UNIT 2

MATH
LANGUAGE

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 introduction to
MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE
 Is the object
rotating clockwise
or counter
clockwise?
Why is it important to
learn the language of
Mathematics?
Philosophy [i.e., natural philosophy] is written in this
grand book — I mean the Universe — which stands
continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood
unless one first learns to comprehend the language and
interpret the characters in which it is written. It is
written in the language of mathematics, and its
characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical
figures, without which it is humanly impossible to
understand a single word of it; without these, one is
wandering around in a dark labyrinth.

GALILEO
 What is a language?
 Language is “a systematic means of
communicating by the use of sounds or
conventional symbols” (Chen, 2010).
 It is the code humans use as a form of expressing
themselves and communicating with others.
 It is a system of words used in a particular
discipline.
 Components of a language
 a vocabulary of symbols or words
 a grammar consisting of rules on the use of
these symbols
 a community of people who use and
understand these symbols
 a range of meanings that can be
communicated with these symbols
 What is language of mathematics?
 It is the system used by mathematicians to
communicate mathematical ideas among
themselves.
 This language consists of a substrate of some natural
language using technical terms and grammatical
conventions that are peculiar to mathematical
discourse supplemented by a highly specialized
symbolic notation for mathematical formulas.
 Elements of mathematical language

 Like other languages, mathematics has

nouns, pronouns, verbs, and sentences. It has
its own vocabulary, grammar, syntax,
sentence structure, paragraph structure,
conventions, and abbreviations.
Characteristics of the Mathematics language

 Precise, it is able to make very fine

distinctions or definitions.
 Concise or brief i.e., if someone can say
things in long expositions or sentences, a
mathematician can say it briefly.
 Powerful i.e., one can express complex
thoughts with relative ease.
 Example of English statement to
Mathematics language
“The sum of any two real numbers is also a
real number”.

In the language of mathematics this can be written very

briefly as:
a, b , a  b 
 Example of mathematical statement

Einstein’s Field Equations

 The vocabulary of Mathematics

 Mathematical notations
 Symbols
 Mathematical statements
 Mathematical terms and phrases
 Visual elements like diagrams
 The vocabulary of Mathematics

 Mathematical terminology:
 Examples:
 group, ring, field, category, factor
 tensor, fractal, functor
 The vocabulary of Mathematics

 Mathematical phrases:
 Examples:
 if and only if
 necessary and sufficient
 without loss of generality
 The vocabulary of Mathematics

 Mathematical statements
 usually divided into:
 axioms, conjectures, theorems,
lemmas, corollaries, definitions,
postulates
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Basic Math Symbols
Symbol Meaning
is equal to
is not equal to
approximately
positive-negative/plus-minus
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Basic Math Symbols
Symbol Meaning
greater than/greater than or equal to
less than/less than or equal to
parentheses/brackets – grouping
braces – grouping/sets
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Number System
Symbol Meaning
ℕ natural numbers
ℤ integers
ℚ rational numbers
ℝ real numbers
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Number System
Symbol Meaning
ℚ’ irrational number
ℕ0 whole numbers
ℂ complex numbers
infinity
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Sets and Logic
Symbol Meaning
is an element of
proper subset/subset
union of two sets
intersection of two sets
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Sets and Logic
Symbol Meaning
there exists (existence)
inexistence
there exists a unique
for all, every
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Sets and Logic
Symbol Meaning
⇒, implies, conditional
negation
therefore
null set/empty set
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Sets and Logic
Symbol Meaning
biconditional, if and only if
or
and
, such that, where
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Statistics
Symbol Meaning
summation
product
 The vocabulary of Mathematics
 Notations and Symbols
 Geometry (Shapes/Figures)
Symbol Meaning
congruent to
similar to
Exercises 1: Translating to Mathematical Form

1. The sum of a number and 10

2. The product of two numbers
3. Five less than twice a number
4. The perimeter (P) of a rectangle is twice the
sum of its length (l) and width (w).
5. There exists a unique natural number n such
that n decreased by 2 is 4.
Exercises 2: Translating to Mathematical Form

1. The sum of the squares of the two legs of a right

triangle is equal to the square of the hypotenuse.
2. The union of two sets A and B is a null set.
3. The quotient of p and q, where q is not equal to zero
is approximately 1.
4. Sum of two integers is an integer.
5. If the product of two numbers is 0, then either of
the two numbers is 0.
 Exercises 3: Translating to English Form

1.

2
2. x  , x  0

3. m, n  Z , m  n  m  n
 Give the symbol…
1. For all
2. There exists a unique
3. Subset of
4. Is an element of
5. Union of two sets
6. Set of rational numbers
7. Set of integers
8. Summation
9. Congruent
10.Approximately
 Homework
 Convert the following to Mathematical or English form:
1. Half of the square of a number decreased by itself is twice
the number.
2. The ratio of two integers is a rational number.
3. There exists an integer n such that its cube is less than
the value of itself.
4. Two sets A and B are equal if they are subsets of each
other.