Mathematical Symbols and Greek Alphabet

It is important to keep in mind that the purpose of this chapter is to facus on important mathematical concepts and to point out why nuohematics is so important in your en neering education. The focus ofthis chapter is not to explain mathematical concepts in detail, that will take place later in your nuoh classes. 

As you already know, mathematics is a language that has its own symbols and tetminolc. In elementary school, you learned about the arithmetic operational symbols, such as plus, minus, division, and multiplication. Later, you learned about d ree symbols, trigonometry symbols, and so on. In the nest four years, you will learn additional mathematical symbols and their meanings. Make sure that you understand what they mean and use them ptopeily when com-municatit with other students or with your instructor. Examples of some math symbols are shown in Table 18.1. 

As you take more and more mathematics and engineering classes, you will see that the Greek alphabetic characters qtdte commonly are used to eiq)ress angles, dimensions, and physical variables in drawii and in mathematical equations and expressions. Take a few moments to learn 

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