MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE,

SYMBOLS AND LOGICS

MATH 101 – ENGR. IAN CHRISTOPHER M. VERANO
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
• AFTER THIS PRESENTATION, YOU WILL BE ABLE TO:
• KNOW THE LANGUAGE, SYMBOLS, AND CONVENTIONS OF
MATHEMATICS
• KNOW THE NATURE OF MATHEMATICS AS A LANGUAGE
• PERFORM OPERATIONS ON MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSIONS
CORRECTLY
• USE DIFFERENT TYPES OF REASONING TO JUSTIFY
STATEMENTS AND ARGUMENTS MADE ABOUT MATHEMATICS
AND MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS
 Is a systematic way of
communication with
THE LANGUAGE OF
otherMATHEMATICS
people use of
sounds or convention
symbols
• MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE IS A SYSTEM USED IN
THE FIELD OF MATHEMATICS TO COMMUNICATE
MATHEMATICAL IDEAS, CONCEPTS, AND THEORIES
AMONG OTHERS. IT IS DISTINCT AND UNIQUE FROM
THE USUAL LANGUAGE THAT PEOPLE ARE USED TO,
AND IS USED TO COMMUNICATE ABSTRACT, LOGICAL
IDEAS.
IMPORTANCE OF MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE

• TO COMMUNICATE WITH OTHERS

• THE LANGUAGE OF MATHEMATICS WAS DESIGNED TO:
• NUMBERS
• SETS
• FUNCTION
• PERFORMANCE OF AN MATHEMATICAL OPERATION
THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LANGUAGE OF
MATHEMATICS

• THE LANGUAGE OF MATHEMATICS MAKES IT EASY TO

EXPRESS THE KINDS OF THOUGHTS THAT MATHEMATICIANS
LIKE TO EXPRESS. IT IS:
• PRECISE (ABLE TO MAKE VERY FINE DISTINCTIONS);
• CONCISE (ABLE TO SAY THINGS BRIEFLY);
• POWERFUL (ABLE TO EXPRESS COMPLEX THOUGHTS WITH
RELATIVE EASE).
VOCABULARY VERSUS SENTENCES
A very broad classification
A set of WORDS + rules = sentence between the ‘nouns’ of
mathematics (used to name
mathematical objects of
interest) and the ‘sentences’ of
mathematics (which state
complete mathematical
thoughts).

Why bother making this classification?

MATHEMATICS: EXPRESSIONS VERSUS
SENTENCES

• THE MATHEMATICAL ANALOGUE OF A ‘NOUN’ WILL BE

CALLED AN EXPRESSION AND THE MATHEMATICAL
ANALOGUE OF A ‘SENTENCE’ WILL ALSO BE CALLED A
SENTENCE.
MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION

• A MATHEMATICAL EXPRESSION IS THE MATHEMATICAL

ANALOGUE OF AN ENGLISH NOUN; A CORRECT ARRANGEMENT
OF MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS USED TO REPRESENT A
MATHEMATICAL OBJECT OF INTEREST (BURNS, N.D). IT DOES
NOT STATE A COMPLETE THOUGHT, AND DOES NOT MAKE
SENSE TO ASK IF AN EXPRESSION IS TRUE OR FALSE. IN
MATHEMATICS AREAS, E.G. ALGEBRA, THE MOST COMMON
EXPRESSIONS ARE NUMBERS, SETS, AND FUNCTIONS.
MATHEMATICAL SENTENCE

• A MATHEMATICAL SENTENCE IS THE MATHEMATICAL

ANALOGUE OF AN ENGLISH SENTENCE, AND IS A
CORRECT ARRANGEMENT OF MATHEMATICAL
SYMBOLS THAT STATE A COMPLETE THOUGHT. HENCE,
IT MAKES SENSE TO ASK IF A SENTENCE IS TRUE,
FALSE, SOMETIMES TRUE, OR SOMETIMES FALSE.
IDEAS REGARDING EXPRESSIONS:

• THIS SIMPLE IDEA—THAT NUMBERS HAVE LOTS OF

DIFFERENT NAMES—IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT IN
MATHEMATICS! ENGLISH HAS THE SAME CONCEPT:
SYNONYMS ARE WORDS THAT HAVE THE SAME (OR
NEARLY THE SAME) MEANING. HOWEVER, THIS ‘SAME
OBJECT, DIFFERENT NAME’ IDEA PLAYS A MUCH MORE
FUNDAMENTAL ROLE IN MATHEMATICS THAN IN ENGLISH
EXERCISES: SYNONYMS

• 1. GIVE SEVERAL SYNONYMS FOR THE ENGLISH WORD ‘SIMILARITY’. 2.

