Alliah A.

Molano

BSA

MATHEMATICS SYMBOLS AND IT’S FUNCTION

Mathematics or math is considered to be the language of science, vital to understanding and explaining science
behind natural occurrences and phenomena. It also happens to be one of the most dreaded subjects of most students the
world over. Utter the word mathematics and even grown ups are known to shudder at the mere mention of it! We shall not
delve into the reasons for this, but the variety of symbols used in equations also happen to add to the dread. Each branch
of mathematics has its own special symbols that represent a particular concept. Thus, it is necessary for you to at least
have a ready reference list of these conventions so that you don't mistake one for the other.
We have put forth a consolidated list of all the symbols used in various branches of mathematics. So, the next
time you try to solve any math problem, you will at least know what the notations stand for!

Name Symbols Meaning/Function

Plus + It signifies addition of values.
Minus - It symbolizes subtraction of values.
Multiplication x or * It signifies multiplication of values.
Division ÷ or / It denotes division of values.
Equals = It signifies two sides are equal.
Not Equal ≠ It denotes two sides are unequal.
Greater than > It shows one value is greater than the
other.
Less than < It implies one value is less than the
other.
Less than or equal to ≤ It indicates one value is less than or
equal to the other.
Greater than or equal to ≥ It symbolizes one value is greater
than or equal to the other
Plus-minus/ Minus-Plus It denotes, the value can be both plus
± and minus.
Brackets [] It indicates calculation of the
equation inside it should be carried
out first.
Parentheses () It implies calculation of the equation
inside it should be carried out first.
Exponent
a^b, ab It signifies the number of times the
number is used in multiplication.
Square root It symbolizes the value that can be
√a multiplied by itself to give the
original number.
Cube root It gives the value that can be
3
√a multiplied by itself three times to
give the original number.
Fourth root It is the value that can be multiplied
4
√a by itself four times to give the
original number.
Nth root (radical) It shows the value that can be
n
√a multiplied by itself n times to give
the original number.
Percent % It signifies ratio expressed as a
fraction of 100.
Per-mille It symbolizes number of parts per
‰ thousand.
Per-million ppm It indicates number of parts per
million.
Per- billion ppb It signifies number of parts per
billion.
Per-trillion ppt It symbolizes number of parts per
trillion.
Geometric Symbols

Angle It indicates the figure formed by two

∠ rays.
Measured Angle It signifies the angle whose value is
known.
Right Angle It indicates the angle that bisects the
∟ angle formed by two straight lines.
Spherical Angle It symbolizes the angle between two
intersecting arcs of a sphere.
Degree It indicates the measurement of plane
deg, ° angle representing one full rotation.
Line It shows the straight line with
negligible width and thickness.
Line segment AB It signifies the part of line with definite
start and endpoints.
Ray It indicates the line with start point but
no endpoint.
Arc It signifies the part of circumference of
circle or a curve.
Perpendicular It symbolizes lines that are at right
⊥ angles to each other.
Congruent It symbolizes the objects with similar
≅ geometric shape and size.
Parallel It indicates the lines that are
|| equidistant from each other.
Similarity It signifies objects with similar shape
~ but not similar size.
Triangle It indicates polygon with three vertices
Δ and three line segments as edges.
Distance It symbolizes the distance between the
|x-y| points x and y.
Grads Grad It symbolizes the unit of plane angle
measurement and is equal to 1/400 of 1
turn (360 deg).
Pi It gives the ratio between
Π circumference and diameter of a circle.
Radians Rad It signifies the unit of angle
measurement.
Algebra Symbols

Equivalence It indicates variables having same or

≡ identical value.
X variable It signifies an unknown value.
X
It symbolizes equality by definition It symbolizes equality by definition.
≜, :=
Proportional It signifies changes in variables that are
∝ always related to each other, using a
constant.
Approximation It symbolizes variables that are
≈ approximately equal to each other.
Weak approximation It signifies variables that are weakly
~ similar to each other.
Factorial It signifies the product of all integers
n! less than or equal to n.
Lemniscate/ Infinity symbol It indicates a variable without any limit.
∞
Much greater than It indicates one variable is much greater
≫ than the other.
Much less than It symbolizes one variable is much less
≪ than the other.
Ceiling Brackets It indicates rounding the variable value
⌈x⌉ to higher integer.
Floor Brackets It refers rounding the variable value to
⌊x⌋ lower integer.
Function of It defines one variable in relation to the
f (x) other.
Absolute value It gives a non-negative value of x,
| x | ignoring its sign.
Capital pi It gives product of all values in the
∏ specified range.
Closed interval It gives the interval with specified end
[a,b] points.
Function composition It combines functions such that output
(f ∘ g) from function becomes input for the
other function.
Open interval It symbolizes interval has no limits, i.e.,
(a,b) without any end points.
Delta It refers to change or difference in
∆ values.
Discriminant It gives the nature of roots for a
∆ quadratic equation.
Sigma (Summation) It refers to summation of all values in
∑ the specified range.
Double Summation It signifies summation of values in two
∑∑ ranges.
Euler-mascheroni constant The constant is equal to 0.527721566...
γ
E-constant/ euler’s number Its value is equal to 2.718281828...
e
Golden ration constant It indicates ratio of two variables
φ should be equal to the ratio of their sum
to the larger of the two variables.
Linear Algebra Symbols

