2006-09-05 05:16:40 · 4 answers · asked by Cero Kool 2 in Education & Reference ➔ Higher Education (University +)
In math, what does the
:=
stand for?
2006-09-05 05:18:06 · update #1
Example
x := 1
2006-09-05 05:20:04 · update #2
Hello,
The operator you are talking about is mainly called or refered to as "colon equal", I believe it's actual term to be "colone".
It deals with the equivalence of two terms and is used when working with sets. It refers to two sets being "equivalent by definition".
See Mathworld for more information:
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Defined.html
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/Colon.html
2006-09-05 05:40:15 · answer #1 · answered by dreft 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
It's really more of a computer science than a math thing.
In some programming languages (such as Pascal) you write
x := 2
to assign variable x the value 2. After you're done, x is equal to 2. But, using a different symbol than "=" emphasizes that this is an operation that changes a value-- it's not a statement that two values are the same.
For example, it's okay (in fact, very common) to make the assignment
x := x + 1
which says to increase the value of variable x by 1. But, x will never be equal to x+1.
2006-09-05 05:41:43 · answer #2 · answered by btsmith_y 3 · 1⤊ 0⤋
= means equals to.
2006-09-05 05:24:46 · answer #3 · answered by lomatar1186 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
colon equals?
2006-09-05 05:18:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