Timeline for When did the abuse of notation $y=y(x)$ start?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
4 events
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| Oct 25, 2023 at 7:12 | comment | added | Michael Bächtold | Responding to your last comment: there is definitely a place for $f'$-notation, namely when $f$ is a function in the modern sense. In that case it would be misleading to write $df/dx$ to denote $f'$. See this question: mathoverflow.net/q/115416/745 | |
| Nov 2, 2016 at 5:19 | comment | added | Włodzimierz Holsztyński | It's not just about unnecessary but also about convenient. As we all know, notation $\ f'\ $ is convenient, it's simple. People liked it for centuries. (There is still another tricky moment about the notation involving functions and derivatives). | |
| Nov 1, 2016 at 18:37 | comment | added | Michael Bächtold | Have you ever seen a historical (or modern) calculus textbook explicitly state this interpretation of $y=y(x)$? I might believe that this is how many people think of it, but this interpretation definitely abuses the standard mathematical meaning of $=$ and of function application. Also, thanks to Leibniz derivative notation it seems unnecessary. | |
| Nov 1, 2016 at 16:41 | history | answered | Włodzimierz Holsztyński | CC BY-SA 3.0 |