# Is there a mathematical symbol for “the value grows”?

Is there a mathematical symbol for "the value grows?"

For example:

This result will be increasingly difficult as the value of n grows to infinity.

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What's wrong with $n \to \infty$? For that matter, what's wrong with "grows to infinity"? – Qiaochu Yuan Oct 2 '12 at 7:11
Nothing wrong with the suggestion you proposed, I was just unaware of it's existance/usage. – Voyska Oct 2 '12 at 7:17
If $(x_n)$ is a sequence, then $x_n\uparrow \infty$ means that $x_n$ tends to infinity increasingly, i.e. $x_n\leq x_{n+1}$ and $x_n\to\infty$. But there is really no need to write $n\uparrow \infty$ because $x_n=n$ is obviously increasing. – Stefan Hansen Jan 5 '13 at 17:23
I've also seen $x_n\nearrow\infty$ for what Stefan writes as $x_n\uparrow\infty$. In general, $x_n\nearrow a$ or $x_n\uparrow a$ would mean that the sequence of the $x_n$ is increasing with limit $a$, and $x_n\searrow a$ or $x_n\downarrow a$ would mean that the sequence is decreasing and has limit $a$. – Andrés E. Caicedo Aug 3 '13 at 1:52
Be aware that $x_n\uparrow \infty$ is even the Knuth's up arrow notation for exponentiation i.e. $x_n^\infty$ (whatever this could mean in this situation) – Renato Faraone Sep 1 '15 at 19:05

If you were unaware of the symbolic expression $n\to \infty$, I'm wondering whether your audience will appreciate its use. That said, "as $n\to \infty$" means "as the value denoted by $n$ approaches infinity".
You could use an upwards arrow as Stefan suggested above to be more specific that the value is ONLY increasing (not tending toward infinity through ups and downs but strictly increasing), but such upwards arrows are mostly only used by math people (some engineers would likely not even know what it meant). $n\to\infty$ while less specific is much more commonly understood (everyone who remembers their calculus should have no problem reading is as I wrote above).