Re: decimal point/comma (was conplaneteering)

On Tue, 15 Feb 2005 14:16:04 -0600, Phil Bordelon
<phil@...> wrote:

>Mark J. Reed wrote:
>
>> Which reminds me - where did the × and ÷ symbols come from?   Everyone
>> learns them in early grades, and they show up as labels on calculator
>> keys, but they're never used in actual mathematics notation . . .
>
>I'm certainly not an expert on, um, anything, but I'd venture to guess
>that ÷ is a fraction, with dots representing the locations the two
>numbers would go.
>
>> -Marcos
>
>Phil
I'm no mathematician, but I always assumed that × used to be the
conventional multiplication sign up until the advent of computers, when it
was replaced by * to avoid confusion with x.  But thinking about it again,
that can't be right, as people were doing algebra long before there were
computers...

[confused look]

Geoff

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