Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

MODULE 2
MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE AND SYMBOLS

Module Objective
At the end of the module, you should be able to:
• Discuss the language, symbols, and conventions of mathematics
• Explain the nature of mathematics as a language
• Perform operations on mathematical expressions correctly
• Acknowledge that mathematics is a useful language

Lesson 1 : Mathematical Language

A HYPOTHETICAL SITUATION
Imagine the following scenario: You’re in math class, and the instructor passes a
piece of paper to each student. It is announced that the paper contains Study Strategies for
Students of Mathematics; you are to read it and make comments. Upon glancing at the
paper, however, you observe that it is written in a foreign language that you do not
understand!
THE IMPORTANCE OF LANGUAGE
Is the instructor being fair? Of course not. Indeed, the instructor is probably trying to make a point.
Although the ideas in the paragraph may be simple, there is no access to the ideas without a knowledge of
the language in which the ideas are expressed. This situation has a very strong analogy in mathematics.
People frequently have trouble understanding mathematical ideas: not necessarily because the ideas are
difficult, but because they are being presented in a foreign language—the language of mathematics.
Characteristics of the Language of Mathematics
The language of mathematics makes it easy to express the kinds of thoughts that mathematicians like to express. It is:
• Precise (able to make very fine distinctions)
• Concise (able to say things briefly)
• Powerful (able to express complex thoughts with relative ease).

English: Nouns versus Sentences

In English, nouns are used to name things we want to talk about (like people, places, and things); whereas
sentences are used to state complete thoughts. A typical English sentence has at least one noun, and at least one verb.
For example, consider the sentence
“Carol loves mathematics.”
Here, ‘Carol’ and ‘mathematics’ are nouns; ‘loves’ is a verb.

Mathematics: Expressions Versus Sentences

EXPRESSION SENTENCE

• An expression is the mathematical analogue of an • A mathematical sentence is the analogue of an

English noun; it is a correct arrangement of English sentence; it is a correct arrangement of
mathematical symbols used to represent a mathematical symbols that states a complete
mathematical object of interest. thought.
• Sentences have verbs. In the mathematical
sentence '3 + 4 = 7 ' , the verb is ‘ = ’

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

• An expression does not state a complete thought; it

does not make sense to ask if an expression is true
or false.
• The most common expression types are numbers,
sets, and functions.

𝟏+𝟏 𝟏+𝟏 =𝟐
½ ½ = 𝟎. 𝟓
𝟏𝟎 + 𝟗𝟎 − 𝟏𝟎 𝟏𝟎 + 𝟗𝟎 − 𝟏𝟎 < 𝟏𝟗𝟎
A sentence can be (always) true, (always) false, or sometimes true/sometimes false.
2 Expression
1+1 Expression
1+1=2 Sentence True
1+1=3 Sentence False
x+1 = 3 Sentence Sometime true/ Sometimes false

Activity 1
Directions. Classify the truth of each sentence: always true (T); always false (F); or sometimes true/sometimes false
(ST/SF).

Lesson 2: Grammar of the Mathematical Language

Grammar is the set of structural rules governing the use of symbols representing mathematical objects.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE

I. The word “is” could mean equality, inequality, or membership in a set depending on how they are used
in a sentence.
• 5 is the square root of 25 -equality
• 5 is less than 10 -inequality
• 5 is a prime number -membership

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

These differences are reflected in the fact that the sentences do not resemble each other when they are
written in a more symbolic way. Thus, we give the corresponding sentences in symbols below.

Activity 2
Directions. Classify the use of “is” in each of the following mathematical sentences: equality (E), inequality (I), and
membership (M).
1. 𝑥 divided by 3 is 2.
2. 5 minus 1 is not equal to 5.
3. 1 plus 2 plus 𝑥 is equal to 𝑥 plus 1 plus 2
4. 5 is a natural number.
5. 2 is in the set of all even integers.

II. A number in a sentence may be of cardinal, ordinal, or nominal type.

• Cardinal - Literal number
• Ordinal - Rank/ order
• Nominal - Description/name

Example:

1. I saw the road sign AH26 when I traveled from Manila to Isabela. -Nominal
2. Jonathan is number 26 in the Mathematics class. -Ordinal
3. I gained 26 points from my recent purchase. – Cardinal

Activity 3
Directions. Identify the type of number used in each of the following sentences: nominal (N), ordinal (O), cardinal (C).
1. His situation is a catch-22.
2. I have 5 pesos left in my wallet.
3. Myla has an overload of 4 teaching units.
4. William is 2nd in line to the throne.
5. I could not tell him that my mobile number is 09021112222.