Cross product (Vector) X It refers to multiplying magnitudes of

vectors and sin of angle between them.
Dot Product (Scalar)  It signifies multiplying magnitudes of
vectors and cosine of angle between
them.
Brackets [] It indicates rectangular array of
numbers arranged in rows and
columns.
Determinant It gives the value associated with a
| A | square matrix.
Norm It assigns positive length (size) to each
|| x || non-zero vector in space.
Inverse Matrix A-1 It symbolizes the matrix whose
multiplication with the original matrix
is an identical matrix.
Transpose At It refers to the matrix formed by
replacing rows of the given matrix
with columns and vice versa.
Hermitian matrix A+ A* It signifies matrix with complex
entries where the i-th row and j-th
column is equal to complex conjugate
of j-th row and i-th column.
Dimension Dim (U) It gives the number of rows and
columns of the matrix, written as rows
x columns.
Matrix Rank Rank (A) It indicates the number of non-zero
rows (or columns) in the reduced
matrix.
Probability & Statistics Symbols

Probability Function It signifies the likeliness of the

P(A) occurrence of the event A.
Probability density function Integral of function of a continuous
random variable gives the probability
f(x) that the value of the variable lies in the
given interval.
Union It denotes the probability of occurrence
P(A ∪ B) of events A and B
Intersection It denotes the probability of occurrence
P(A ∩ B) of events A or B.
Conditional probability function It denotes the probability of occurrence
P(A | B) of event A when event B has occurred.
Cumulative distribution function It denotes the probability that random
F(x) variable X takes a values less than or
equal to x.
Expectation value It denotes the expected value of
E(X) random variable X.
Population mean It denotes the arithmetic mean of the
μ population while considering each
member of the population.
Variance It expresses the spread of numbers of a
var(X) given set.
Conditional expectation It denotes the expected value of
E(X | Y) random variable X when the variable Y
is given.
Standard Deviation It denotes the variation from the
std(X), σX existing average value.
Standard Score It indicates the number of standard
zx deviations a variable is from the mean.
Covariance It measures how much two random
cov(X,Y) variables, X and Y, change together.
Median It denotes the middle value of random
variable X.
Correlation It denotes the statistical relationship
corr(X,Y), ρX,Y between two random variables, X and
Y.
Mode It signifies the most frequently
Mo occurring value in the given set.
Mid-range It signifies the arithmetic mean
MR between the maximum and minimum
value of the set.
Sample Median It denotes the average of all the values
Md of a given set.
First Quartile It denotes the 25th percentile of the
Q1 given set data.
Second Quartile It denotes the median of the given set.
Q2 It denotes the 75th percentile of the
given set data
Sample mean It signifies the average of the given
X set ; the sum of the set divided by
number of entries in the set.
Sample standard deviation It indicates the standard deviation of
s the data set in the chosen sample size
 Sample Variance
Bernoulli distribution
Distribution of x
Uniform distribution
Normal Distribution
Exponential Distribution
Gamma Distribution
Chi-squared distribution
F Distribution
Binomial Distribution
Geometric Distribution
Hyper Geometric Distribution
Combinatorics
Combination
Permutation
S2 It indicates the variance of the data set
in the chosen sample size.
Bern(p) It denotes the theoretical distribution of
number of successes in a finite data set
with constant probability of successes.
It indicates the distribution of random
X ~ variable X.
U(a,b) It indicates the probability that each
value in the given data set has equal
interval length in the given range from
a to b.
N(μ,σ2) It indicates the probability of an
observation falling between two real
numbers.
exp(λ) It signifies probability distribution
which describes time between
continuously occurring events at a
constant average rate.
gamma(c, It denotes the continuous two-
parameter distribution from which chi-
square and exponential distributions
are derived.
χ 2(k) It signifies the distribution of sum of
squares of k independent standard
normal random variable.
F (k1, k2) It denotes probability distribution
function, which is a ratio of two
independent random variables.
Bin(n,p) It denotes the discrete probability
distribution of the number of successes
in n number of experiments, where
each success is yielded by probability
p.
Geom(p) It signifies the negative binomial
distribution which is used to find out
the number of failures before single
success.
HG(N,K,n) It is used to calculate random selection
of a variable without repetition.
It indicates the possible arrangement of
things without any particular order.
nCk
It signifies the possible arrangement of
nPk things in a particular order
Set Theory

