Re: ? on math symbols

in article Xns972BB6ACD66E177777777777777777777@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, Greg Locock
at greglocock@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote on 12/13/05 12:57 AM:

> "David L. Beane" <dbeane@xxxxxxx> wrote in
> news:BFC3AE0D.473E%dbeane@xxxxxxx:
>
>> Picked up a copy of Engineering Mathematics (Bajpai/Mustoe/Walker) and
>> chapter 1 has some mathematical symbols I am not familiar with, such
>> as an equals sign with a dot above and below, what looks like an
>> equals sign with three lines instead of two, and what looks like an
>> infinity sign with the right end open. Any ideas on where I could
>> find the meanings of these and other symbols? Google wasnt' much
>> help, but I'm going to try it again. Any help is appreciated...
>>
>
> Odd that they don't define the symbols they use. Can you not tell from
> the context?
>
>> equals sign with a dot above and below,
>
> called "doteqdot" I think. That's not much help. W3C reckons it means
> "geometrically equal to"
>
>
>> equals sign with three lines instead of two,
>
> "identical with"
>
>> infinity sign with the right end open.
>
> "proportional to", or "varies as" (mechanical engineers usually mean
> proportional to, and use ~ as "varies as" and wavy equals for
> "approximately")
>
>
> The point is, these symbols need to be defined locally. The three line
> equals in particular has several meanings.
>
> Cheers
>
> Greg Locock
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
Okay, this all makes sense with the context they were used in I suppose.
The "proportional to" sign is the only possible exception, but I'll look at
it again.

The first chapter of this book concerns itself with the pitfalls of making
calculations, and all the things that can go wrong or make your calculations
useless or misleading. Food for thought...

Thanks again. I'm sure I'll be back. :)

Dave

.

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