Equals sign
The equals sign, equality sign, or "=" is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. It was invented in 1557 by Robert Recorde. The equals sign is placed between the things stated to have the same value, as in an equation. It is assigned to the Unicode and ASCII character 003D in hexadecimal, 0061 in decimal.
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[edit] History
The etymology of the word equal is from the Latin word aequalis, meaning "uniform, identical, or equal," from aequus "level, even, just."
The "=" symbol that is now universally accepted by mathematics for equality was first recorded by Welsh mathematician Robert Recorde in The Whetstone of Witte (1557). The original form of the symbol was much wider than the present form. In his book Recorde explains his design of the "Gemowe lines" (meaning twin lines, from the Latin gemini):
...to auoide the tediouſe repetition of theſe woordes : is equalle to : I will ſette as I doe often in woorke vſe, a paire of paralleles, or Gemowe lines of one lengthe, thus: =, bicauſe noe .2. thynges, can be moare equalle.
...to avoid the tedious repetition of these words: "is equal to", I will set (as I do often in work use) a pair of parallels (or Gemowe[1] lines) of one length (thus =), because no two things can be more equal.
According to Scotland's University of St Andrews History of Mathematics website:[2]
The symbol '=' was not immediately popular. The symbol || was used by some and æ (or œ), from the Latin word aequalis meaning equal, was widely used into the 1700s.
[edit] Usage in mathematics and computer programming
In mathematics, the equals sign may express a simple statement of fact (x = 2), a definition (let x = 2), or a condition (if x = 2 then...).
The first important computer programming language to use the equals sign was the original version of Fortran, FORTRAN I, designed in 1954 and implemented in 1957. In Fortran, "=" serves as an assignment operator: X = 2 sets the value of X to 2. This somewhat resembles the use of "=" in a mathematical definition, but with different semantics: the expression following "=" is evaluated first and may refer to a previous value of X. For example, the assignment X = X + 2 increases the value of X by 2.
A rival programming-language usage was pioneered by the original version of ALGOL, which was designed in 1958 and implemented in 1960. ALGOL included a relational operator that tested for equality, allowing constructions like if x = 2 with essentially the same meaning of "=" as the conditional usage in mathematics. The equals sign was reserved for this usage.
Both usages have remained common in different programming languages into the early 21st century. As well as Fortran, "=" is used for assignment in such languages as C, Perl, Python, awk, and their descendants. But "=" is used for equality and not assignment in the Pascal family, Ada, Eiffel, APL, and other languages.
A few languages, such as BASIC and PL/I, have used the equals sign to mean both mean assignment and equality, distinguished by context. However, in most languages where "=" has one of these meanings, a different character or, more often, a sequence of characters is used for the other meaning. Following ALGOL, most languages that use "=" for equality use ":=" for assignment, although APL, with its special character set, uses a left-pointing arrow.
Fortran did not have an equality operator (it was only possible to compare an expression to zero, using the arithmetic IF statement) until FORTRAN IV was released in 1962, since when it has used the four characters ".EQ." to test for equality. The language B introduced the use of "==" with this meaning, which has been copied by its descendant C and most later languages where "=" means assignment.
[edit] Usage of several equal-signs
In PHP, the triple equals sign (===) denotes identicalness,[3] meaning that not only do the two values evaluate to the same boolean value, they are also of the same data type. For instance, the expression 0 == false is true, but 0 === false is not, because the number 0 is an integer value (whereas false is a boolean).
JavaScript has the same semantics for ===, referred to as "equality without type coercion". However in JavaScript the behavior of == cannot be described by any simple consistent rules. The expression 0 == false is true, but 0 == undefined is false, even though both sides of the == act the same in boolean context. For this reason it is recommended to avoid the == operator in JavaScript in favor of ===.[4]
In Ruby, equality under == requires both operands to be of identical type, e.g. 0 == false is false. The === operator is flexible and may be defined arbitrarily by any given type. For example a value of type Range is a range of integers, such as 1800..1899. (1800..1899) == 1844 is false, since the types are different (Range vs. Integer); however (1800..1899) === 1844 is true, since Range defines === to mean "inclusion in the range".[5] Note that under these semantics, === is non-commutative; e.g. 1844 === (1800..1899) is false, since it is interpreted to mean Integer#=== rather than Range#===.[6]
[edit] Tone letter
The equals sign is also used as a grammatical tone letter in the orthographies of Budu in the Congo-Kinshasa, in Krumen, Mwan and Dan in the Ivory Coast.[7][8] The Unicode character used for the tone letter (U+A78A)[9] is different from the mathematical symbol (U+003D).
