Origins of mathematical symbols, question.

[DrPizza]

Anyone know why 3 dots in a triangle are the symbol/abbreviation for "therefore"

 

[spidey07]

Something greek?

I think I've seen it else where on ruins.

 

[serialkiller]

easy... therefore... 3 e's to shorten it they just used the 3 dots... you should probably concentrate more on how to resolve proofs rather then pondering about the 3 dots that are probably irrelevant to your assignment... hahaha...


by the way... i was kidding about the 3 e's.... =P

 

[dullard]

Interesting question led to an interesting website. Looks like they have thousands of symbols and some explanations. Sorry there is no explanation for why it became the symbol for the words "thus" or "therefore".

I could see that maybe it came as a combination of : and ... The colon means an explanation. The ellipsis means an omission (or sometimes continuation). Start with the explanation, therefore you get a result (and the steps between were omitted). Of course, I just made this explanation up on the spot and it probably isn't correct.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: serialkiller
easy... therefore... 3 e's to shorten it they just used the 3 dots... you should probably concentrate more on how to resolve proofs rather then pondering about the 3 dots that are probably irrelevant to your assignment... hahaha...


by the way... i was kidding about the 3 e's.... =P

hahaha... you're funny.
I don't do math assignments. Well, I do; I refuse to use answer keys. Other than very difficult problems, I do all the work on the fly as I'm grading my *students'* tests. I'm a teacher; a student asked me that question, I didn't know the answer.

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: dullard
Interesting question led to an interesting website. Looks like they have thousands of symbols and some explanations. Sorry there is no explanation for why it became the symbol for the words "thus" or "therefore".

I could see that maybe it came as a combination of : and ... The colon means an explanation. The ellipsis means an omission (or sometimes continuation). Start with the explanation, therefore you get a result (and the steps between were omitted). Of course, I just made this explanation up on the spot and it probably isn't correct.

Thank you very much!!

 

[spidey07]

If you google around.

All I found was it was originally used in a german math publication in the 1600s. So that blows the greek origins out.

Looks like it was just made up.

 

[serialkiller]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller
easy... therefore... 3 e's to shorten it they just used the 3 dots... you should probably concentrate more on how to resolve proofs rather then pondering about the 3 dots that are probably irrelevant to your assignment... hahaha...


by the way... i was kidding about the 3 e's.... =P

hahaha... you're funny.
I don't do math assignments. Well, I do; I refuse to use answer keys. Other than very difficult problems, I do all the work on the fly as I'm grading my *students'* tests. I'm a teacher; a student asked me that question, I didn't know the answer.

hehehehe, you should tell your student.... "BECAUSE NEWTON SAID SO YOU LITTLE TWIRP!!!... NOW GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!" ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: serialkiller

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller
easy... therefore... 3 e's to shorten it they just used the 3 dots... you should probably concentrate more on how to resolve proofs rather then pondering about the 3 dots that are probably irrelevant to your assignment... hahaha...


by the way... i was kidding about the 3 e's.... =P

hahaha... you're funny.
I don't do math assignments. Well, I do; I refuse to use answer keys. Other than very difficult problems, I do all the work on the fly as I'm grading my *students'* tests. I'm a teacher; a student asked me that question, I didn't know the answer.

hehehehe, you should tell your student.... "BECAUSE NEWTON SAID SO YOU LITTLE TWIRP!!!... NOW GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!" ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

:roll:
Note: 3rd time I've rolled my eyes at a post.

 

[Gibson486]

My Emag professor explained it to us, but since i could never understand a word that came out of his mouth (I got a D in that class), i just did not listen. Sorry Pizza.

 

[serialkiller]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller
easy... therefore... 3 e's to shorten it they just used the 3 dots... you should probably concentrate more on how to resolve proofs rather then pondering about the 3 dots that are probably irrelevant to your assignment... hahaha...


by the way... i was kidding about the 3 e's.... =P

hahaha... you're funny.
I don't do math assignments. Well, I do; I refuse to use answer keys. Other than very difficult problems, I do all the work on the fly as I'm grading my *students'* tests. I'm a teacher; a student asked me that question, I didn't know the answer.

hehehehe, you should tell your student.... "BECAUSE NEWTON SAID SO YOU LITTLE TWIRP!!!... NOW GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!" ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

:roll:
Note: 3rd time I've rolled my eyes at a post.

I kid I kid, a little humor is always good.. hahahahah.. Just out of curiosity who are your students? If they are doing proofs then I would have to either say they are highschoolers doing trig proofs.... or college students doing discrete mathematics, algebraic structures, real analysis, etc....

 

[Stretchman]

Originally posted by: dullard
Interesting question led to an interesting website. Looks like they have thousands of symbols and some explanations. Sorry there is no explanation for why it became the symbol for the words "thus" or "therefore".

