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16 votes

3 answers

3k views

Was English mathematics behind Europe by many years because of Newton's notation?

4,025

modified Nov 5 at 6:14

50 votes

5 answers

9k views

Writing Mathematical Symbols in 20th century

Alexandre Eremenko

55.8k

modified Aug 26 at 2:03

1 vote

1 answer

143 views

Who is the first to use $\cong$ to denote isomorphism?

316

modified May 21 at 20:05

4 votes

1 answer

175 views

Who is the first to use $\approx$ to denote "approximately equal"?

9,081

answered May 16 at 16:52

32 votes

2 answers

4k views

Who decided to use (a, b) for open intervals and [a, b] for closed intervals, and why?

101

modified May 14 at 21:28

10 votes

3 answers

426 views

Who is the first to use $\{\,\}$ to denote the empty set?

316

modified May 14 at 18:43

5 votes

2 answers

499 views

Why is $p$ used for momentum?

8,642

modified May 1 at 18:23

15 votes

2 answers

2k views

Where did John Wallis get the idea for $\infty$?

7,528

modified Apr 30 at 6:54

25 votes

4 answers

4k views

Square root defined as a positive value: why?, when? who?

Michael Bächtold

2,286

modified Apr 5 at 7:26

6 votes

1 answer

535 views

Why are powers of a thousand the foundation for naming large numbers?

293

modified Mar 25 at 14:21

2 votes

1 answer

120 views

What are the origins of the symbols used to denote levels of the arithmetic hierarchy?

Mauro ALLEGRANZA

16.1k

modified Mar 20 at 15:08

0 votes

0 answers

47 views

Was there a special reason for using $j$ as the marker for nontrivial elementary embeddings?

111

asked Mar 5 at 16:47

0 votes

1 answer

140 views

Why is bar notation ($\bar{x}$) preferred over square brackets ($[x]$) for quotient rings?

6,606

modified Jan 23 at 2:25

2 votes

1 answer

325 views

When was $\mathcal{P}$ first used for power set?

316

modified Jan 19 at 11:32

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