Mathematics

Language and
Symbols
“The Book of Nature is
written in the language of
mathematics and its
characters are triangles,
circles and other geometric
figures.”
- Galileo Galilei
What is language?
• A systematic means of communicating by the use of sounds
or conventional symbols (Chen)
• A non-instinctive system of communication using symbols
possessing arbitrary (conventional, learned) meanings and
shared by a community (Esty)
Importance of Language
 To understand the expressed ideas
 To communicate ideas to others
Components of Language

• There must be a vocabulary of words and symbols.

• A language employs grammar which is a set of rules that
outline how vocabulary is used.
• A syntax organizes symbols into linear structures or
propositions.
• A community of people who use and understand these
symbols.
Language of Mathematics
• As a language, Mathematics is a system of communication
about objects like numbers, variables, sets, operations,
functions, and equations.
• It is a collection of both symbols and their meaning shared by
a global community of people who have an interest on the
subject.
• Its vocabulary draws from many different alphabets and
includes symbols unique to math.
Vocabulary, Grammar and Syntax in
Mathematics
• International rules:
• Formulas are read from left to right.
• The Latin alphabet is used for parameters and variables.
• To some extent, the Greek alphabet is also used.
• The starting letters a, b, c, … represent constants, the middle
letters i, j, k, … for integers and the ending letters w, x, y, z for
variables.
• The Greek alphabet is also used to represent specific concepts
(e. g.,  for wavelength and  for density).
• Parentheses and brackets indicate the order in which the
symbols interact.
English: Nouns vs. Sentences
• Nouns are used to name things we want to talk about
(like people, places, and things).
• Sentences are used to state complete thoughts. A typical
English sentence has at least one noun, and at least one
verb.

Consider the sentence

Carol loves mathematics.
Here we have two nouns – ‘Carol’ and ‘mathematics’
and one verb – ‘loves.’
Mathematics: Expressions vs. Sentences
• An expression is a name given to a mathematical object
of interest. It is the mathematical analogue of a ‘noun.’
• The mathematical analogue of a ‘sentence’ is also called a
sentence. A mathematical sentence, just as an English
sentence, must state a complete thought.
 English Language vs Mathematics
Language
ENGLISH MATHEMATICS
name given NOUN (person, place, thing) EXPRESSION
to an object or PRONOUN 2
Examples: 20, , 3,
3
of interest: Examples: Harry, Molave,
𝑥 + 𝑦, 𝜋, log 𝑥
tablet, she,
a complete SENTENCE SENTENCE
thought Example: Molave is a Examples:
municipality in Zamboanga 3<4
del Sur. 1+2=4
𝑥+1=5
Types of Expression in Mathematics
• Numbers are the most common type of expression and
numbers have lots of different names.
• What can you say each of the following expressions?
𝟕, 𝟑 + 𝟒, 𝟏𝟐 − 𝟓, 𝟑𝟓 ÷ 𝟓,
𝟒𝟗 , 𝟐 𝟓 −𝟑
• This “same object, different name” idea plays a very
fundamental role in mathematics. (English has the same
concept: synonyms are words that have the same or “nearly the
same” meaning.)
• Sets and functions are also common expressions.
Exercises
1. Give several synonyms for the English word „similarity.‟
2. The number “three” has lots of different names. Give
names satisfying the following properties.
a. the „standard‟ name
b. a name using a plus sign, +
c. a name using a minus sign, −
d. a name using a multiplication sign, ×
e. a name using a division sign, ÷
f. a name using a minus sign and a division sign
Verbs and Connectives in Mathematics
• In the sentence “3 < 4”, the verb is “<” which is read as “is
less than.”
• In the sentence “𝑥 + 1 = 5” the verb is “=” which we read
as “is equal to” or “equals.”
• The plus sign “+” is an example of a connective which is used
to ‘connect’ objects of a given type to form a “compound’
object of the same type.
A sentence is either TRUE or FALSE.
• “3 < 4” is true.
• “1 + 2 = 4” is false.
• The sentence “𝑥 + 1 = 5” is true if 𝑥 is replaced by 4. It is
false if 𝑥 is replaced by other numbers.
• A sentence that is “sometimes true/sometimes false” is called
an open sentence.
Exercises
If possible, classify the entries below as:
• An English noun, or a mathematical expression
• An English sentence, or a mathematical sentence
1. cat
2. 2
3. The word ‘cat’ begins with the letter ‘k’.
4. 1 + 2 = 4
5. 5 – 3
6. 5 – 3 = 2
Exercises