I could see that maybe it came as a combination of : and ... The colon means an explanation. The ellipsis means an omission (or sometimes continuation). Start with the explanation, therefore you get a result (and the steps between were omitted). Of course, I just made this explanation up on the spot and it probably isn't correct.

Thanks for that link. Very interesting indeed.

 

[xospec1alk]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller
easy... therefore... 3 e's to shorten it they just used the 3 dots... you should probably concentrate more on how to resolve proofs rather then pondering about the 3 dots that are probably irrelevant to your assignment... hahaha...


by the way... i was kidding about the 3 e's.... =P

hahaha... you're funny.
I don't do math assignments. Well, I do; I refuse to use answer keys. Other than very difficult problems, I do all the work on the fly as I'm grading my *students'* tests. I'm a teacher; a student asked me that question, I didn't know the answer.

hehehehe, you should tell your student.... "BECAUSE NEWTON SAID SO YOU LITTLE TWIRP!!!... NOW GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!" ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

:roll:
Note: 3rd time I've rolled my eyes at a post.

when were the other two?

 

[DrPizza]

Originally posted by: serialkiller

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller
easy... therefore... 3 e's to shorten it they just used the 3 dots... you should probably concentrate more on how to resolve proofs rather then pondering about the 3 dots that are probably irrelevant to your assignment... hahaha...


by the way... i was kidding about the 3 e's.... =P

hahaha... you're funny.
I don't do math assignments. Well, I do; I refuse to use answer keys. Other than very difficult problems, I do all the work on the fly as I'm grading my *students'* tests. I'm a teacher; a student asked me that question, I didn't know the answer.

hehehehe, you should tell your student.... "BECAUSE NEWTON SAID SO YOU LITTLE TWIRP!!!... NOW GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!" ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

:roll:
Note: 3rd time I've rolled my eyes at a post.

I kid I kid, a little humor is always good.. hahahahah.. Just out of curiosity who are your students? If they are doing proofs then I would have to either say they are highschoolers doing trig proofs.... or college students doing discrete mathematics, algebraic structures, real analysis, etc....

Okay. From your post, I figured you were just some 10 year old posting on here. 10 year olds don't know about proofs beyond the high school level (and, most high school students don't realize how relatively easy their geometry proofs are.)
For what it's worth, I wasn't even doing a proof... during the course of the year, I start inserting more and more symbols into the notes I give students. I explain early in the year that the reason mathematicians use so many symbols is:
a) They're lazy and don't want to write out words
b) To intimidate people

 

[AbsolutDealage]

everything2 has a theory on this.

 

[bootymac]

Mr. Therefore had 3 nipples

 

[serialkiller]

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller

Originally posted by: DrPizza

Originally posted by: serialkiller
easy... therefore... 3 e's to shorten it they just used the 3 dots... you should probably concentrate more on how to resolve proofs rather then pondering about the 3 dots that are probably irrelevant to your assignment... hahaha...


by the way... i was kidding about the 3 e's.... =P

hahaha... you're funny.
I don't do math assignments. Well, I do; I refuse to use answer keys. Other than very difficult problems, I do all the work on the fly as I'm grading my *students'* tests. I'm a teacher; a student asked me that question, I didn't know the answer.

hehehehe, you should tell your student.... "BECAUSE NEWTON SAID SO YOU LITTLE TWIRP!!!... NOW GO OUTSIDE AND PLAY!!!" ... HAHAHAHAHAHAHAH

:roll:
Note: 3rd time I've rolled my eyes at a post.

I kid I kid, a little humor is always good.. hahahahah.. Just out of curiosity who are your students? If they are doing proofs then I would have to either say they are highschoolers doing trig proofs.... or college students doing discrete mathematics, algebraic structures, real analysis, etc....

Okay. From your post, I figured you were just some 10 year old posting on here. 10 year olds don't know about proofs beyond the high school level (and, most high school students don't realize how relatively easy their geometry proofs are.)
For what it's worth, I wasn't even doing a proof... during the course of the year, I start inserting more and more symbols into the notes I give students. I explain early in the year that the reason mathematicians use so many symbols is:
a) They're lazy and don't want to write out words
b) To intimidate people

you definetly have the right idea why mathmaticians use symbols instead of writing them out. If you think about it the board will be filled from left right up down if a professor decided to write out every single detail for a differential equation problem (man I hated that class). I remember one of the last courses I took in order to finish my BS in Mathematics was called Scientific computations and numerical analysis.....*quivers*.... the professor had something for every greek alphabet up to omega.....

alpha beta gamma delta epsilon zeta eta theta iota kappa lambda mu nu xi omicron pi rho sigma tao upsilon phi chi psi omega .... no wonder i struggled so much in that class... thats 24 greek letters that represented something..... *quivers*.....