Some Common Mathematical Symbols

and Abbreviations (with History)

MAT 22A-1, Spring Quarter 2007
University of California, Davis

Binary Relations
= (the equals sign) means “is the same as” and was first introduced in the 1557 book The
Whetstone of Witte by physician and mathematician Robert Recorde (c. 1510–1558).
He wrote, “I will sette as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of parralles, or Gemowe lines
of one lengthe, thus: =====, bicause noe 2 thynges can be moare equalle.” (Recorde’s
equals sign was significantly longer than the one in modern usage.)
< (the less than sign) means “is strictly less than”, and > (the greater than sign)
means “is strictly greater than”. These first appeared in Artis Analyticae Praxis ad
Aequationes Algebraicas Resolvendas (“The Analytical Arts Applied to Solving Alge-
braic Equations”) by mathematician and astronomer Thomas Harriot (1560–1621),
which was published posthumously in 1631.
Pierre Bouguer (1698-1758) later refined these to ≤ (“is less than or equals”) and ≥
(“is greater than or equals”) in 1734. Bouger is sometimes called “the father of naval
architecture” due to his foundational work in the theory of naval navigation.
:= (the equal by definition sign) means “is equal by definition to”. This is a common
alternate form of the symbol “=Def ”, which first appeared in the 1894 book Logica
Matematica by the logician Cesare Burali-Forti (1861–1931). Other common alternate
def
forms of the symbol “=Def ” include “ =” and “≡”, the latter being especially common
in applied mathematics.
.
= (the approximately equals sign) means “is nearly equal to” and was first used in
1875 by mathematician Anton Steinhauser (1802–1890) in his Lehrbuch der Mathe-
matik. (This symbol was also briefly used in 1832 by geometer Farkas Wolfgang Bolyai
(1775–1856) to signify “equal by definition”.) Other modern symbols for “approxi-
mately equals” include “≈” (read as “is approximately equal to”), “∼ =” (read as “is
congruent to”), “'” (read as “is similar to”), “” (read as “is asymptotically equal
to”), and “∝” (read as “is proportional to”). Usage varies, and these are sometimes
used to denote varying degrees of “approximate equality” within some context.

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Some Symbols from Mathematical Logic
∴ (three dots) means “therefore” and first appeared in print in the 1659 book Teusche
Algebra (“Teach Yourself Algebra”) by mathematician Johann Rahn (1622–1676).
(Teusche Algebra also contains the first use of the obelus, “÷”, to denote division.)
∵ (upside-down dots) means “because” and seems to have first appeared in the 1805
book The Gentleman’s Mathematical Companion. However, it is much more common
(and less ambiguous) to just abbreviate “because” as “b/c”.
3 (the such that sign) means “under the condition that” and first appeared in the 1906
edition of Formulaire de mathematiqués by the logician Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932).
However, it is much more common (and less ambiguous) to just abbreviate “such that”
as “s.t.”.
There are two good reasons to avoid using “3” in place of “such that”. First of all, the
abbreviation “s.t.” is significantly more suggestive of its meaning than is “3”. Perhaps
more importantly, though, is that it has become increasingly common for the symbol
“3” to mean “contains as an element”, which is a logical extension of the usage of the
unquestionably standard symbol “∈” to mean “is contained as an element in”.
⇒ (the implies sign) means “logically implies that”, and ⇐ (the is implied by sign)
means “is logically implied by”. Both have an unclear historical origin. (E.g., “if it’s
raining, then it’s pouring” is equivalent to saying “it’s raining ⇒ it’s pouring.”)
⇐⇒ (the iff symbol) means “if and only if” and is used to connect logically equivalent
statements. (E.g., “it’s raining iff it’s really humid” means simultaneously that “if it’s
raining, then it’s really humid” and that “if it’s really humid, then it’s raining”. In
other words, the statement “it’s raining ⇐⇒ it’s really humid” means simultaneously
that “it’s raining ⇒ it’s really humid” and “it’s raining ⇐ it’s really humid”.)
The abbreviation “iff” is attributed to the mathematician Paul Halmos (1916–2006).
∀ (the universal quantifier) means “for all” and was first used in the 1935 publication
Untersuchungen ueber das logische Schliessen (“Investigations on Logical Reasoning”)
by logician Gerhard Gentzen (1909–1945). He called it the All-Zeichen (“all character”)
by analogy to the symbol “∃” , which means “there exists”.
∃ (the existential quantifier) means “there exists” and was first used in the 1897
edition of Formulaire de mathematiqués by logician Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932).
 (the Halmos tombstone or Halmos symbol) means “Q.E.D.”, which is an abbre-
viation for the Latin phrase quod erat demonstrandum (“which was to be proven”).
“Q.E.D.” has been the most common way to symbolize the end of a logical argument
for many centuries, but the modern convention of the “tombstone” is now generally
preferred because it is easier to write and is also visually more compact.
The symbol “” was first made popular by mathematician Paul Halmos (1916–2006).

