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Recorde of Maths (media.piefed.social)
submitted 6 months ago by to c/science_memes@mander.xyz
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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Recorde

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[–] 15 points 6 months ago (2 children)

It makes so much sense, 2 equal length lines, parallel so you can see they're equal. I'd never thought about it before.

I don't get + - × tho, but ÷ / % kind of makes sense if 2 values on opposite sides of a line already meant division.

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    Plus is the two lines together, minus is the distance/difference in my head at least

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  • [–] 2 points 6 months ago

    If plus was ⤚ (U+291A RIGHTWARDS ARROW-TAIL) meaning 2 lines coming together and then being 1 line that's twice as long [or twice as thick], that would be intuitive to me for adding.

    I can't think of an intuitive sign for minus, maybe something with empty space in it?

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    [–] 15 points 6 months ago (4 children)

    I've seen ancient equations written by Arabs which are basically an entire essay describing how to do something which can be easily described by a single equation not more than ten characters long.

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  • [–] 11 points 6 months ago

    Sometimes the reasons are historical or due to the fact that certain mathematical objects weren't yet developed at the time, or just not known to the mathematician.

    As an example take James Maxwell, when he worked on what are now called Maxwell's equations, he didn't use vector notation, and they were a bit less than 2 dozen equations, now they're more commonly taught with vector notation and are written more concisely as four equations, going even further using tensors you can group them into two equations only.

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  • [–] 5 points 6 months ago (1 child)

    described by a single equation not more than ten characters long

    An equation does not equal a proof. Maybe that's not what you saw, but a proof is basically proving the equation works from first principles. That takes a good number of words to do.

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