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Do medical assistants use math if so when?

Why do we use different mathematical conventions and symbols for physics and math?

  • For example using, ^x,^y,^zx^,y^,z^\hat{x}, \hat{y}, \hat{z} to denote unit vectors instead of ^i,^j,^ki^,j^,k^\hat{i}, \hat{j}, \hat{k}, what θ and Ï• stand for in spherical coordinates, etc. Some of them make sense for example using jjj instead of iii to represent imaginary numbers when dealing with currents but what about other such differences?

  • Answer:

    Basically for the same reason that the British talk about the "bonnet" of a car while the Americans talk about the "hood". There was no committee to choose notation - it evolved over time. Physicists mostly read physics papers, and mathematicians read math papers. So the notations didn't stay perfectly in sync. Since the two communities do interact a lot, the notations do stay mostly in sync.

Mark Foskey at Quora Visit the source

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What happened is that early on the germinal papers in the field may have used offbeat informal notation, so they were talking in general about quantity q before they had any math behind it.  Then when some mathematician pointed out the similarity to Reinmann equations or matrices, the geologists had a problem, should they switch to the mathematical letters or stick with their familiar letters?   You're wrong either way, so they stuck with what they were used to and screw the mathematicians. It gets worse, in meteorology they I think twist the x, y, and z axes to their own conventions.    I wouldn't be surprised if Australian geologists have the z axis pointing down.   And Eskimos thin that everyplace else is away fro the center of the world, that large seal breathing hole over there.

George Gonzalez

Different Guilds have different traditions.

Robert J. Kolker

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261540197_Curve_Style_Analysis_in_a_Set_of_Shapes/figuresFor the same reason that the number 1 is not written the same in English, French and German etc.Symbols, like words are tools used for a purpose and are fashioned to help that particular purpose. In mathematics we are very fortunate to have much of the basic language fairly standardised but it seems not to be any harm to allow us to use letters as we like as long as we define them.So e might be 2.7.. or just an unknown.It would not seem reasonable if all restaurants and homes were forced to use a standard item for knives, forks and spoons. We have a choice of what particular shape of these we like to use.

Alfred Dominic Vella

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