3 ms·

Actually, long s is still very frequently used, and will never become extinct. Look at the integral sign! Long live long s.

• mahmud 16y ago
  Could someone sum up for me why integration uses "S"? It doesn't square with me, nor does it add up.
  • gmartres 16y ago
    For a great explanation of how integral relates to summing the product of infinitely many terms, see: http://betterexplained.com/articles/a-calculus-analogy-integrals-as-multiplication/ http://betterexplained.com/articles/a-calculus-analogy-integ...
  • tedunangst 16y ago
    wikipedia tells me it is because S stands for the latin word summa.
    • ludwigvan 16y ago
      Exactly.(Riemann) integral is summation with infinitesimal quantities. (It was Leibniz who used long s to denote integration, though. http://jeff560.tripod.com/calculus.html http://jeff560.tripod.com/calculus.html ) Also, for discrete summation, capital 's'igma is used.