The University of British Columbia - Department of Physics and Astronomy

MATHEMATICAL SYMBOLS COMMONLY USED IN PHYSICS

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Web version by Jess H. Brewer

$\to$    " . . . approaches . . . " (e.g. as $\Delta t \to 0$).

OPERATORS: (these all operate to the right)
$\partial$ = partial derivative operator   as in ${\partial F \over \partial x}$ .
$\nabla$ = gradient operator:

$\nabla$ $\phi \,\equiv\,
\hat{\imath} \, {\partial \phi \over \partial x}
+ \hat{\jm . . . 
 . . . partial \phi \over \partial y}
+ \hat{k} \, {\partial \phi \over \partial z} $
${\displaystyle \int}$ = integral operator as in ${\displaystyle \int_a^b y(x)dx }$

LOGICAL SYMBOLS: (handy shorthand)
$\equiv$   " . . . is defined to be . . . " (see above)
. . .   "Therefore . . . "     $\Rightarrow$   " . . . implies . . . "
$\exists$   "there exists . . . "     $\ni$   " . . . such that . . . "

/    [a slash through any logical symbol]
denotes negation
(e.g. $\not\Rightarrow$   " . . . does not imply . . . ")