So, I'm not formally trained in mathematics at all. Normally, I can 
muddle through. I kept seeing the following mysterious symbol: Π

Err... what on earth?

Then, today, I was poking around with MathML and saw the symbol on a 
sample page, right-clicked and looked at the mark-up.

Product.

So.... essentially the same thing as Σ but with multiplication instead 
of addition.

Nice. Now I have to go back and find all of those formulae so I can 
actually understand them.
-- 
~Mike

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Mike Raiford escreveu:
> So, I'm not formally trained in mathematics at all. Normally, I can 
> muddle through. I kept seeing the following mysterious symbol: Π
> 
> Err... what on earth?
> 
> Then, today, I was poking around with MathML and saw the symbol on a 
> sample page, right-clicked and looked at the mark-up.
> 
> Product.

looks like pi to me...

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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On 21-9-2010 20:18, nemesis wrote:
> Mike Raiford escreveu:
>> So, I'm not formally trained in mathematics at all. Normally, I can
>> muddle through. I kept seeing the following mysterious symbol: Π
>>
>> Err... what on earth?
>>
>> Then, today, I was poking around with MathML and saw the symbol on a
>> sample page, right-clicked and looked at the mark-up.
>>
>> Product.
>
> looks like pi to me...
>
Probably because it is. Just as summation is a capital Sigma a product 
is a capital Pi. That made sense to the people that invented the 
convention, it might not work in every language, but in Dutch and 
English it does.

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>> So, I'm not formally trained in mathematics at all. Normally, I can
>> muddle through. I kept seeing the following mysterious symbol: Π
>>
>> Err... what on earth?
>
> looks like pi to me...

It *is*. It's the uppercase Greek letter pi (whereas the famous 
mathematical constant is the lowercase pi.) And the summation symbol is 
the (uppercase) Greek letter sigma...

-- 
http://blog.orphi.me.uk/
http://www.zazzle.com/MathematicalOrchid*

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And lo On Tue, 21 Sep 2010 18:20:11 +0100, Mike Raiford  
<"m[raiford]!at"@gmail.com> did spake thusly:

> So, I'm not formally trained in mathematics at all. Normally, I can  
> muddle through. I kept seeing the following mysterious symbol: Π
>
> Err... what on earth?

Yeah I recall Sigma a lot in high school maths but I don't recall every  
seeing Pi in this context. I don't recall when I discovered it, but it was  
definitely after leaving education.

> Then, today, I was poking around with MathML and saw the symbol on a  
> sample page, right-clicked and looked at the mark-up.

Or you could have, you know, asked here :-)

-- 
Phil Cook

--
I once tried to be apathetic, but I just couldn't be bothered
http://flipc.blogspot.com

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> Yeah I recall Sigma a lot in high school maths but I don't recall every
> seeing Pi in this context. I don't recall when I discovered it, but it
> was definitely after leaving education.

You obviously had much greater mathematical education than me then!

>> Then, today, I was poking around with MathML and saw the symbol on a
>> sample page, right-clicked and looked at the mark-up.
>
> Or you could have, you know, asked here :-)

What, to cries of GIYF?

Or is that only when *I* ask something? :-P

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Orchid XP v8 escreveu:
>>> So, I'm not formally trained in mathematics at all. Normally, I can
>>> muddle through. I kept seeing the following mysterious symbol: Π
>>>
>>> Err... what on earth?
>>
>> looks like pi to me...
> 
> It *is*. It's the uppercase Greek letter pi (whereas the famous 
> mathematical constant is the lowercase pi.) And the summation symbol is 
> the (uppercase) Greek letter sigma...

neverending revelations... pi *has* uppercase... *head spins*

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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Le 22/09/2010 19:02, nemesis nous fit lire :
> neverending revelations... pi *has* uppercase... *head spins*
> 
Take a seat, greek letters have uppercase & lowercase.
Now, take a deep breath.

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Le_Forgeron escreveu:
> Le 22/09/2010 19:02, nemesis nous fit lire :
>> neverending revelations... pi *has* uppercase... *head spins*
>>
> Take a seat, greek letters have uppercase & lowercase.
> Now, take a deep breath.

and can you think of any of them where the difference between them isn't 
merely size?  Take roman letters like "H" or "h" and the difference is 
remarkable.  Not such with "lowercase" or "uppercase" greek (at least 
the one's I know).

That's why I saw no difference in the pi symbol:  I have no size to 
relate to to tell if it's big or small.

-- 
a game sig: http://tinyurl.com/d3rxz9

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On 9/22/2010 11:52 AM, nemesis wrote:
> and can you think of any of them where the difference between them isn't
> merely size?

How about:

Alpha, Gamma, Delta, Zeta, Eta, Mu, Nu, Xi, Pi, Sigma, Upsilon, and Omega?

You also get less drastic changes for: Beta, Epsilon, Iota, Lambda, and 
Phi, plus some minor changes even for many of the remaining letters.

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