Mathematical Notation (SQA National 5 Applications of Mathematics): Revision Note

Mathematical symbols

What mathematical symbols do I need to know?

Four operations

• $+$  Addition

  • plus, sum, total

• $-$  Subtraction

  • minus, difference, take away

• $\times$ Multiplication

  • product, times, lots of

• $÷$ Division

  • quotient, divide, share

Equality and inequality

• $=$ Equal to

  • both sides of the sign have the same value

    • e.g. $2+3=5$

• $>$ Greater than

  • the value on the left is greater than the value on the right

    • e.g.  $5>-2$

• $<$ Less than

  • the value on the left is less than the value on the right

    • e.g.  $\frac{1}{2}<\frac{2}{3}$

Other symbols

• $\left(\right)$  Brackets

  • used to prioritise operations

    • e.g.  $8-\left(2+1\right)=8-3$

• % Percent

  • this gives a value out of 100

    • e.g. 12% means 12 out of 100

• : colon

  • this indicates the multiplicative relationship between two or more quantities

    • e.g. 2 : 5 means for every 2 units of the first quantity there are 5 units of the second quantity

• . decimal point

  • this is used when to separate whole numbers from parts which are less than 1

    • e.g. 3.14 means 3 whole numbers and 14 hundredths of a whole number

• $3^x$  Powers (also called indices, orders, or exponents)

  • repeated multiplication

    • e.g.  $3^4=3\times 3\times 3\times 3=81$

• $\pi$  Pi

  • the ratio of the circumference of a circle to its diameter

  • π = 3.1415... is a number that goes on formula

    • Use π = 3.14 for Paper 1

    • Use π = 3.14 or the button on your calculator for Paper 2