MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE & SYMBOLS

Language – is the system of words, signs, and symbols which people use to express ideas, thoughts
and feelings.
- Is a systematic means of communicating ideas or feelings by the use of
conventionalized signs, sounds, gestures or marks having understood meanings.

Mathematical Language – is the system used to communicate mathematical ideas

- also includes a large component of logic
- Numbers, measurements, shapes, spaces, functions, patterns, data, and
arrangements are regarded as mathematical nouns, or objects while mathematical
verbs may be considered as the four main actions attributed to problem-solving &
reasoning. These actions represent the process one goes thru to solve a problem.

4 Main Actions according to Kenney, Hancewicz, Heuer, Metsisto and Tuttle (2005):

1) Modeling & formulating – creating appropriate representations & relationships to

mathematize the original problem.
2) Transforming & manipulating – changing the mathematical form in which a problem is
originally expressed to equivalent forms that represent solutions.
3) Inferring – applying derived results to the original problem situation, and interpreting &
generalizing the results in that light.
4) Communicating – reporting what has been learned about a problem to a specified audience.

Characteristic of Mathematical Language

Mathematics is about ideas – relationships, quantities, processes, measurements, reasoning
and so on.
The use of language in mathematics differs from the language of ordinary speech in three
important ways, according to Jamison (2000).
1) Mathematical language is non-temporal. There is no past, present or future in
mathematics.
2) Mathematical language is devoid of emotional content.
3) Mathematical language is precise.

Mathematical Expressions and Sentences

One of the objectives in learning mathematics is for students to be able to confidently speak
about it.

Mathematical expressions – consist of terms. The term of a mathematical expression is separated

from other terms with either plus or minus signs. A single term may contain an expression
in parenthesis or other grouping symbols.
- In algebra, variables or letters are used to represent numbers. An algebraic
expression is a quantity which contains numbers & variables. The variable, also
called literal coefficient, represents the unknown & makes use of letters. The
number with the variable is the numerical coefficient. Any single number is called a
constant.

Mathematical sentence – combines two mathematical expressions using a comparison operator.

- Either use numbers, variables, or both
- Comparison operators include equal, not equal, greater than, greater than or equal
to, less than, and less than or equal to.
 Basic Math Symbols
Symbol Symbol Name Meaning / definition Example

5 = 2+3
= equals sign equality
5 is equal to 2+3
5≠4
≠ not equal sign inequality
5 is not equal to 4

sin(0.01) ≈ 0.01,
≈ approximately equal approximation
x ≈ y means x is approximately equal to y

5>4
> strict inequality greater than
5 is greater than 4
4<5
< strict inequality less than
4 is less than 5

5 ≥ 4,
≥ inequality greater than or equal to
x ≥ y means x is greater than or equal to y

4 ≤ 5,
≤ inequality less than or equal to
x ≤ y means x is less than or equal to y

() parentheses calculate expression inside first 2 × (3+5) = 16

[] brackets calculate expression inside first [(1+2)×(1+5)] = 18

+ plus sign addition 1+1=2

− minus sign subtraction 2−1=1

± plus - minus both plus and minus operations 3 ± 5 = 8 and -2

± minus - plus both minus and plus operations 3 ∓ 5 = -2 and 8

* asterisk multiplication 2*3=6

× times sign multiplication 2×3=6

⋅ multiplication dot multiplication 2⋅3=6

÷ division sign / obelus division 6÷2=3

/ division slash division 6/2=3

ab power exponent 23 = 8

a^b caret exponent 2 ^ 3= 8

√a square root √a ⋅ √a = a √9 = ±3

3
√a cube root 3
√a ⋅ 3√a ⋅ 3√a = a 3
√8 = 2
4
√a fourth root 4
√a ⋅ √a ⋅ √a ⋅ √a = a
4 4 4 4
√16 = ±2
n
√a n-th root (radical) for n=3, n√8 = 2

% percent 1% = 1/100 10% × 30 = 3

 Set Theory Symbols
Symbol Symbol Name Meaning / definition Example

A = {3,7,9,14},
{} set a collection of elements
B = {9,14,28}

objects that belong to set A and set

A∩B intersection
B
A ∩ B = {9,14}

A∪B=
A∪B union objects that belong to set A or set B
{3,7,9,14,28}

A is a subset of B. set A is included {9,14,28} ⊆

A⊆B subset
in set B. {9,14,28}

proper subset / strict A is a subset of B, but A is not equal

A⊂B subset to B. {9,14} ⊂ {9,14,28}

A⊄B not subset set A is not a subset of set B {9,66} ⊄ {9,14,28}

A is a superset of B. set A includes {9,14,28} ⊇

A⊇B superset
set B {9,14,28}

proper superset / strict A is a superset of B, but B is not

A⊃B superset equal to A.
{9,14,28} ⊃ {9,14}

A⊅B not superset set A is not a superset of set B {9,14,28} ⊅ {9,66}

a∈A element of set membership A={3,9,14}, 3 ∈ A

x∉A not element of no set membership A={3,9,14}, 1 ∉ A

Logic Symbols
Symbol Symbol Name Meaning / definition Example

^ caret / circumflex and x^y

∨ reversed caret or x∨y

¬ not not - negation ¬x

~ tilde negation ~x

⇒ implies

⇔ equivalent if and only if (iff)

∀ for all

∃ there exists

∄ there does not exists

∴ therefore

∵ because / since