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In the following, the quantity + is the whole radicand, and thus has a vinculum over it: a b + 2 n . {\displaystyle {\sqrt[{n}]{ab+2}}.} In 1637 Descartes was the first to unite the German radical sign √ with the vinculum to create the radical symbol in common use today.
A mathematical symbol is a figure or a combination of figures that is used to represent a mathematical object, an action on mathematical objects, a relation between mathematical objects, or for structuring the other symbols that occur in a formula.
An overline, overscore, or overbar, is a typographical feature of a horizontal line drawn immediately above the text. In old mathematical notation, an overline was called a vinculum, a notation for grouping symbols which is expressed in modern notation by parentheses, though it persists for symbols under a radical sign.
The following table lists many common symbols, together with their name, how they should be read out loud, and the related field of mathematics. Additionally, the subsequent columns contains an informal explanation, a short example, the Unicode location, the name for use in HTML documents, [ 1 ] and the LaTeX symbol.
The font used in the TeX rendering is an italic style. This is in line with the convention that variables should be italicized. As Greek letters are more often than not used as variables in mathematical formulas, a Greek letter appearing similar to the TeX rendering is more likely to be encountered in works involving mathematics.
The following table lists many specialized symbols commonly used in modern mathematics, ordered by their introduction date. The table can also be ordered alphabetically by clicking on the relevant header title.
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Mathematical notation is widely used in mathematics, science, and engineering for representing complex concepts and properties in a concise, unambiguous, and accurate way. For example, the physicist Albert Einstein's formula = is the quantitative representation in mathematical notation of mass–energy equivalence. [1]