# What are the differences in mathematical notation around the world? [duplicate]

I just learned that $\text{sen}\,x$ is the Portuguese notation for $\sin x$, and I was inspired to ask:

What differences are there in how mathematics is written around the world?

Note 1: I am likely going to be moving away from home in the upcoming years, so it would be personally nice for me to be aware of some differences in mathematical notation across different countries.

Note 2: I am aware that this question has an almost identical title, but it was only given one answer that would be new to some people (the accepted answer) and I am sure there must be many more differences than that.

## marked as duplicate by user147263, user61527, Michael Albanese, Claude Leibovici, Brian FitzpatrickMay 30 '14 at 5:28

• I was surprised to learn that in Russian, $\tan$ is $\operatorname{tg}$ and $\cot$ is $\operatorname{ctg}$. – MJD Apr 19 '14 at 20:18
• @MJD: The same is in Romania. – Beni Bogosel Apr 19 '14 at 20:19
• I was surprised to see that US school children learn to compute things like $\sqrt[17]{544}$ until I found out that the notational conventions for long divisions are culture specific. – Hagen von Eitzen Apr 19 '14 at 20:21
• $\require{enclose}17\enclose{longdiv}{544}$ \require{enclose} 17\enclose{longdiv}{544} – MJD Apr 19 '14 at 20:27
• Hyperbolic function in Russian (Ukrainian) sinh is sh, cosh is ch, tanh is th, cots is cth. Cyclic group $C_n$ is $<a_n>.$ – nadia-liza Apr 19 '14 at 20:35

• I'm not sure if $\sin x$ is written as $\text{sen }x$ in Spanish, because in the Spanish version of the Wikipedia page for sinus it is written as $\sin x$ and it states that "La abreviatura $\sin(\cdot)$ proviene del latín sĭnus." – Américo Tavares Apr 19 '14 at 20:38
• Despite Wikipedia, $\text{sen}$ is very used in Spain. – Martín-Blas Pérez Pinilla Apr 19 '14 at 21:10