THE NUMBER ‘THREE’ HAS LOTS OF DIFFERENT NAMES. GIVE NAMES
SATISFYING THE FOLLOWING PROPERTIES. THERE MAY BE MORE THAN
ONE CORRECT ANSWER.
Triplet, trio, third, triple etc.
• A) THE ‘STANDARD’ NAME
1+1+1=3
• B) A NAME USING A PLUS SIGN, +
• C) A NAME USING A MINUS SIGN, − 5 – 2 = 3
• D) A NAME USING A DIVISION SIGN, ÷ 6 / 2 = 3
IDEAS REGARDING SENTENCES: SENTENCES
HAVE VERBS

• SOME IDEAS REGARDING SENTENCES ARE EXPLORED. JUST

AS ENGLISH SENTENCES HAVE VERBS, SO DO
MATHEMATICAL SENTENCES. IN THE MATHEMATICAL
SENTENCE ‘ 3 + 4 = 7 ’, THE VERB IS ‘ = ’. IF YOU READ THE
SENTENCE AS ‘THREE PLUS FOUR IS EQUAL TO SEVEN’, THEN
IT’S EASY TO ‘HEAR’ THE VERB. INDEED, THE EQUAL SIGN ‘ =
’ IS ONE OF THE MOST POPULAR MATHEMATICAL VERBS.
SENTENCES HAVE
• ENGLISH CONNECTIVE VERBS
FOR NOUNS IS THE WORD ‘AND’: ‘CAT’ IS A NOUN,
‘DOTHE SENTENCE ‘ 1 + 2 = 3 ’ IS READ AS ‘ONE PLUS TWO EQUALS THREE’
OR ‘ONE PLUS TWO IS EQUAL TO THREE’. A COMPLETE THOUGHT IS BEING
STATED, WHICH IN THIS CASE IS TRUE.

A QUESTION COMMONLY ENCOUNTERED, WHEN PRESENTING THE SENTENCE

EXAMPLE ‘ 1 + 2 = 3 ’, IS THE FOLLOWING: IF ‘ = ’ IS THE VERB, THEN WHAT IS
THE ‘ + ’ ? HERE’S THE ANSWER. THE SYMBOL ‘ + ’ IS A CONNECTIVE; A
CONNECTIVE IS USED TO ‘CONNECT’ OBJECTS OF A GIVEN TYPE TO GET A
‘COMPOUND’ OBJECT OF THE SAME TYPE. HERE, THE NUMBERS 1 AND 2 ARE
‘CONNECTED’ TO GIVE THE NEW NUMBER 1 + 2 . A FAMILIAR G’ IS A NOUN, ‘CAT
TRUTH OF SENTENCES

• SENTENCES CAN BE TRUE OR FALSE. THE NOTION OF

TRUTH (I.E., THE PROPERTY OF BEING TRUE OR FALSE)
IS OF FUNDAMENTAL IMPORTANCE IN THE
MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE
 Accepted rules and
MATHEMATICAL CONVENTION practice of spelling
writing and punctuation.
• LANGUAGES HAVE CONVENTIONS. IN ENGLISH, FOR
EXAMPLE, IT IS CONVENTIONAL TO CAPITALIZE
PROPER NAMES (LIKE ‘CAROL’ AND ‘IDAHO’). THIS
CONVENTION MAKES IT EASY FOR A READER TO
DISTINGUISH BETWEEN A COMMON NOUN (LIKE
‘CAROL’, A CHRISTMAS SONG) AND A PROPER NOUN
(LIKE ‘CAROL’). MATHEMATICS ALSO HAS ITS
CONVENTIONS, WHICH HELP READERS DISTINGUISH
BETWEEN DIFFERENT TYPES OF MATHEMATICAL
EXPRESSIONS.
MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS

• MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS ARE USED TO REFER TO

CERTAIN QUANTITIES, CONCEPTS, IDEAS AMONG
OTHERS. THE MOST COMMON USED IN BASIC
MATHEMATICS ARE NUMBERS 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, THE
FOUR FUNDAMENTAL SYMBOLS OF OPERATION +, -, ×,
÷, AND THE INEQUALITY SYMBOLS ≠, ≤, ≥, < >, AND
EQUAL SIGN =.
BASIC MATH SYMBOLS NAMES WITH MEANING
AND EXAMPLES

• THE BASIC SYMBOLS HELP US TO WORK WITH MATHEMATICAL CONCEPTS

IN A THEORETICAL MANNER. IN SIMPLE WORDS, WITHOUT SYMBOLS, WE
CANNOT DO MATH. THE MATHEMATICAL SIGNS AND SYMBOLS ARE
CONSIDERED AS THE REPRESENTATIVE OF THE VALUE. THE BASIC SYMBOLS
IN MATH ARE USED TO EXPRESS THE MATHEMATICAL THOUGHTS. THE
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE SIGN AND THE VALUE REFERS TO THE
FUNDAMENTAL NEED OF MATHEMATICS. WITH THE HELP OF SYMBOLS,
CERTAIN CONCEPTS AND IDEAS ARE CLEARLY EXPLAINED. HERE IS A LIST
OF COMMONLY USED SYMBOLS IN THE STREAM OF MATHEMATICS.
VARIABLES
• VARIABLES ARE NOTHING MORE THAN A PLACEHOLDER. THEY STAND FOR THINGS
THAT YOU WANT TO FIND OUT BUT DON'T HAVE THE ANSWER TO YET.
• IN MATH LINGO, THERE IS A FORMALITY WHEN IT COMES TO VARIABLES. WHEN
YOU WRITE THEM, INSTEAD OF USING THE WORD 'WHAT,' YOU WOULD USE
LETTERS. YOU CAN USE ANY LETTER YOU CHOOSE. TYPICALLY, WE STICK TO THE
ENGLISH ALPHABET BUT TECHNICALLY, YOU CAN USE ANY EASY-TO-IDENTIFY
SYMBOL AS YOUR CHOICE.
• THE TWO MOST COMMON VARIABLES YOU WILL ENCOUNTER IN YOUR SCHOOLING
CAREER ARE THE VARIABLES X AND Y. DON'T ASK THE REASON WHY THESE TWO
ARE THE MOST POPULAR. THEY JUST ARE AND HAVE BEEN IN USE FOR SO MANY
YEARS PAST. THEY ARE EASY TO SPOT AND TO IDENTIFY, WHICH MAKES THEM
IDEAL CANDIDATES FOR A WIDE VARIETY OF MATHEMATICAL APPLICATIONS.
• JUST BECAUSE X AND Y ARE THE TWO MOST POPULAR VARIABLES DOESN'T MEAN
YOU HAVE TO USE JUST THOSE TWO. YOU CAN USE ANYTHING YOU WISH. YOU
HAVE NUMEROUS CHOICES TO PICK FROM.
VARIABLES (CONT.)
Any letter you can think of can be used as a
variable. They can be uppercase or lowercase.
When you get into more complex math
applications, you might have several variables
in one equation, so your ability to use more
than one variable at a time will become
important.
WRITING A SENTENCE USING VARIABLES

• EXAMPLE: IS THERE A NUMBER WITH THE FOLLOWING

PROPERTY; DOUBLING IT AND ADDING 3 GIVES THE SAME
RESULT AS SQUARING IT?
• IN THIS SENTENCE YOU CAN USE SOME VARIABLES TO REPLACE
THE POTENTIAL AMBIGUOUS “IT”:
• SO WE CAN WRITE IT IN A MATHEMATICAL SENTENCE:
2X + 3 = X2 , WHERE X IS THE VARIABLE
WRITING A SENTENCE USING VARIABLES
(CONT.)