Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

~20 years ago in school, I encountered dy/dx and y-dot with about equal frequency (and maybe y' & f'(x)) in engineering and calculus courses. Engineering favored the dots.


I went though most of a pure math degree along side my CS degree and I don't think I ever saw ẏ used, mathematics as far as I know basically completely adopted the Leibniz notation.


I got most of the way to a PhD and only saw y-dot in one differential equations course.


Same here, and also agree with the "prime" notation, i.e., y'! One of my instructors had joked that the dot/prime notations saved printing costs in the days when printing was expensive - not sure if there is any truth to that.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: