Curious Facts

The signaof addition is derived from the initial letter of the word "plus." In making the capital letter it wasmade more and more carelessly until the top part of the "p" was flnally placed near the center; henee the plus sign as we know it was gradually reached. The sign of subtraction was derived from the word "minus." The word was first contracted in m, n. s, with a horizontal line above to indieat-e that some of the letters had been left out. At last the letters were omitted altogether, leaving only the short line. The multiplication sign was obtained by changing the plus sign into the letter X. This was done because multiplication is but a shorter form of addition. División was formerly indicated by placing the dividend above a horizontal line and the divisor below. In order to save space in printing the dividend was placed to the left and the divisor to the right. After years of "evolution" the d's were omitted altogether and simple dots set in the place of each. As wifh the others the radical sign was derived from the initial letter of the word "radix." The sign of equality was first used in the year 15r7 by a sharp mathematician, who substituted it to avoid frequently repeating the words"equal to."