Engineering Fundamentals: An Introduction to Engineering, 4th ed.c

moments to learn and memorize these characters. Knowing these symbols will save you

time in the long run when communicating with other students or when asking a question

of your professor. You don’t want to refer to z(zeta) as that “curly thing” when speaking

to your professor! You may also find Roman numerals in use to some extent in science and

engineering. The Greek alphabet and the Roman numerals are shown in Tables 18.2 and 18.3,

respectively.

586 Chapter 18 Mathematics in Engineering

TABLE 18.1 Some Math Symbols

 Plus or positive |x| Absolute value ofx

 Minus or negative r Proportional to

 Plus or minus  Therefore

or# Multiplication Summation

 or / Division  Integral

: Ratio! Factorial, for example,

 Less than 5!  5  4  3  2  1

Greater than Delta indicating difference

V Much less than 0 Partial

W Much greater than p Pi, its value 3.1415926...

 Equal to q Infinity

 Approximately equal to Degree

Not equal to ( ) Parentheses

 Identical with [ ] Brackets

Equal to or less than { } Braces

 Equal to or greater than

g

TABLE 18.2 The Greek Alphabet

A a Alpha N n Nu

B b Beta  j Xi

 g Gamma O o Omicron

d Delta  p Pi

E e Epsilon P r Rho

Z z Zeta © s Sigma

H h Eta T t Ta u

 u Theta Y y Upsilon

I i Iota  f Phi

K k Kappa X x Chi or khi

 l Lambda  c Psi

M m Mu  v Omega

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