How Did Euler Write "log"? Reading 18th Century Math
It should come as little surprise that math notation has changed in the last few centuries. Since the time of Newton and Leibniz, the operations including addition, subtraction,multiplication, division, integration, differentiation, limits, logs, sums, powers, trig functions, and so on have all changed. This adds a layer of translation to works from e.g. Euler and Lambert (1750s-1780s) which I'm working on now. Below I'll share some notation and typesetting norms from this period. Elementary Arithmetic The typesetting of these symbols included variations depending on the publisher and the writer. Examples: Arithmetic Symbols Zero o (lowercase O) One ı (small dotless i) ɪ (Latin small capital i) I (uppercase i) Equals a ＝ b (full width equals sign) Addition a ☩ b (cross of Jerusalem) a ✠ b (Maltese cross) a 🞣 b (Greek cross) Subtraction a – b (en-dash) a — b (em-dash) Multiplication 1 . 2 (period) ab (adjacent symbols) a ⨉ b (times operator) Division \(\fr...