III. The word “and” means differently in mathematics from its English use.
• Two and two equals four.
• Mario and Dana love Mathematics

IV. Mathematical objects may be represented in many ways such as sets and functions.

Lesson 3: Four Basic Concept in the Mathematical Language

1. SET
• Set is a collection of distinct well-defined objects called elements.
• We denote a set using capital letters of the English alphabet and the symbol ϵ for set membership. Thus, if 𝐴
is a set and 3 is an element of this set, we may write it in symbol as 3 ϵ 𝐴 which is read 3 𝑖𝑠 𝑎𝑛 𝑒𝑙𝑒𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑜𝑓
𝐴 or 3 𝑖𝑠 𝑖𝑛 𝐴.

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

• A set may also be empty, that is, it has no elements. We call this set the empty set or the null set. The
symbols used to denote the empty set are ∅ and { }.
• There is a fairly simple notation for sets. We simply list each element (or "member") separated by a comma,
and then put some curly brackets around the whole thing:
{𝟑, 𝟔, 𝟗, 𝟏𝟐, … }
Examples:
1. Set of even numbers: {..., -4, -2, 0, 2, 4, ... }
2. Set of odd numbers: {..., -3, -1, 1, 3, ...}
3. Set of prime numbers: {2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, ...}
4. Set of positive multiples of 3 less than 10: {3, 6, 9}

Note: There can also be sets of numbers that have no common property, they are just defined that way. For
example: {4, 5, 6, 10, 21}.

THREE COMMON WAYS TO DENOTE A SET

I. Roster or Listing Method : A ={2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19}
II. Descriptive Method : A = {prime numbers greater than 100}
III. Rule Method / Set Builder: 𝐴 = {𝑥 ∶ 𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑥 < 20}

CONCEPT ON SETS
• Finite set is a set whose elements are countable.
o Example: Set A is the set of integers greater than zero but less than five.

• Unit set is a finite set that has only one element.

o Example: Set D is the set consisting of the number that is neither prime nor composite.

• Infinite set is a set where the number of elements is unlimited or not countable.
o Examples: Set C is the set of positive integers

• Empty or null set is a set that has no elements.

o Examples are : Set H is the set of months that start with the letter Z.

• Cardinality or cardinal number of a set is the number of elements in it .

o The cardinality of set 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7} is five (5) since it has 5 elements or 𝑛(𝐵) = 5.

• Equivalent sets are sets that have the same number of elements. In other words, they have the same
a cardinality.
o Example: 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7}𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐵 = {8, 9, 13, 14, 17} are equivalent sets
while 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7} 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, } are not.

• Equal sets are sets that have exactly the same elements.
o Example: 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7} 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐵 = {7, 2, 4, 3, 1}

• The symbol ∈ is used to indicate that an element belongs to a set ;while ∉ is used to indicate that an
element does not belong to a set .
o Example: Given 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7}, we say that 1 is an element of A or in symbols, A∈ 1 .
Given 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7}, , we say that 5 is not an element of A or in symbols A∉ 5 ,
• The symbol ⊂ is used to indicate that a set is a proper subset of another set. By proper subset, in given
two sets A and B, every element of Set A is also an element of Set B , but not all elements of Set B are

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College
elements of Set A. Such a relation between sets is denoted by B⊂ 𝐴 and is read as “Set A is a proper
subset of set B”.

• On the other hand, the symbol ⊄ is used to indicate that a set is not a subset of another set ; meaning
not all elements of the first set are also element of the second set.

• The symbol ⊆ is used to indicate that equal sets are subset of one another.

• Do note that an empty set is a subset of every set and every set is a subset of itself.

• Sets that have common elements are called joint sets ; while those that do not have common
elements are called disjoint sets.

SET OPERATIONS
I. UNION. The union of sets A and B, written as 𝑨 ∪ 𝑩, is the set of all elements that are in A, or in B, or in
both A and B.
Example: 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7} and 𝐵 = {0, 1,4, 8,9,10},
𝑨 ∪ 𝑩 = {𝟎, 𝟏, 𝟐, 𝟑, 𝟒, 𝟕, 𝟖, 𝟗, 𝟏𝟎}

II. INTERSECTION. The intersection of sets A and B, written as 𝑨 ∩ 𝑩, is the set containing the elements
that are common to both A and B.
Example: 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7} and 𝐵 = {0, 1,4, 8,9,10},
𝑨 ∩ 𝑩 = {𝟏, 𝟒}

III. DIFFERENCE. If A and B are two sets, then their difference is given by A-B or B-A.
• A-B is the set of all elements of A that are not in B.
• B-A is the set of all elements of B that are not in A.
Example: 𝐴 = {1, 2, 3, 4, 7} and 𝐵 = {0, 1,4, 8,9,10},
𝑨 − 𝑩 = {𝟐, 𝟑, 𝟕}
𝑩 − 𝑨 = {𝟎, 𝟖, 𝟗, 𝟏𝟎}

IV. COMPLEMENT. The complement of a set A, written A’, is the set of elements in the universal set that
are not in A.
Example: The universal set is 𝐴: {𝑥: 𝑥 𝑖𝑠 𝑝𝑜𝑠𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑣𝑒 𝑝𝑟𝑖𝑚𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑠𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 10}
𝐴 = {2,3} 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝐴′ = {5,7}

Venn Diagram and Set Operations

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

COUNTING PROBLEMS
Counting problems occur in many areas of applied mathematics. To solve these counting problems, we often
make use of a Venn diagram. In the next example, we can use Venn Diagram to help us solve some word problems.

