Common Abbreviations

I like abbreviations. They allow more efficient communication. But feel free to question me if I go too far. Here is a list of common ones you might see in my lectures, grading or web pages. Most are pretty well known and widely used. Of course, I cannot include all the notation, Greek letters, etc, used in advanced math here. So, I am only listing ones that could be used in any of my classes.

ASAP - as soon as possible

avg - average

b/c - because

btw - by the way

C - the complex numbers (or maybe your grade)

Cor - corollary (a theorem that easily follows from another)

ets - It's enough to show ... ("the goal in this proof is ...")

ex - example (but "ex 7" probably means "exercise 7")

IMHO - in my humble opinion.(not used often)

lhs - the left hand side (of the main equation, probably)

NA - not applicable (or not available)

omit (when grading) - means you wrote too much. Usually, no points taken off for this.

PC - personal computer (I may use this to include mainframes, Macs, etc)

pf - proof

Q - the rational number (fractions, like -2/3, or 5/1)

QED - end of the proof (but I usually just write "Done")

R - the real numbers

rhs - the right hand side (of the main equation, probably)

rk - remark (a short side note in a lecture, may indicate a change of subject)

s.l. - slightly late (usually means about 10 points off)

Sp - suppose.. (not used often)

s.t - such that

tba - to be announced

thm - theorem

w/ - with

w/o- without

wrt - with respect to

Z - the integers (positives and negatives)

? - (when grading) means I cannot follow your work, or that steps are missing. Usually counts as "wrong".

(*) - Placed near a major equation to label it. [Then, a few lines down - "We see from (*) that ..."]

"x - for all x...

$x - there exists an x ...

x (funny e) A - means x is an element of A. I cannot display the "funny e" here, but it looks like a lower case Greek epsilon.

 A ∩ B - the intersection of A and B, elements of this set belong to both A and B.

A ∪ B - the union of A and B, elements of this set belong to A or B.

→  can refer to a limit, an implication, a function, or it might just be a pointer. Depends on the context. A doubly thick arrow usually means "implies".

= means equals. But three lines can mean a) that the formula is a definition or b) an identity (eg, true for all x). A wavy equal sign means "approximately equal" (which actually has no precise meaning, so this will only be used informally).

Common Calculus Abbreviations

C Test (etc) - Comparison Test (etc)

EVT - Extreme Value Thm

FTC - Fundamental Thm(s) of Calculus

IBP - Integration by Parts

LHR - L'Hopital's Rule

MVT - Mean Value Thm

R. Sum - Riemann sum

PF - partial fractions

P. Sum - partial sum

Other symbols might be Greek letters, for example, not abbreviations.

Some parts translated from T_EX by T_TH, version 3.05.

Steve M Hudson, August 2003.