From: Kenneth Whistler (kenw@sybase.com)
Date: Mon Mar 13 2006 - 18:16:05 CST
Asmus quoted Patrick Ion:
> >... and 'm' does seem to be associated with measured'.
> >I'd be interested in use cases myself, as I can't think
> >of one now. A symbol once in the fount case will always find
> >a use I think, so I'd be more interested in earlier use case.
> >
> >Philip Chastney's comment about an implicit metric strikes me
> >as likely an astute one, but is probably, as he seems to suggest
> >himself, just a clever reading or reconstruction from what's
> >before us.
My surmise would be that this is related in some way to
isometry.
Cf. the usage of U+224C ALL EQUAL TO in discussion of
Euclidean geometry:
http://whyslopes.com/Euclidean-Geometry-Introduction/geom02_isometry.html
In such a context, the definition of "isometry", 'equal by measure',
could well have led someone to create an equality relation
symbol with the "m" instead of a reversed tilde as a mnemonic
aid. That would, at least, explain where the name was coming
from.
All speculation, however. This character dates to the
original set of math symbols for Unicode 1.0, and does *not*
appear to originate in either XCCS or in IBM code pages, which
were the sources for much of the U+2200 Mathematical Operators
block. Symbols dating to Unicode 1.0 that can't be pegged to
either XCCS or IBM or an East Asian character set from the late
1980's or an early 10646 draft are often difficult to track down.
In any case, if the character historians are paying attention,
U+225E can now be officially added to the "Every Character Has
a Story" list.
--Ken
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