Example: A movie company is making plans for future movies it wishes to produce. The company has
done a random survey of 1000 people. The results of the survey are shown below.
• 695 people like action adventures.
• 340 people like comedies.
• 180 people like both action adventures and comedies.

Of the people surveyed, how many people

a. like action adventures but not comedies?
b. like comedies but not action adventures?
c. do not like either of these types of movies?

Solution. A Venn diagram can be used to illustrate the results of the survey. We use two overlapping
circles (see Figure 4). One circle represents the set of people who like action adventures and the other
represents the set of people who like comedies. The region i where the circles intersect represents the set of
people who like both types of movies. We start with the information that 180 people like both types of movies
and write 180 in region i . See Figure 5.

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College
a. like action adventures but not comedies? -515
b. like comedies but not action adventures? -160
c. do not like either of these types of movies? -145

Activity 4.
An activities director for a cruise ship has surveyed 240 passengers. Of the 240 passengers,
• 135 like swimming.
• 80 like swimming and dancing.
• 150 like dancing.
• 40 like swimming and games.
• 65 like games.
• 25 like dancing and games.
• 15 like all three activities.
How many passengers
a. like exactly two of the three types of activities?
b. like only swimming?
c. like none of these activities?

2. RELATION
• Relation is a set of ordered pairs.
• The set of all first components of the ordered pairs is called the domain of the relation, the set of all the
second components are called the range of the relation.

Examples:
1. {(-2,5), (-1,0), (2,-3)}
2. {(-1,0), (0,-3), (2,-3), (3,0), (4,5)}
3. {(3,0), (4,5)}

3. FUNCTION
• Function is a relation for which each value from the set the first components of the ordered pairs is
associated with exactly one value from the set of second components of the ordered pair.

{(-1,0), (0,-3), (2,-3), (3,0), (4,5)} -function

{(6,10), (-7,3), (0,4), (6,-4), (5,4)} -not a function

4. BINARY OPERATION
• Binary operation is simply a rule for combining two values to create a new value. The most widely known
binary operations are those learned in elementary school: addition, subtraction, multiplication and division
on various sets of numbers.

Lesson 3: Translating Mathematical Expressions to Mathematical Sentences

Step 1: Identify the variable/s and constant/s
Step 2: Determine the connectors.
Step 3: Perform the translation of the phrase or sentence into symbols

Example:
Seven and a number is fifteen. → 7 + 𝑥 = 15

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

Verbal Phrase Variable Expression

The sum of a number and 9 𝑛+9

The difference of a number and 21 𝑛 − 21

The product of 6 and a number 6𝑛

The quotient of 48 and a number 48/𝑛

One third of a number 1

𝑛
3

CONVENTIONS IN MATHEMATICAL LANGUAGE

When introducing a new variable into a discussion, the convention is to place the new variable to the left of the
equal sign and the expression that defines it to the right.

Let 𝑠 be the sum of 𝑎 and 𝑏

“Let 𝑠 = 𝑎 + 𝑏” not Let 𝑎 + 𝑏 = 𝑠

It is considered good mathematical writing to avoid starting a sentence with a variable. That is one reason that
mathematical writing frequently uses words and phrases such as Then, Thus, So, Therefore, it follows that, Hence, etc.

For example, in a proof that any sum of even integers is even, instead of writing,

No! No! No! Exactly!

By definition of even, By definition of even,
𝑚 = 2𝑎 and 𝑛 = 2𝑏 for some integers 𝑎 and 𝑏. 𝑚 = 2𝑎 and 𝑛 = 2𝑏 for some integers 𝑎 and 𝑏.
𝑚 + 𝑛 = 2𝑎 + 2𝑏 … Then 𝑚 + 𝑛 = 2𝑎 + 2𝑏 …

KEY WORDS AND PHRASES

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

COMMON ISSUES

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

TAKE NOTE!

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 Ilocos Sur Polytechnic State College

Try This!
Direction. Translate the following sentences to mathematical symbols.
1. The sum of two numbers is seven.
2. Three less than a number is twelve.
3. Four more than a number is fifteen.
4. Five-eighths of a number is twenty.
5. The values of the real number 𝑥 ranges from negative four to seventeen.

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