[edit] Related symbols
[edit] Approximately equal
Symbols used to denote items that are approximately equal are "wavy" equals signs.
- ≈ (Unicode 2248),
- ≃ (Unicode 2243), a combination of ≈ and =, also used to indicate asymptotically equal to
- ≅ (Unicode 2245), another combination of ≈ and =, which is also sometimes used to indicate isomorphism or congruence
- ~ (Unicode 007E), which is also sometimes used to indicate proportionality
- ≒ (Unicode 2252), in Japanese and Korean, this is commonly used.
[edit] Not equal
The symbol used to denote inequation — when items are not equal — is a slashed equals sign "≠" (Unicode 2260).
Most programming languages, limiting themselves to the ASCII character set, use ~=, !=, /=, =/=, or <> to represent their boolean inequality operator.
[edit] Identity
The triple bar symbol "≡" (U+2261) is often used to indicate an identity, a definition (which can also be represented by "≝", U+225D), or a congruence relation in modular arithmetic. The symbol "≘" can be used to express that an item corresponds to another.
[edit] Isomorphism
The symbol "≅" is often used to indicate isomorphic algebraic structures or congruent geometric figures.
[edit] In logic
Equality of truth values, i.e. bi-implication or logical equivalence, may be denoted by various symbols including =, ~, and ⇔.
[edit] In a double-barreled name
A possibly unique case of the equals sign in a person's name, specifically in a double-barreled name, was by pioneer aviator Alberto Santos=Dumont, as he is also known to not only have often used an equals sign (=) between his two surnames in place of a hyphen, but also seems to have personally preferred that practice, to display equal respect for his father's French ethnicity and the Brazilian ethnicity of his mother.[10]
[edit] Incorrect usage
The equals sign can be used incorrectly within a mathematical argument, if used in a manner that connects steps of math in a non-standard way, rather than to show equality. For example, if one were finding the sum, step by step, of the numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5, one might write:
- 1 + 2 = 3 + 3 = 6 + 4 = 10 + 5 = 15
Structurally, this is shorthand for
- ([(1 + 2 = 3) + 3 = 6] + 4 = 10) + 5 = 15
but the notation is incorrect, because each part of the equality has a different value. If interpreted strictly as it says, it implies
- 3 = 6 = 10 = 15 = 15
A correct version of the argument would be
- 1 + 2 = 3; 3 + 3 = 6; 6 + 4 = 10; 10 + 5 = 15[11]
[edit] See also
[edit] Notes
- ^ From Latin gamellus, twin.
- ^ The MacTutor History of Mathematics archive
- ^ http://www.php.net/manual/en/language.operators.comparison.php
- ^ Doug Crockford, "JavaScript: The Good Parts". http://tumblr.iamdanw.com/post/107829021/fasturtle-doug-crockford-says-to-never-use-the
- ^ Why's (Poignant) Guide to Ruby, Chapter 5 Section 1, "This One's for the Disenfranchised" http://mislav.uniqpath.com/poignant-guide/book/chapter-5.html#section1
- ^ Brett Rasmussen, "Don't Call it Case Equality" http://www.pmamediagroup.com/2009/07/dont-call-it-case-equality/
- ^ Peter G. Constable, Lorna A. Priest, Proposal to Encode Additional Orthographic and Modifier Characters, 2006.
- ^ Hartell, Rhonda L., ed. (1993), The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and SIL.
- ^ Unicode Latin Extended-D code chart http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/UA720.pdf
- ^ Gray, Carroll F. (November 2006). "The 1906 Santos=Dumont No. 14bis". World War I Aeroplanes No. 194: 4.
- ^ Students' understanding of relational equality
[edit] References
- Cajori, Florian (1993). A History of Mathematical Notations. New York: Dover (reprint). ISBN 0-486-67766-4.
- Boyer, C. B.: A History of Mathematics, 2nd ed. rev. by Uta C. Merzbach. New York: Wiley, 1989 ISBN 0-471-09763-2 (1991 pbk ed. ISBN 0-471-54397-7)
