I guess the tip with the "hooked x" is not so perfect because the result can be confused with a chi (which is in fact rather a hooked x than a slashed wave like in the article).
Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
31–40 of 79 posts
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#32I wish we'd been taught this in high school. One habit I did learn in high school is writing x as two 'c' shapes in a mirror image. This is clearly an x rather than a multiplication symbol. I prefer it to the version listed in the article. I find it hard to distinguish the author's X/χ
In my school we always used a middle dot (· U+00B7) for multiplication since 6th grade.
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#33I'm of mixed feelings about all the Greek letters used in physics, math, etc. Eventually (after years of hard learning how to understand the underlying equations physically) I got over the hurdle of them always instantly making any equation more complicated and hard to understand -- and instead seeing them as just constants that could be basically ignored for most of the procedure (in many settings). I do still feel…
I don't get the issue. It's just notation. You could "feel" the same way about the integral sign or fractions or about underused letters in your own alphabet.
When the greek letters are used, they usually give you a clear indication that they are "something different" from the things written. It's much either to understand that alpha, beta, gamma, delta are some counterpart to a, b, c, d than if you had to use i, j, k, l (for example).
Lowercase Xi is indeed always written horribly (like a tornado), but at least in my studies, everyone wrote it equally horribly and all in the same way.
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#34I'm of mixed feelings about all the Greek letters used in physics, math, etc. Eventually (after years of hard learning how to understand the underlying equations physically) I got over the hurdle of them always instantly making any equation more complicated and hard to understand -- and instead seeing them as just constants that could be basically ignored for most of the procedure (in many settings). I do still feel…
While I'm with you on the Greek, bra/ket notation is one of the best anywhere in physics. Here [0] are some examples of why it generally looks simpler, and here's [1] a derivation which would be a nightmare to write without it.
0: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/488903/advantage... 1: https://physics.stackexchange.com/questions/533523/confusion...
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#35Reminds me of my first analysis professor. He managed to explain the proofs while writing them with chalk on the blackboard, all equations nice an clean like the Latex in our scripts - while we struggled to keep up with his pace, was impossible for us to copy it all. He came across a bit dry, overstructured, exact, but also kind and humble - maybe like you imagine a German mathematician.
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#36When I went back to school I had to take math again, which wasn't my best subject in school. I was determined to figure out why I could understand the material, yet consistently never quite did as well as I thought I should have on tests. So I kept a journal of every mistake I made so I could categorize them and understand them. Most of the mistakes were very specific handwriting mistakes, but they were very particul…
>my solution to the letter O is just to never, ever use them in math
That seems reasonable. My solution was to slash my zeros, to the point that it takes conscious effort not to.
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#37I'm of mixed feelings about all the Greek letters used in physics, math, etc. Eventually (after years of hard learning how to understand the underlying equations physically) I got over the hurdle of them always instantly making any equation more complicated and hard to understand -- and instead seeing them as just constants that could be basically ignored for most of the procedure (in many settings). I do still feel…
I don't get the issue. It's just notation. You could "feel" the same way about the integral sign or fractions or about underused letters in your own alphabet. When the greek letters are used, they usually give you a clear indication that they are "something different" from the things written. It's much either to understand that alpha, beta, gamma, delta are some counterpart to a, b, c, d than if you had to use i, j,…
For my first encounter with lowercase xi, I was sure the professor was taking advantage of his tenure and trying to pass off a scribble as a variable, and that was with my having made a point to familiarize myself with the Greek alphabet the previous semester. Somehow I don't remember him bothering to pronounce it!
Then there are the German algebraists who developed ring theory, for whom Greek letters were not sufficient -- they reached for their Fraktur. The correspondences for certain letters -- like A and S -- can be inscrutable to neophytes.
While I get why notation shouldn't matter, I do find it to be more tiring to read new notation where I don't already have an internal pronunciation.
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#38The response from a(nother) mathematician: don't worry too much about this specific advice; it's one guy's convention, not dogma. But do have very definite conventions of your own to which you adhere carefully and faithfully, whether they're this author's or anyone else's, or your own custom blend. As the author mentions, too many undergraduates don't pay attention to distinctions among similar-but-different symbols,…
This, exactly.
One other consideration is to pay attention to your colleagues. Sometimes more specific fields have conventions, and it's probably a good idea to follow them. For example, physicists universally* write a cursive v, not the shape preferred by the article author. You should do that too, if you want to communicate with physicists.
(*At least in my experience as a US almost-PhD in physics. And yes, it does help if you have to, say, calculate the velocity of a neutrino beam....)
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#39I'm of mixed feelings about all the Greek letters used in physics, math, etc. Eventually (after years of hard learning how to understand the underlying equations physically) I got over the hurdle of them always instantly making any equation more complicated and hard to understand -- and instead seeing them as just constants that could be basically ignored for most of the procedure (in many settings). I do still feel…
I don't get the issue. It's just notation. You could "feel" the same way about the integral sign or fractions or about underused letters in your own alphabet. When the greek letters are used, they usually give you a clear indication that they are "something different" from the things written. It's much either to understand that alpha, beta, gamma, delta are some counterpart to a, b, c, d than if you had to use i, j,…
Drawing bottom up: "'S' (with a slightly flattened bottom), then a 'c', then a little hook"; sometimes find myself even muttering 's,c,hook' as I write one even today.
Re: Tips for Mathematical Handwriting (2007)
#40I'm of mixed feelings about all the Greek letters used in physics, math, etc. Eventually (after years of hard learning how to understand the underlying equations physically) I got over the hurdle of them always instantly making any equation more complicated and hard to understand -- and instead seeing them as just constants that could be basically ignored for most of the procedure (in many settings). I do still feel…
To write the lowercase xi and zeta, I imagine that I am looping around the horizontal bars in the corresponding uppercase letters, and they tend to come out approximately right.
I remember a Greek-born colleague writing the uppercase Omega as just an underlined letter O. I suppose that shape is probably the idea behind the flourishes in the typeset Omega.