Saturday, June 12, 2010

Design of a Symbol for "Such That"


Looking at the handwritten symbol for "such that" we see that it is not exactly the same as Poseidon's symbol of power in which the trident conveys the power to "take" or "choose." This is consistent with "such that" in that it allows us to take certain values of some variable but if we look carefully we see that it is composed of an arc and a horizontal line. It is as if a bit of the sense of "compass" has been mixed in from our palette of ideas. Compass includes the ideas of "scope" or "bounds" and so the mathematical trident suggests limits on power or constraint in its use. The etymology of "compass" indicates that it means a "stepping together" which would convey the idea that all changes take place simultaneously.

A trident formed by combining a semicircle and a horizontal line can be defined mathematically as the zeros of function defined on a plane. The equation is,



which produces a simplified trident that can be "morphed" to form a font.


The question you may ask is, "Have we just recreated the 'such that' symbol?"

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