Re: decimal point/comma (was conplaneteering)
| From: | Mark J. Reed <markjreed@...> |
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| Date: | Friday, February 18, 2005, 4:07 |
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On Tue, Feb 15, 2005 at 02:16:04PM -0600, Phil Bordelon wrote:
> 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.
>
Thank you. But I wasn't looking for the etymology of × and ÷ so much as
the history: when were the symbols introduced, and by whom, and where
were they used? Were they just invented for elementary school math
primers or did they have broader use at some point in mathematical
literature?