Glossary of maths symbols

Maths uses many symbols, or notations, which represent different functions and operations. You will come across lots of these as you explore the Learning Lab. Use this glossary to learn what any unfamiliar symbols mean.

Foundational notations

Foundational notations appear across different areas of maths and science.

Symbol	Explanation
\(+\)	plus
\(-\)	minus
\(\times\)	multiplied by, times
\(\div\)	divided by
\(\pm\)	plus-or-minus
\(=\)	equals
\(\gt\)	greater than
\(\lt\)	less than
\(\ge\)	greater than or equal to
\(\le\)	less than or equal to
\(\neq\)	does not equal
\(\approx\)	is approximately
\(\propto\)	is proportional to
\(\therefore\)	therefore
\(\sqrt{}\)	root
\(\%\)	percent
\(\infty\)	infinity
\(\theta\)	theta, represents an angle
\(\Delta\)	delta, represents change
\(\vert{x}\vert\)	absolute value of x

Specialised notations

Each area of maths has specific notations.

Trigonometry, Indices, surds and logarithms, and Functions and graphs

Symbol	Explanation
\(\angle\)	angle
\(A\)	area
\(V\)	volume
\(l\)	length
\(r\)	radius
\(C\)	circumference
\(\pi\)	pi, a constant approximately equal to 3.14
\(e\)	Euler’s number, a constant approximately equal to 2.718
\(\log\)	logarithm
\(\ln\)	natural log
\(\in\)	is an element of
\(\Bbb{R}\)	the set of real numbers

Differentiation, Integration, and Laplace transforms

Symbol	Explanation
\(f'(x)\)	derivative of the function of x
\(\int\)	integral
\(\partial\)	partial derivative
\(L\)	Laplace transform
\(\lambda\)	eigenvalue

Statistics

Symbol	Explanation
\(\sum\)	sum
\(\bar{x}\)	x-bar, the mean of a set of data
\(\mu\)	mu, the mean of the population
\(s\)	standard deviation of a sample
\(\sigma\)	standard deviation of the population
\(s^2\)	variance of a sample
\(\sigma^2\)	variance of the population
\(Pr\)	probability
\(C\)	combination
\(!\)	factorial
\(\cap\)	intersection
\(\cup\)	union
\(z\)	z-score
\(n\)	size of a sample
\(H_0\)	null hypothesis
\(\alpha\)	significance level
\(t\)	t-test
\(\hat{p}\)	p-hat, a sample proportion
\(p\)	population proportion
\(q\)	probability of failure
\(\lambda\)	mean or expected occurrences per unit time