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3 votes
2 answers
158 views

Seeking Comprehensive References on the History of Scientific Notation

11 votes
1 answer
1k views

What was the motivation for the choice of the subset symbol?

9 votes
1 answer
178 views

History of greater-than symbol used in reverse?

3 votes
0 answers
126 views

How did Hindu-Arabic Numerals get their shapes?

10 votes
4 answers
15k views

Old square bracket notation for units

1 vote
0 answers
107 views

Historical Accounts of Confusion in Alphabetic Number Systems?

10 votes
1 answer
4k views

How did the obelus ÷ come to stand for division?

41 votes
1 answer
4k views

What was Euler's motivation for introducing $i$ for $\sqrt{-1}$?

1 vote
1 answer
66 views

What is the earliest use of the $\perp\!\!\!\!\perp$ symbol in statistics to denote statistical independence?

12 votes
5 answers
4k views

What is the origin of the $\hbar$ symbol?

4 votes
1 answer
121 views

Who first referred to the number of nonzero entries of a vector as its $\ell_0$ norm?

2 votes
1 answer
319 views

Use of blackboard bold "ℝ" to refer to real numbers?

5 votes
1 answer
4k views

How did the theory of the Horus-eye fractions originate?

2 votes
0 answers
66 views

History behind Serre's conditions $\mathrm{S}_k$ and $\mathrm{R}_k$ for a commutative Noetherian ring

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