7. The cat is black.

8. 𝑥
9. 𝑥 − 2 = 1
10.𝑥 + 0 = 𝑥
11.This sentence is false.
12.Hat sat bat.
Exercises
Consider the entries in the previous exercises that are
sentences. Which are true? False? Are there possibilities
other than true and false?
Characteristics of the Mathematical
Language
 Precise (able to make very fine distinctions or
definitions)
 Concise (able to say things briefly)
 Powerful (able to express complex thoughts with
relative ease)
Conventions in Mathematics
• A convention is a general agreement about basic principles or
procedures.
• Languages have conventions.
• For example, in both the English and Filipino languages, it is a
convention that proper nouns are capitalized. This convention
makes it easy for a reader to distinguish between a common
noun and a proper noun.
• Mathematical conventions are choices of the mathematics
community regarding definitions of concepts, their names,
and symbols.
Sets
• A set is a collection of objects called the elements (or
members) of the set. The elements are said to belong to the
set and the set is said to contain the elements.
• Sets are named using single capital letters like 𝐴. Lower-case
letters like 𝑥 are used to represent elements of a set.
• The symbol ∈ is used to mean and is read as “is an element
of.”
• To express the opposite, “is not an element of,” we put a slash
through the symbol and write ∉.
Sets
• Illustration: Let us assign 𝐴 to the set 1, 2, 3 . So we write
𝐴 = *1, 2, 3+. We also write 2 ∈ 𝐴 and 4 ∉ 𝐴.
• We can also write 𝑥 ∈ 𝐴 which means that 𝑥 is a (possibly
unknown) number that is an element of the set 𝐴—in other
words, the value of 𝑥 must be either 1, 2, or 3.
• The symbol 𝑥 is called a variable because it is used to represent
any element of the given set.
Some Special Sets of Numbers

Symbol Set
𝑁 or N or ℕ Set of natural or counting numbers
𝑍 or Z or ℞ Set of integers
𝑄 or Q or ℚ Set of rational numbers or quotients of
integers
𝑅 or R or ℝ or ℜ Set of real numbers
How to describe sets:

• Roster method
• Using English phrases
• Set-builder notation
Roster Method

• involves listing all the elements, separated by commas,

inside a pair of braces.
• For example, if 𝑉 is the set containing all the distinct
letters in the word “virus” then we write
𝑉 = *𝑣, 𝑖, 𝑟, 𝑢, 𝑠+.
Roster Method
• When the elements of a set follow an obvious
pattern but there are too many of them, just list
the first few elements (to establish the pattern)
and the last element (to specify where the
pattern stops), with an ellipsis (…) in between to
indicate that the elements in the middle were
omitted.
• For example, if 𝐵 is the set of integers from 1 to
100, we can write 𝐵 = 1, 2, 3, 4, … , 100 .
• The ellipsis is read as “and so forth.”
Roster Method
• If no element is written after the ellipsis, the pattern is
assumed to continue forever.
• The set of natural numbers or positive integers is
described as 𝑁 = *1, 2, 3, … + contains all of the positive
integers.
• Sometimes the elements of a set go on forever in both
“directions”—for instance, the set of all integers
(positive, negative and zero) can be written as
𝑍 = *… , −3, −2, −1, 0, 1, 2, 3, … +.
Using English phrases to describe sets
• Illustration:
• the set of days in a week
• the set of digits in the decimal system

• It is important that the description be precise, so that

there is no doubt about whether a particular object is or
is not an element of the set.
Set-builder notation
• The set is described in the form:

Example 1: Let 𝐴 be the set of natural numbers less than 6 and

𝐵 be the set of integers greater than −3 but less
than 3. Describe sets 𝐴 and 𝐵 using
a) the roster method
b) the set-builder notation.
Describing the set of Rational Numbers
The set 𝑄 is described as
𝑝
𝑄 = 𝑥 𝑥 can be represented by where 𝑝, 𝑞 ∈ 𝒁, 𝑞 ≠ 0
𝑞
read this as “𝑄 is the set of all elements (or numbers) 𝑥 such that
𝑥 can be represented by the fraction 𝑝 over 𝑞 where 𝑝 and 𝑞 are
integers and the denominator 𝑞 is not equal to zero.”
Subset
We say that set 𝐴 is a subset of set 𝐵, written in symbols as 𝐴  𝐵,
if and only if every element of 𝐴 is also an element of 𝐵.

Example 2: Let 𝐴 be the set of distinct letters in the word “pride,”

𝐵 be the set of distinct letters in the word “spider,” and 𝐶 be the
set of distinct letters in the word “dipper.” Classify each of the
following as true or false.
a) 𝐴  𝐵 b) 𝐴  𝐶 c) 𝐵  𝐴 d) 𝐵  𝐶
e) 𝐶  𝐵
Subset
The symbols ∈ and  may seem similar, but we have to consider
that ⊆ compares two sets while ∈ is used to express that an
element is in a set. So it is incorrect to write 3  *1, 2, 3+ or
3 ∈ *1, 2, 3+.
Equal Sets
• Two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵 are said to be equal, written
𝐴 = 𝐵, if and only if 𝐴 and 𝐵 have identical
elements.
• If two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵 are not equal, we write 𝐴 ≠ 𝐵.
• The order in which the elements of a set are listed is
irrelevant; that is, two sets may be equal even
though their elements are not arranged in the same
order.
• The number of times an element is listed is also
irrelevant.
Two Important Sets
• The empty set or the null set, symbolized by  or
* + is the set with no elements.
• If W is the set of freshmen WMSU students without
student number, then W =  or W = { }.
• The universal set, named by the letter 𝑈, is the set
of all possible objects in consideration.
• The sets 𝐴, 𝐵 and 𝐶 in example 2 contain letters of the
alphabet. So we may take 𝑈 = *𝑎, 𝑏, 𝑐, … , 𝑧+.
Operations on Sets
• The union of two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, denoted by 𝐴 ∪ 𝐵
(read “𝐴 union 𝐵”), is the set whose elements are
elements of set 𝐴 or of set 𝐵 or of both sets.
• The intersection of two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, denoted by
𝐴 ∩ 𝐵 (read “𝐴 intersection 𝐵”) is the set of those
elements common to both sets.
Operations on Sets
Example 3:
Let 𝐸 be the set of positive even integers less than or
equal to 10, 𝐹 be the set of integers between 14 and
22 and 𝐺 be the set of positive multiples of 5 that are
less than 30. Find:
a) 𝐸 ∪ 𝐹 c) 𝐸 ∪ 𝐺 e) 𝐹 ∪ 𝐺

b) 𝐸 ∩ 𝐹 d) 𝐸 ∩ 𝐺 f) 𝐹 ∩ 𝐺
Complement of a Set
The complement of set 𝐴, denoted by 𝐴′ (read “A
prime”) consists of all objects in the universal set at
hand that are not in 𝐴.
• The complement of 𝐴 is very much dependent on
the universal set, as well as on 𝐴 itself.
Complement of a Set
Let 𝑈 is the set of days in a week and 𝑇 be the set of days
in a week that begin with the letter “T.” So we have
𝑇 = Tuesday, Thursday
and the complement of 𝑇 is the set
𝑇 ′ = *Monday, Wednesday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday+.
We may also describe 𝑇′ as the set of days in a week that
do not begin with the letter “T.”
Ordered Pair
• Given elements 𝑎 and 𝑏, the symbol (𝑎, 𝑏) which is
read as “the ordered pair 𝑎 comma 𝑏” denotes the
ordered pair consisting of 𝑎 and 𝑏 together with the
specification that 𝑎 is the first element of the pair
and 𝑏 is the second element.
• Note that the ordered pairs (𝑎, 𝑏) and (𝑏, 𝑎) are
different or unequal, unless 𝑎 = 𝑏. For example, the
ordered pair (1, 2) ≠ (2, 1).
Cartesian Product
• For two sets 𝐴 and 𝐵, the Cartesian product 𝐴 × 𝐵
(read “𝐴 cross 𝐵”) consists of all possible distinct
ordered pairs whose first elements come from 𝐴
and whose second elements come from 𝐵.