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Some Notation from Set Theory
⊂ (the is included in sign) means “is a subset of” and ⊃ (the includes sign) means
“has as a subset”. Both symbols were introduced in the 1890 book Vorlesungen über die
Algebra der Logik (“Lectures on the Algebra of the Logic”) by logician Ernst Schröder
(1841–1902).
∈ (the is in sign) means “is an element of” and first appeared in the 1895 edition of
Formulaire de mathematiqués by logician Giuseppe Peano (1858-1932). Peano origi-
nally used the Greek letter “” (viz. the first letter of the Latin word est for “is”), and
it was the great logician and philosopher Betrand Russell (1872–1970) who introduced
the modern stylized version of this symbol in his 1903 book Principles of Mathematics.
It is also common to use the symbol “3” to mean “contains as an element”, which is
not to be confused with the more archaic usage of “3” to mean “such that”.
∪ (the union sign) means “take the elements that are in either set”, and ∩ (the inter-
section sign) means “take the elements that the two sets have in common”. They
were introduced in the 1888 book Calcolo geometrico secondo l’Ausdehnungslehre di
H. Grassmann preceduto dalle operazioni della logica deduttiva (“Geometric Calculus
based upon the teachings of H. Grassman, preceded by the operations of deductive
logic”) by logician Giuseppe Peano (1858–1932).
∅ (the null set or empty set) means “the set without any elements in it” and was first
used in the 1939 book Éléments de mathématique by Nicolas Bourbaki. (Bourbaki is
the collective pseudonym for a group of primarily European mathematicians who have
written many mathematics books together.) It was borrowed simultaneously from the
Norwegian, Danish and Faroese alphabets by group member André Weil (1906–1998).
∞ (infinity) denotes “a quantity or number of arbitrarily large magnitude” and first
appeared in print in the 1655 De Sectionibus Conicus (“Tract on Conic Sections”) by
mathematician John Wallis (1616–1703).
Possible explanations for Wallis’ choice of “∞” include its resemblance to the symbol
“oo” (used by ancient Romans to denote the number 1000), to the final letter of the
Greek alphabet ω (used symbolically to mean the “final” number), and to the ease
with which this simple curve (called a “lemniscate”) can be endlessly traversed.

Some Important Numbers in Mathematics

π (the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle) denotes the number
3.141592653589 . . ., and was first used by mathematician William Jones (1675–1749)
in his 1706 book Synopsis palmariorum mathesios (“A New Introduction to Mathe-
matics”). It was then the great mathematician Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) who pop-
ularized the use of π to denote this number in his 1748 book Introductio in Analysin

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 Infinitorum. (It is speculated that Jones chose the letter “π” because “π” is the first
letter in the Greek word perimetron (πριµτ ρoν), which roughly means “around”.)
e = limn→∞ (1 + n1 )n (the natural logarithm base, also sometimes called Euler’s
number) denotes the number 2.718281828459 . . ., and was first used by Leonhard
Euler (1707–1783) in the manuscript Meditatio in Experimenta explosione tormentorum
nuper instituta (“Meditation on experiments made recently on the firing of cannon”),
which was written when Euler was only 21 years old. (It is speculated that Euler chose
“e” because “e” is the first letter in the word “exponential”.)
The mathematician Edmund Landau (1877–1938) once wrote that, “The letter e may
now no longer be used to denote anything other than this positive universal constant.”
√
i = −1 (the imaginary unit) was first used by Leonhard Euler (1707–1783) in his
1777 memoir Institutionum calculi integralis (“Foundations of Integral Calculus”).
The five most important numbers in mathematics are widely considered to be (roughly
in order) 0, 1, i, π, and e, which are remarkably linked by the equation eiπ + 1 = 0.
γ = limn→∞ ( nk=1 k1 − ln n) (the Euler-Mascheroni constant, also known as just
P
Euler’s constant), denotes the number 0.577215664901 . . ., and was first used by
geometer Lorenzo Mascheroni (1750–1800) in his 1792 book Adnotationes ad Euleri
Calculum Integralem (“Annotations to Euler’s Integral Calculus”).
The number γ is widely considered to be the sixth most important important number
in mathematics due to its frequent appearance in formulas from number theory and
applied mathematics. However, no one knows whether γ is even an irrational number.
√
φ = 21 (1 + 5) (the golden ratio) denotes the number 1.618033988749 . . .. Its use was
first attributed to the American Mathematician Mr. Mark Barr in The Curves of Life:
Being an Account of Spiral Formations and Their Application to Growth in Nature, to
Science, and to Art: With Special Reference to the Manuscripts of Leonardo da Vinci
(1914) by Sir Theodore Andrea Cook (1867–1928):
The symbol φ was given to this proportion partly because it has a familiar
sound to those who wrestle constantly with π and partly because it is the
1st letter of the name of Pheidias, in whose sculpture this number is seen to
prevail when the distance between salient points are measured.
The number φ is also often called the “divine proportion” or the “golden proportion”,
and it has been recognized since antiquity as an especially aesthetically pleasing ratio
for the side lengths of a rectangle. Such a rectangle is called a “golden rectangle”.

