The symbols we use every day have fascinating and surprisingly recent origins, explains author Joseph Mazur in his new book A few years ago friends and I were talking about the origins of written ...

A new book traces the history of division signs, square roots, pi, exponents, graph axes and other mathematical symbols. (Bigstock) Consider the simple plus sign: +. Most people, Joseph Mazur writes ...

Before the 16th century, most math equations were written as metered verse. Thank god for graphic-design-inclined mathematicians. The study of mathematics has existed since ancient times.

As the semanticist S.I. Hayakawa stressed in his classic book Language in Thought and Action, words are not the things they represent. Words are symbols. It’s the manipulation of those symbols that ...

Add Yahoo as a preferred source to see more of our stories on Google. If those questions are running through your head, keep on reading! Ahead, you'll find everything you need to know about Pi Day.

We’re about to start working with gradient vectors in Calculus 3, and this topic uses a curious mathematical symbol: the We’re about to start working with gradient vectors in Calculus 3, and this ...