Example 4: Let 𝐴 = *1, 2, 3+ and 𝐵 = *1, 2+. Find a)

𝐴 × 𝐵 and b) 𝐵 × 𝐴.
Functions
• Roughly speaking, a function takes a mathematical object and
transforms it into another one, sometimes of the same kind and
sometimes not.
• “The square root of” transforms numbers into numbers as do “four
plus,” “two times,” “the cosine of,” and ‘the logarithm of.”
• “The center of gravity of” transforms geometrical shapes (provided
they are not too complicated to have a center of gravity) into
points.
Functions
• We use the letters 𝑓, 𝑔 or 𝑕 or their corresponding capital letters
to name functions.
• If 𝑓 is a function, the notation 𝑓 𝑥 = 𝑦 means that 𝑓 turns the
object 𝑥 into the object 𝑦.
• To specify a function, one must be careful to also specify two sets:
the domain, which is the set of objects to be transformed, and the
range (or co-domain), which is the set of objects they are allowed
to be transformed into.
• A function 𝑓 from a set 𝐴 to a set 𝐵 is a rule that specifies, for
each element 𝑥 of 𝐴, an element 𝑦 = 𝑓(𝑥) of 𝐵. Not every
element of the range needs to be used.
Functions
• The set 𝑓(𝑥) 𝑥 ∈ 𝐴 of values actually taken by 𝑓 is called
the image of 𝑓. (The word “image” in a different sense,
applied to the individual elements of 𝐴: if 𝑥 ∈ 𝐴, then its
Type equation here.
image is 𝑓(𝑥).)
• The expression 𝑓: 𝐴 → 𝐵 means that 𝑓 is a function with
domain 𝐴 and range 𝐵. If we then write 𝑓 𝑥 = 𝑦, we know
that 𝑥 must be an element of 𝐴 and 𝑦 must be an element of
𝐵.
Relations
• Let 𝐴 and 𝐵 be sets. A relation 𝑅 from 𝐴 to 𝐵 is a subset of
𝐴 × 𝐵.
• Given an ordered pair (𝑥, 𝑦) in 𝐴 × 𝐵, 𝑥 is related to 𝑦,
written 𝑥𝑅𝑦, if and only if (𝑥, 𝑦) is in 𝑅.
• The set 𝐴 is called the domain of 𝑅 and the set 𝐵 is called its
range (or co-domain).
Relations
Example: Let 𝐴 = 1,2 and 𝐵 = *1, 2, 3+ and define a relation
R from A to B as follows: Given any 𝑥, 𝑦 ∈ 𝐴 × 𝐵,
𝑥−𝑦
𝑥, 𝑦 ∈ 𝑅 means that is an integer.
2
Use the roster method to describe the relation 𝑅.
Binary Operations
• A binary operation on a set 𝐴 is a function that takes pairs of
elements of 𝐴 and produces further elements of 𝐴 from them.
• It is a function with the set of all pairs 𝑥, 𝑦 of elements of 𝐴
as its domain and with 𝐴 as its range.
• Addition, subtraction and multiplication are examples of
binary operations on the set of integers but division is not.
References
Aufmann, R., Lockwood, J., Nation, R., and Clegg, S., Mathematical
Excursions, 3rd Ed., Cengage Learning, 2013.
Aufmann, R., Lockwood, J., Nation, R., Clegg, D., and Epp, S.,
Mathematics in the Modern World, Philippine Ed., Wiley, 2010.
Morash. Bridge to Mathematics
Nocon, R., and Nocon, E., Essential Mathematics for the Modern World,
C & E Publishing, 2018.

http://www.onemathematicalcat.org/cat_book.htm
https://www.dpmms.cam.ac.uk/~wtg10/grammar.pdf
https://www.thoughtco.com/why-mathematics-is-a-language-4158142