Appendix: Common Latin Abbreviations and Phrases

i.e. (id est) means “that is” or “in other words”. (It is used to paraphrase a statement
that was just made, not to mean “for example”, and is always followed by a comma.)

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 e.g. (exempli gratia) means “for example”. (It is usually used to give an example of a
statement that was just made and is always followed by a comma.)

viz. (videlicet) means “namely” or “more specifically”. (It is used to clarify a statement
that was just made by providing more information and is never followed by a comma.)

etc. (et cetera) means “and so forth” or “and so on”. (It is used to suggest that the reader
should infer further examples from a list has already been started and is usually not
followed by a comma.)

et al. (et alii) means “and others”. (It is used in place of listing multiple authors past the
first and is never followed by a comma.) The abbreviation “et al.” can also be used
in place of et alibi, which means “and elsewhere”.

cf. (conferre) means “compare to” or “see also”. (It is used either to draw a comparison
or to refer the reader to somewhere else that they can find more information, and it is
never followed by a comma.)

q.v. (quod vide) means “which see” or “go look it up if you’re interested”. (It is used to
cross-reference a different written work or a different part of the same written work,
and it is never followed by a comma.) The plural form of “q.v.” is “q.q.”

v.s. (vide supra) means “see above”. (It is used to imply that more information can be
found before the current point in a written work and is never followed by a comma.)

N.B. (Nota Bene) means “note well” or “pay attention to the following”. (It is used to
imply that the wise reader will pay especially careful attention to what follows and is
never followed by a comma. Cf. the abbreviation “verb. sap.”)

vs. (versus) means “against” or “in contrast to”. (It is used to contrast two things and is
never followed by a comma.)

c. (circa) means “around” or “near”. (It is used when giving an approximation, usually
for a date, and is never followed by a comma.) The abbreviation “c.” is also commonly
written as “ca.”, “cir.”, or “circ.”

ex lib. (ex libris) means “from the library of”. (It is used to indicate ownership of a book and
is never followed by a comma.).

• vice versa means “the other way around” and is used to indicate that an implication
can logically be reversed. (This is sometimes abbreviated as “v.v.”)

• a fortiori means “from the stronger” or “more importantly”.

• a priori means “from before the fact” and refers to reasoning that is done while an
event still has yet to happen (such as the impending page break in this list).

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 • a posteriori means “from after the fact” and refers to reasoning that is done after an
event has already happened (such as the above page break in this list).
• ad hoc means “to this” and refers to reasoning that is specific to an event as it is
happening. (Such reasoning is regarded as not being generalizable to other situations.)
• ad infinitum means “to infinity’ or “without limit”.
• ad nauseam means “causing sea-sickness” or “to excessive”.
• mutatis mutandis means “changing what needs changing” or “with the necessary
changes having been made”.
• non sequitur means “it does not follow” and refers to something that is out of place in
a logical argument. (This is sometimes abbreviated as “non seq.”)
• Me transmitte sursum, Caledoni! means, “Beam me up, Scotty!”
• Quid quid latine dictum sit, altum videtur means something like, “Anything that is
said in Latin will sound profound.”

Some References
1. The “History of Mathematics Pages” by Jeff Miller.
http://members.aol.com/jeff570/
2. “The History of Mathematics” website at University of South Australia.
http://www.roma.unisa.edu.au/07305
3. The “Numericana.com” website by Gerard Michon.
http://www.numericana.com/
4. “The MacTutor History of Mathematics” website at University of St Andrews.
http://www-groups.dcs.st-and.ac.uk/∼history/
5. The “Math Words” website by Pat Ballew.
http://www.pballew.net/etyindex.html
6. A History of Mathematical Notations by Florian Cajori.
Two volumes bound into one (820 page!) volume and published by Dover Books.
http://www.doverpublications.com/
7. The Wikipedia entry entitled “List of Latin phrases”.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List of Latin phrases
8. The “Silly Latin” and “Serious Latin” Pages:
– http://www.ealasaid.com/quotes/latinsil.html
– http://www.ealasaid.com/quotes/latinser.html