Posted: Wed Oct 04, 2006 10:44 am
I use them because that's the only place I get to use variables who's purpose isn't immediately obvious by reading the variable name.
Guilty pleasure
Guilty pleasure
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It goes back at least to the 17th Century because I believe Newton and Leibnitz used in their work on calculus (Newtons integral symbol is an S for "sum"). That's also the century of Decartes, Euler, Pascal, et al. so a lot of the mathematical notion we use comes from that era. Any mathematicians in the group who know history trivia?Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote:So which mathematician do we blame, arborint?
According to http://members.aol.com/jeff570/operation.html our friend Euler was the first to use the sigma symbol for summation in 1755.arborint wrote:It goes back at least to the 17th Century because I believe Newton and Leibnitz used in their work on calculus (Newtons integral symbol is an S for "sum"). That's also the century of Decartes, Euler, Pascal, et al. so a lot of the mathematical notion we use comes from that era. Any mathematicians in the group who know history trivia?Maugrim_The_Reaper wrote:So which mathematician do we blame, arborint?
Not exactly. It is an S, but it's for "Surface" not "Sum".arborint wrote:Newtons integral symbol is an S for "sum"
As ever Tim, thanks ... great page.timvw wrote:According to http://members.aol.com/jeff570/operation.html our friend Euler was the first to use the sigma symbol for summation in 1755.