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The letter ℘: name and origin? (2017)

(mathoverflow.net)
283 points IdealeZahlen | 1 comments | 14 Nov 24 16:28 UTC | HN request time: 0.214s | source
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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. jansan ◴[14 Nov 24 22:08 UTC] No.42141746[source]▶
We had a guy in class at high school who was a math prodigy,but hated the greek alphabet. He always said things like "If we multiply the symbol that I don't know with the square root of the other symbol that I don't know..." He was proof for me that you can be really good at (high school) math without knowing all the symbols' names.