Re: Why blackletter letters?

Le 12/09/2013 14:21, Neil Harris a écrit :
> On 12/09/13 11:26, Johan Winge wrote:
>> On Wed, 11 Sep 2013 20:29:51 +0200, Hans Aberg <haberg-1_at_telia.com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> ... The symbol for the empty set ∅ is originally a Greek letter phi
>>> ϕ, ans some use the latter.
>>
>> According to the autobiography of André Weil, quoted at
>> http://jeff560.tripod.com/set.html, the empty set symbol ∅ was
>> inspired by the Scandinavian Ø, and would then have nothing to do
>> with the Greek phi, except for a superficial resemblance. I'm aware
>> that some mathematician indeed do use Φ/φ, supposedly due to this
>> misconception and/or lacking coverage in fonts and/or carelessness,
>> but I find it terribly annoying. Really, it is no more correct than
>> using ß in lieu of β.
>>
>> -- Johan Winge
>>
>>
>
> Do some mathematicians _really_ use Φ/φ instead of ∅, or does it just
> look like they're doing so?
>
> Careless handwriting of ∅ could indeed look like Φ or even φ, but I
> doubt they're thinking "phi, the symbol for the empty set" as they do
> so. [...]

I've heard physicists saying "phi" for the similar ⌀ U+2300 DIAMETER
SIGN, in French. So I wouldn't be surprised if some mathematicians would
use the same 'mistake' to read out loud formulas containing the empty set.

     Fred
Received on Thu Sep 12 2013 - 07:37:51 CDT