Use of Symbols

in Mathematics
Why use symbols?

• Basically, it makes writing statements shorter and easier.

• Certain ideas and concepts are easier to illustrate via
the use of symbols.
• The use of symbols (even letters or variables) makes
the abstraction easier, that is, it enables us to focus on
the general rules/pattern that describe the behavior of
the system.
 Example
• The decimal point – a dot placed after the units digit that
represents decimal fractions (in Europe the decimal comma is used)

• Multiplication sign – instead of adding the same number over and

over again, we can utilize multiplication

• Negative sign – to indicate that a number is negative (or can be

found on the left of the origin)

• Instead of writing 1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + … + 1,000,000

we can instead use the Sigma notation (series)
1,000,00

෍ 𝑘
𝑘=1
 The Number Zero
• The Egyptian hieroglyph “nfr” symbolizes “perfect” or “complete”.

• Some scholars suggest that “nfr” was used by ancient Egyptians in

construction to denote “level zero” of a building and in accounting to
refer to a zero balance.
• The ancient Greeks, on the other hand, have no symbol for zero.
• Their number system doesn’t use placeholders.
• Philosophical question: “How can nothing be something?”.
• Around AD 350, the Mayans developed and used zero as a
placeholder in their elaborate calendar systems.
• Brahmagupta's Brahmasphuṭasiddhānta is the first book that provided
rules for arithmetic manipulations that apply to zero and to negative
numbers.
Some Factoids
• The symbols + and –, referring to addition and subtraction, first
appeared in 1456 in an unpublished manuscript by the
mathematician Johann Regiomontanus (a.k.a. Johann Müller). The
plus symbol, as an abbreviation for the Latin et (and), was found
earlier in a manuscript dated 1417; however, the downward stroke
was not quite vertical.
• In 1631, the multiplication symbol × was introduced by the English
mathematician William Oughtred (1574–1660) in his book Keys to
Mathematics, published in London. Incidentally, this Anglican minister is
also famous for having invented the slide rule, which was used by
generations of scientists and mathematicians. The slide rule’s doom in the
mid1970s, due to the pervasive influx of inexpensive pocket calculators,
was rapid and unexpected.
• The division symbol ÷ first appeared in print in Johann Heinrich
Rahn’s Teutsche Algebra (1659).

• The greater-than and less-than symbols (> and <) were

introduced by the British mathematician Thomas Harriot in his
Artis Analyticae Praxis, published in 1631.

• The symbol ≥ (greater than or equal to) was first introduced by the
French scientist Pierre Bouguer in 1734.

• In 1637, the philosopher René Descartes was the first person to use
the superscript notation for raising numbers and variables to
powers—for example, as in 𝑥 2 .
• The English mathematician John Wallis (1616–1703) introduced the
mathematical symbol for infinity (∞) in 1655 in his Arithmetica
Infinitorum. It didn’t appear very often in print again until Jakob
Bernoulli (1654–1705) published Ars Conjectandi (posthumous
publication in 1713).
• The Austrian mathematician Christoff Rudolff was the first to
use the square root symbol √ in print; it was published in
1525 in Die Coss.

• Ibn Yahya al-Maghribi Al-Samawal in 1175 was the first to publish

𝑥 0 = 1. In other words, he realized and published the idea that any
number raised to the power of 0 is 1. Al-Samawal’s book was titled
The Dazzling. His father was a Jewish scholar of religion and literature
from Baghdad.
Evolution of the Numerals
 Abstract Operation
An operation on a set S is any rule or process that assigns to each ordered pair of
elements of S exactly one element of that set S.
We can use * as the symbol for an operation on a set, although other symbols can
be used as well.
The element of the set that the operation * assigns to the ordered pair (x, y) will be
written as x*y.

Example: Let S = {a, b}. Define the operation on S by aa = a, ab = a, ba = a,
and bb = b.
 a b
a a a
b a b

One can replace a by FALSE, b by TRUE and the operation  by Ʌ. The structure will
not change.
 Example
Let S = {0, 1, 2, 3}. Define the operation w on S by

w 0 1 2 3
0 0 0 0 0
1 0 1 2 3
2 0 2 0 2
3 0 3 2 1

What do you notice about the operation w?

awb = remainder when (ab)/4
PEMDAS
• acronym for Parenthesis, Exponents, Multiplication,
Division, Addition, and Subtraction.
• Given two or more operations in a single expression,
the order of the letters in PEMDAS tells the order of
operation in doing the calculation.
• Importance: PEMDAS is a useful convention to obtain
only one correct answer when carrying out multiple
operations.

Example: Using PEMDAS, solve 2*5 – 3 + 4.

2 * 5 – 3 + 4 = (2*5) + (-3) + 4 = 10 + (-3) + 4 = 11
PEMDAS as a convention

• PEMDAS is not a universal rule, it is just a convention.

• Even the rule for MD-AS is not consistent.

• Known as BEDMAS (Brackets-Exponents-

Division/Multiplication-Addition/Subtraction) in Canada.

• While in the UK, they prefer to use the mnemonic

BIDMAS.
What is 8÷2(2+2) ?
• Using PEMDAS, one can argue that 8÷2(2+2) means
(8÷2) x (2+2) = (4) x (4) = 16

• Using a CASIO Calculator

• This problem is ambiguous! It is poorly stated thus can’t

be answered uniquely in its current form. Use parenthesis
to have a well-defined problem!
Math 10