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A comment on Ask HN: How did you learn math notation?. Parent comment

Re:Ask HN: How did you learn math notation? by bajsejohannes on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:17AM (#29342533)
> I think a real problem in this area is the belief that there is "one true notation" and that everything is unambiguous and clearly defined.

Just to back up this point: In probably every university-level math book I've read, they introduce and explain all the notation used. In the preface and/or as concepts are introduced.

There are lists at wikipedia [1] and other places, but I'm not sure how valuable it is out of context.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glossary_of_mathematical_symbo...

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Re:Ask HN: How did you learn math notation? by nicoburns on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:29AM (#29342640)
Ha, you've clearly used better books than me. I've read plenty where they glossed over the notation and expected you to guess.
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Re:Ask HN: How did you learn math notation? by bajsejohannes on Thursday November 25, 2021 @12:54PM (#29343398)
It's not entirely unlikely that I am remembering just the good stuff :) But I was surprised how many books would define even the most common notation, like ⊂, ∀, and ∃.

I guess if you call your book "Introduction to..." you ought to do that. And it seems that all books were called that, regardless of how narrow and advanced the rest of the title was :)

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Re:Ask HN: How did you learn math notation? by ColinWright on Thursday November 25, 2021 @11:35AM (#29342689)
Often books assume some prerequisites, the question here is the level of those prerequisites. Some books try to include all the necessary background, others assume a pre-existing base level of knowledge.

Different authors, different books, different audiences, and different contexts.

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