notation.

Parentheses, Brackets, and Order of Operations

I will use parentheses and brackets in the standard way, to specify the order of operation in
arithmetic expressions. I will use parentheses in preference to brackets for this purpose. When
expressions use only one line of typed text, parentheses will simply show as in
( expression ). When expressions take more than one line, you will see something like:

a + b
+ n
c + d

Wherever parentheses appear, they indicate that the operations contained inside the
parentheses should be done before those outside of the parentheses.

I shall use brackets primarily to indicate subscripts. This is in line with how computer program
languages indicate subscripting. So an expression of A[13] can be read as A sub 13. When it is
not confusing, I shall use A13 to mean the same thing. Sometimes (and only when it is
unavoidable) I will use brackets to indicate grouping of operations. Typically they will be used
for higher groupings than the parentheses. So you might see something like:

a + b
+ n × m
c + d

When no parentheses are shown, you should do arithmetic operations in the following
precedence: exponentiation first, then multiplication, then division, the addition and
subtraction.

Addition and Subtraction

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I will use the ordinary symbols: + for addition and - for subtraction. So a + b means a plus b,
and a - b means a minus b. I assume that you already know that addition is commutative (that
is a + b = b + a) and associative (that is (a + b) + c = a + (b + c)).

Multiplication

Multiplication is rendered either with or without using the "×" symbol. The equation,
a × (b + c) = (a × b) + (a × c) is rendered more succinctly by
a(b + c) = ab + ac , which is the more traditional notation. When no operator symbol is
shown between two expressions you should assume that the two expressions are multiplied.

Fractions and Division

The forward slash character will be used to indicate division. So a / b reads a divided by b or
a over b. Quite often I will use a horizontal line to indicate division. So

a + b

c + d

reads (a + b) divided by (c + d) or (a + b) over (c + d).

Exponentiation

Superscripting is used to indicate exponentiationl. So xy indicates x raised to the y power.

The exponential function, usually denoted as:

ex

(where x is the independent variable) can also be denoted as:

exp(x)

Absolute Values

The notation |x| denotes the absolute value of x. That means if x is negative, its absolute value
is positive, but of the same magnitude. If x is positive or zero, the its absolute value is the same
as x.

Radicals

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A square root is always the positive square root unless the ± symbol precedes it, as in ±√x. In
that case, it means both the positive and negative square roots of x.

For higher order roots, I will use the notation of: ( expression )1/n, which can be read as
the nth root of expression.

Inequalities and Relational Symbols

a > b means a greater than b.

a < b means a less than b.
a ≥ b means a greater than or equal to b
a ≤ b means a less than or equal to b
a ≠ b means a not equal to b

Variables

Most variables symbols will be single letters. Some examples are

a, b, i, j, t, u, v, x, y. Sometimes I will use upper case letters as well for variable
symbols. Often the upper case letters will be used to represent constants. Variables can
represent integers, real numbers, constants, or functions. When the independent variable of a
function needs to be shown, it will follow the symbol for the function immediately, but in
parentheses. A function, f, that takes an independent variable, x, for example, will be shown as
f(x), which you can read as f of x. Functions of more than one independent variable will show
the variables set off by commas: f(x,y).

When letters are used to represent sets or vectors, I shall render them in bold type:
A, B, u, v, chi, PSI

Some variables in calculus are traditionally shown using Greek letters.

Α Β Γ Δ Ε Ζ Η Θ Ι Κ Λ Μ Ν Ξ Ο Π Ρ Σ Τ Υ Φ Χ Ψ Ω

α β γ δ ε ζ η θ ι κ λ μ ν ξ ο π ρ σ τ υ φ χ ψ ω

For reference, the phonetic names of the Greek letters are, in the same order as you see them
above:
alpha, beta, gamma, delta, epsilon, zeta, eta, theta, iota, kappa, lambda, mu,
nu, xi, omicron, pi, rho, sigma, tau, upsilon, phi, chi, psi, omega

Ordered Pairs

The standard notation of (x,y) will be used to indicate an ordered pair, which will often mean

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it is a point on a Cartesian plane. Likewise (x,y,z) is an ordered triple, and might be used to
represent a point in Cartesian 3-dimensional space. This notation can be extended to any
number of dimensions.

If A is a set and B is a set, then A × B is the Cartesian product of the two sets. That means it is
the set of all ordered pairs that you can make by taking the first element of the ordered pair
from A and the second from B.

Factorial

The expression, n!, where n is a counting number, indicates the product of all the counting
numbers up to and including n, and is called, n factorial. So for example,
4! = 1 × 2 × 3 × 4 = 24

By definition, 0! is given the value of 1.

Very rarely you will see the expression, n!!. This indicates not the factorial of a factorial, but
rather, the product of all the odd counting numbers up to and including n. So
7!! = 1 × 3 × 5 × 7 = 105

Using factorial expressions, you can make binomial coefficients. The expression, b(n, k) is
the kth binomial coefficient of the nth degree (where k ≤ n). The formula is:

n!
n
b(n,k) = =
k
k!(n-k)!

The Sigma Summation Symbol

To show a summation over a series of indexed variables or expression, I shall sometimes use
the standard sigma notation,
n
∑ Aj
j=1

The above reads: the summation from j equal 1 to n of A sub j. It is the same as:
A1 + A2 + A3 + ... + An

Infinity

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The symbol, ∞, indicates infinity. Note that in calculus we never use infinity as a number, but
rather as a limit. So if x can range from zero to ∞, then it lower bound is zero, but x has no
upper bound.

Limits

The expression:
lim f(x)
x → 0

reads: the limit as x goes to zero of f(x).

Derivatives

I shall be using several standard notations for taking derivatives. The "d" notation is:

dy

dx

where y is a function of x reads as: the derivative of y with respect to x. If y is a function of

some independent variable, then y' also indicates the derivative of y with respect to the
independent variable.

Second derivatives can be indicated in either of two ways:

d2y
= y"
2
dx

For higher derivatives I shall use:

dny
= y(n)
dxn

Both of the above indicate the nth derivative of y.

Partial derivatives are a real problem, since there is nothing that looks even remotely like the
standard symbol for that (the standard symbol looks like a backward '6').

∂y

∂x

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The above reads, the partial derivative of x with respect to y.

Integrals

The symbology of:

f(x) dx

reads: the integral from a to b of f(x) dx

Logical Implication Symbols

The symbols for logical implication will always be shown in bold type to distinguish them
from similar-looking relational symbols (like less than or equal to).
statement 1 => statement 2

means that statement 1 logically implies statement 2. In other words, if statement 1 is

true, then statement 2 must also be true, but not necessarily vice versa. In still other words,
statement 1 is a sufficient condition for statement 2.

statement 1 <= statement 2

means that statement 1 is implied by statement 2. In other words, if statement 2 is true,

then statement 1 must also be true, but not necessarily vice versa. Or statement 2 is true
only if statement 1 is true. In still other words, statement 1 is a necessary condition for
statement 2.

statement 1 <=> statement 2

means that each statement implies the other. If either of them are true, then both must be true.
This relationship is called logical equivalence. It can also be worded as: statement 1 is a
necessary and sufficient condition for statement 2, or statement 1 if and only if
statement 2. The phrase if and only if is often abbreviated as iff.

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