MODULE 2

The Nature of Mathematics: Mathematical Language and Symbols

Mathematics is a language that is understood throughout the world. It is effective in

terms of expressing ideas and in communicating ideas to others without the burden of
translating such to different languages.

Characteristics of the Language of Mathematics

Mathematics as a language is precise, concise, and powerful
 It is precise in the sense that is able to make very fine distinctions based on
definitions.
 The language of mathematics is concise. It is able to say things briefly because it has
in it different symbols. For example, the sentence “Two plus three is equal to five” it
can also expressed concisely as 2+3 = 5.
 Lastly, this language is powerful. It is able to express complex thoughts with relative
ease.

The English Language and the Mathematical Language

There are certain similarities between the English language and mathematical
language. A noun in the English language corresponds to a mathematical expression while a
sentence in the English language corresponds to a mathematical sentence.
In English, nouns are used to name things we want to talk about (people, things,
places, and things); whereas sentences are used to state complete thoughts. A typical English
sentence has at least one noun, and at least one verb.
A mathematical expression is a correct arrangement of mathematical symbols to
represent the object of interest, does not contain a complete thought, and does not contain
a truth value (one will not know if it is true or false).
The mathematical analogue of a sentence is also called a sentence. A mathematical
must state a complete thought. The Table below shows the analogy.

ENGLISH MATHEMATICS
Name given to an NOUN (person, place, thing) EXPRESSION
object of interest:
Examples: Mario, Isabela, book Examples: 2, 3 + 5, ⅓

A complete SENTENCE SENTENCE

thought: Examples: Examples:
The capital of the province of
Isabela is Ilagan City. 3+5=8
The capital of province of Isabela is 3 + 5 = 13
Cauayan City.
Numbers are most common types of mathematical expressions. Even a single number
can have a numerous names.
Just like English sentences, mathematical sentences also have verbs. In the
mathematical sentence ‘4 + 2 = 6’ the verb is ‘=’. If you read the sentence as ‘four plus two
equals six’, then it is easy to identify the verb. The equal sign is the most popular
mathematical verbs.

Conventions in the Mathematical Language

Just like any language, the mathematical language uses conventions.
In the English language, the use of capital letters for proper nouns is conventional.
Thus, our place Isabela is written with the fist letter capitalized. This convention help us to
distinguish between common nouns and proper nouns.
In mathematics, there are different conventions for us to distinguish between different
types of mathematical objects.
Note that sentences state a complete thought, but nouns and expressions do not.
For example, read aloud: 7 . What about 7? Now read aloud: 9 – 2 = 7. This states a complete
thought about the number 7.
Mathematical sentences are declarative in nature and we can determine whether
they are true or false.

DEFINITION 2.1 (expression)

An expression is the mathematical analogue of an English noun; it is a correct
arrangement of mathematical symbols used to represent a mathematical object of interest.
An expression does NOT state a complete thought; in particular, it does not make sense to
ask if an expression is true or false.

There are many types of expressions in mathematics. Some of these are numbers, sets,
functions, ordered pairs, matrices, vectors. Most common types are numbers, sets, and
functions.
In mathematics, some expressions can have many different names. The name depends
on what we are doing with the expression.
The most common problem involving expressions in mathematics is simplification.
To simplify an expression means to give another name for the expression in a way that is
simpler. When is an expression simpler?
 The notion of ‘simpler’ can have different meanings:

An expression is simpler if Example

 It has fewer symbol Both expression 2 + 3 + 4 and 9 are names
for the same number but 9 uses fewer
symbol.
 It has fewer operations Bot expression 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 and 5 * 3
are names for the same number but the latter
has fewer operations.
 It is better suited for current use The name 1 foot/12 inches is a great name
for the number 1 if we need to convert units
of inches to unit of feet.
 It follows the preferred style or The expression 2/4 and ½ are both names
format for the same number. People usually prefer
½ because it is in the ‘reduced form’ or
‘simplest form’.

DEFINITION 2.2 (mathematical sentence)

A mathematical sentence is the analogue (similar) of an English sentence; it is a
correct arrangement of mathematical symbols that states a complete thought. It makes
sense to ask about the TRUTH of a sentence: Is it true? Is it false? Is it sometimes
true/sometimes false?

The sentence ‘ 1 + 2 = 3 ’ is read as ‘one plus two equals three’. A complete thought is
being stated, which in this case is true.
A question commonly encountered, when presenting the sentence example ‘ 1 + 2 = 3’
, is the following:
If ‘=’ is the verb then what is the ‘+’?
The symbol ‘+’ is a connective; a connective use to ‘connect’ objects of a given type to get
‘compound’ object of the same type. Here, the numbers 1 and 2 are ‘connected’ to give the
number 1 + 2.

