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There are two other big issues with math notation that I see: * The tendency of math to have many different notations to express the same thing. My calculus te

There are two other big issues with math notation that I see: * The tendency of math to have many different notations to express the same thing. My calculus textbook started by apologizing for the like seven different notations for "take the derivative of this function". Would it kill mathematicians to just pick one notation and standardize on it? * The number of times the same notation can mean two different things. I've always been particularly bothered by stuff like implicit adjacency is multiplication, except when it's not. Is "a(b + c)" supposed to mean "add b to c and use the result as the argument for a" or is it supposed to mean "add b to c and multiply it with a"? You'd think it should be obvious, but functions are a ring, with multiplication corresponding to composition...

nicf 3y ago
Sure, but I think we're just talking about two slightly different things here: I was trying to describe the "sociological" reasons why math notation might end up in a state that you don't like rather than trying to list the particular things you might not like about it. I do agree with you that calculus textbooks often go overboard with notations for the derivative, and in fact I remember being taught some (like a capital D with a subscript x) that I then never saw again for the rest of my life. But as to the question of why "mathematicians" would do this, I don't think the answer is all that mysterious: "mathematicians" is a category that includes a lot of different people in different places and there's no central committee that enforces notation standards! It's like that one XKCD comic everyone posts about inventing new standards.