The language of mathematics is the system used by mathematicians to communicate mathematical ideas among themselves. This language consists of a substrate of some natural language (for example English) using technical terms and grammatical conventions that are peculiar to mathematical discourse (see Mathematical jargon), supplemented by a highly specialized symbolic notation for mathematical formulas.
Like natural languages in general, discourse using the language of mathematics can employ a scala of registers. Research articles in academic journals use a more formal tone than oral exchanges over a scribbled-upon napkin in the university cafeteria.
Read more about Language Of Mathematics: What Is A Language?, The Vocabulary of Mathematics, The Grammar of Mathematics, The Language Community of Mathematics, The Meanings of Mathematics, Alternative Views
Famous quotes containing the words language and/or mathematics:
“The hypothesis I wish to advance is that ... the language of morality is in ... grave disorder.... What we possess, if this is true, are the fragments of a conceptual scheme, parts of which now lack those contexts from which their significance derived. We possess indeed simulacra of morality, we continue to use many of the key expressions. But we havevery largely if not entirelylost our comprehension, both theoretical and practical, of morality.”
—Alasdair Chalmers MacIntyre (b. 1929)
“Why does man freeze to death trying to reach the North Pole? Why does man drive himself to suffer the steam and heat of the Amazon? Why does he stagger his mind with the mathematics of the sky? Once the question mark has arisen in the human brain the answer must be found, if it takes a hundred years. A thousand years.”
—Walter Reisch (19031963)