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The letter ℘: name and origin? (2017)

(mathoverflow.net)
283 points IdealeZahlen | 10 comments | 14 Nov 24 16:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.771s | source | bottom
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non- ◴[14 Nov 24 18:26 UTC] No.42139412[source]▶
One thing I've always struggled with Math is keeping track of symbols I don't know the name of yet.

Googling for "Math squiggle that looks like a cursive P" is not a very elegant or convenient way of learning new symbol names.

I wish every proof or equation came with a little table that gave the English pronunciation and some context for each symbol used.

It would make it a lot easier to look up tutorials & ask questions.

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1. loremm ◴[14 Nov 24 18:39 UTC] No.42139564[source]▶
As a first foot-hold I recommend highly https://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html

(I think I saw there was a newer one, but don't remember how)

You draw the symbol and get the TeX symbol name. I tried this one and it does give the right \wp (which in this case is confusing and you'd have to look up more about why it's named that)

But for classic ones, for instance the "upside down A" -> "forall" is very helpful and shakes newcomers to math syntax

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2. nine_k ◴[14 Nov 24 20:12 UTC] No.42140671[source]▶
Feynman said that his students struggled with a reverse problem: how to know that "harnew", an important part in QM equations that the lecturer talks about, actually stands for hν.
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3. teddyh ◴[14 Nov 24 20:28 UTC] No.42140825[source]▶
See also: <https://shapecatcher.com/>
4. non- ◴[14 Nov 24 21:03 UTC] No.42141187[source]▶
This is great, thank you! Would be even better if it had a little "click here to hear it said out loud" button.
5. esafak ◴[15 Nov 24 02:34 UTC] No.42143469[source]▶
Detexify appears to be a kNN classifier. https://gist.github.com/kirel/149896/3a13825f826ec91e04d4adb...
6. dtgriscom ◴[15 Nov 24 02:44 UTC] No.42143525[source]▶
Good stuff: worked the first time I tried to draw a ℘.
7. meowster ◴[15 Nov 24 14:07 UTC] No.42147057[source]▶
Very cool, but I tried a plus ("+"), and it didn't show up in the list, even when I clicked "show more" several times.
8. 12thhandyman ◴[15 Nov 24 14:58 UTC] No.42147486[source]▶
Always thought it was kind of cool how Feynman writes about, when learning calculus and maths as a younger student, would create and use his own symbols for things and how it worked well for him. But kind of realized if he was going to enter the scientific community would need to conform to the standardized notation/symbols for equations etc.
9. crdrost ◴[15 Nov 24 18:21 UTC] No.42149469[source]▶
We solved that though, it's now pronounced “(h)aitch-bar-o-mega.”
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10. nine_k ◴[15 Nov 24 20:02 UTC] No.42150340{3}[source]▶
Everything is easier with a piece of pi!