Intersection It indicates objects that belong to both

A∩B sets, A and B.
Set It signifies the collection of distant
{} elements.
Union It refers to objects that belong to either
A∪B set A or set B.
Subset It signifies few elements in the subset
A⊆B A are similar to the elements in set.
Not Subset It signifies that A is not a subset of the
A⊂B set B.
Proper subset It indicates that subset A has fewer
A⊄B elements than the set B.
Superset It symbolizes that set A has more or
A⊇B equal elements than set B.
Proper Superset A⊃B It indicates that set A has more
elements than set B.
Compliment Ac It represents objects that do not belong
to set A.
Equality A=B It signifies that sets A and B have same
elements.
Symmetric difference A ∆ B, A ⊖ B It indicates objects that belong to both
sets A and B but not to their
intersection.
Relative complement A\B It refers to objects that belong to set A
but not to set B.
Element of It symbolizes that a is an element of set
a∈A A.
Not element of It indicates that x is not an element of
x∉A set A.
Cartesian product It gives the product of two sets.
A×B
Ordered pair It represents collection of elements of a
(a,b) set in a particular order.
Aleph-null It indicates infinite cardinality (number
of elements of a set) of natural numbers
set.
Aleph-one It signifies cardinality (number of
elements of a set) of countable ordinal
(well ordered) numbers set.
Universal set It represents set having all possible
values.
Empty set It refers to set having no elements.
Ø
Integer numbers set It indicates set of integer numbers.
Natural/whole numbers set 0
It refers to set of whole/natural
numbers with zero.
Complex numbers set It represents set of complex numbers.
Real numbers set It refers to set of real
Cardinality It signifies the number of elements in
|A| set A.
Logic

And It signifies logical conjunction where

two true operands can only produce a
^, & true value. . Or It signifies
logical disjunction where two false
operands produce a false value.
Exclusive or (XOR) It denotes exclusive disjunction where
either of the operands should be true to
return a true value.
Not-negation It indicates negation of the given
value.
Equivalent It denotes material equivalence where
⇔ true value is returned only when both
operands are true or false.
Implies It indicates material implication where
⇒ true value is returned only if either of
the operand is true or false.
There does not exist It indicates existential quantification
∄ where function of the operand is true
only for one value of operand.
There exists It indicates existential quantification
∃ where function of the operand is true
only for one value of operand.
Because/since It is placed before a logical sequence
∵ indicating assumption or reason.
Therefore It is placed before a logical sequence
∴ indicating conclusion of the required
operation.
For all It signifies universal quantification
∀ where function of the operand is true
for all values of the operand.
Calculus Symbols

Epsilon It represents a very small number

ε nearing zero.
Limit It denotes the value that function
approaches when input approaches
specified value.
Derivative It indicates change in the function
y ' when the input values change.
Second derivative It returns a value which is the
y '' derivative of the derivative of the
given function.
Time derivative It indicates change in the function
with respect to change in time.
Nth Derivative It returns a value which is calculated
by deriving the given function for n
times.
Integral It refers to antiderivative, and is the
∫ signed area of a region which is
bounded by graph (definite integral).
Partial Derivative It denotes the value that is obtained by
calculating derivative with respect to
one variable, while other variables are
constant.
Triple integral It denotes the integration of a function
∫∫∫ of three variables.
Double integral It denotes the integration of a function
∫∫ of two variables.
Imaginary unit It indicates the square root of -1.
I
Closed contour / line integral It denotes the integral of a function
∮ evaluated along a curve, i.e., with
respect to arc length.
Complex conjugate It indicates the pair of complex
numbers with same real part and
z*, z imaginary part with equal magnitude
but opposite signs.
Nabla / del It denotes the gradient and vector
∇ derivatives.
Unit vector It signifies a vector with magnitude 1.

Vector It indicates quantity with magnitude

and direction.
Convolution It defines the integral of product of
x * y two functions when one function is
reversed and shifted.
Delta function It is defined as the limit of a class of
δ delta sequences.
Fourier transform It signifies the transformation of
signals into time and frequency
 domains.
Laplace transform It indicates the linear operator of
function f which transforms.