2 Primary ways to decide whether something is a sentence, or not:

 Read it aloud, and ask yourself the question: Does it state a complete thought? If the
answer is ‘yes’, then it is a sentence. Notice that the expressions do not state a
complete thought. Consider, for example, the number ‘1+2’. Say it aloud ‘one plus
two’. Have you stated a complete thought? NO! But, if you say: ‘ 1 + 2 = 4 ’, then you
have stated a complete thought.
 Alternately, you can ask yourself the question: Does it make sense to ask about the
TRUTH of this object? Consider again the number ‘1+2’. Is ‘1+2’ true? Is ‘1+2’
false? These questions do not make sense, because it does not make sense to ask about
the truth of an expression.
 Here are some examples of mathematical sentences and their truth values.
Mathematical sentence True, False, Sometime true/sometimes false
x² + 2x = x(x + 2) True
x+2<x–3 False
f (2) = 3 Sometimes true / sometimes false

The first sentence, x² + 2x = x(x+2), is true for all real numbers following the
distribution axiom.
The second sentence, x + 2 < - 3, is false for all real numbers. No real numbers will
make the sentence true.
The last sentence, f (2) = 3, is true if we define f (x) = x + 1 so that f (2) = 2 + 1 = 3.
However, if we define f (x) = 3x then f (2) = 6 ≠ 3 which makes the given sentence false.
Thus, this sentence is sometimes true/sometimes false.

Grammar in the Mathematical Language

Grammar is the set of structural rules governing the use of symbols representing
mathematical objects.

There are certain difficulties in the mathematical language. Here are some.
1. The word “is” could mean equality, inequality, or membership in a set depending on
ow they are used in a sentence.

Consider the sentences below:

1. 5 is the square root of 25.

2. 5 is less than 10.
3. 5 is a prime number.

In the first of these sentences, is could be replaced by equals: it says that two objects,
5 and the square root of 25, are in fact one and the same object. This is similar in use to the
English sentence Ilagan City is the capital of Isabela.
In the second sentence, is plays a completely different role. The word less than 10
form adjectival phrase, specifying a property that numbers may or may not have. This is
similar in use to the English sentence Grass is green.
As for the third sentence, the word is there means is an example of, as it does in the
English sentence Isabela is a province. This could also be a membership property meaning
Isabela belongs to the set of provinces.
These differences are reflected in the fact that the sentences do not resemble each
other when they are written in a more symbolic way. Thus, we give the corresponding
sentences in symbols below.

Sentence Sentence in symbol

 5 is the square root of 25 5= √25

5 is les than 10 5 < 10

5 is a prime number 5 € P where P is the set of all
prime numbers

The third sentence used the symbol € which indicates membership to a set (the
concept of sets will be discussed in detail in succeeding topics). The sentence would not
normally written symbolically because the concept of a prime number is not quite basic
enough to have universally recognized symbols associated with it. However, it is sometimes
useful to do so which means we need to invent a suitable symbol. In this case, we may use
the letter P to denote the set of all primes.

2. A number in a sentence may be of cardinal, ordinal, or nominal type.

Numbers in mathematics are treated differently based on how we used them. Here are
some examples:
I saw the road sign AH26 when I travelled from Manila to Isabela.
Jonathan is number 26 in the mathematical class.
I gained 26 points from my recent purchase.
All the sentences used the number 26 in different contexts. Can you tell the difference?
The first sentence talks about the road sign AH26 (Pan-Philippine Highway) which
means Asian Highways 26 of the Asians Highway Network. In this case, the number 26 was
used to described and distinguish the highway from other Asian highways. It does not tell that
AH26 is a better highway than the other Asian Highways. This means the number 26 in the
first sentence is nominal.
Nominal - A Nominal Number is a number used only as a name, or to identify
something (not as an actual value or position)

The second sentence tells us that the number 26 is used to identify Jonathan’s standing
in the mathematics class relative to his classmates. In this case, an order or rank is considered
and one can compare the number 26 from the other numbers. Thus, for example, Liza is
number 13 in the class, then we can say that Liza performs better than Jonahan. This is the
number 26 is of the ordinal type.
Ordinal - Ordinal numbers in mathematics are used to represent order, rank, or
position.
 The third sentence tells us that the number 26 is used to described the literal number
of points gained in a recent purchase. Here we observed the use of a unit of measure which is
points. Thus, if one gains 30 points from a recent purchase, we can say that this value is
larger than 26 points by 4 points. Thus, the number 26 in the third sentence is of cardinal
type.
Cardinal - the numbers that we use for counting are called cardinal numbers. They
tell us the quantity of objects. Cardinal Numbers
Examples: 2 bananas, 5 suitcases, 100 points, a million dollars, etc.