The plus and minus signs (+ and −) are used to represent the notions of positive and negative as well as the operations of addition and subtraction. Their use has been extended to many other meanings, more or less analogous. Plus and minus are Latin terms. A negative number is a number that is less than zero, such as −3. ... 3 + 2 with apples, a popular choice in textbooks Addition is the basic operation of arithmetic. ... 5 - 2 = 3 Subtraction is one of the four basic arithmetic operations; it is essentially the opposite of addition. ... Latin is an ancient Indo-European language originally spoken in Latium, the region immediately surrounding Rome. ...

Image File history File links PlusAndMinus. ...

History

Though the signs now seem as familiar as the alphabet or the Hindu-Arabic numerals, they are not of great antiquity. The Egyptian hieroglyphic sign for addition, for example, resembled a pair of legs walking in the direction in which the text was written (Egyptian was written in varying directions), with the reverse sign indicating subtraction: A Specimen of typeset fonts and languages, by William Caslon, letter founder; from the 1728 Cyclopaedia. ... Hindu-Arabic numerals also known as Arabic Numerals, Hindu numerals, European numerals, and Western numerals are the most common set of symbols used to represent numbers around the world. ... It has been suggested that Hieroglyph (French Wiki article) be merged into this article or section. ...

In Europe in the early 15th century the letters P and M were generally used. (14th century - 15th century - 16th century - other centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 15th century was that century which lasted from 1401 to 1500. ...

The earliest print appearance of the modern signs seems to come from a book on "Behende und hüpscheenung auff allen Kauffmanschafft" or Mercantile Arithmetic by Johannes Widmann in 1489, used to indicate surpluses and deficits. The + is a simplification of the Latin "et" (comparable to the ampersand &). The − may be derived from a tilde written over m when used to indicate subtraction; or it may come from a shorthand version of the letter m itself. Johannes Widmann, a German mathematician, invented the addition (+) and the subtraction (-) signs in 1489. ... Events March 14 - The Queen of Cyprus, Catherine Cornaro, sells her kingdom to Venice. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... A tilde. ...

According to the Earliest Uses of Various Mathematical Symbols website, a book published by Henricus Grammateus in 1518 is the earliest found to use + and − for addition and subtraction. Henricus Grammateus (also known as Henricus Scriptor, Heinrich Schreyber or Heinrich Schreiber) (1495 - 1525 or 1526[1]) was a German mathematician. ... Events A plague of tropical fire ants devastates crops on Hispaniola. ...

Robert Recorde, the designer of the equals sign, introduced plus and minus to the UK in 1557 in The Whetstone of Witte: Robert Recorde (c. ... The equal sign, equals sign, or = is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. ... Events Spain is effectively bankrupt. ...

There be other 2 signes in often use of which the first is made thus + and betokeneth more: the other is thus made − and betokeneth lesse.

Alternate uses

The plus sign can mean many different operations, depending on the mathematical system under consideration. Many algebraic structures have some operation which is called, or equivalent to, addition. Moreover, the symbolism has been extended to very different operations. Plus can mean: In universal algebra, a branch of pure mathematics, an algebraic structure consists of one or more sets closed under one or more operations, satisfying some axioms. ... 3 + 2 with apples, a popular choice in textbooks Addition is the basic operation of arithmetic. ...

• exclusive or (usually written ⊕): 1+1=0, 1+0=1
• logical conjunction (usually written ∧): 1+1=1, 1+0=0
• logical disjunction (usually written ∨): 1+1=1, 1+0=1
• concatenation of strings is sometimes written: "a"+"b"="ab", although this usage is questioned by some for violating commutativity, a property addition is expected to have.

Exclusive disjunction, also known as exclusive or and symbolized by XOR or EOR, is a logical operation on two operands that results in a logical value of true if and only if one of the operands, but not both, has a value of true. ... AND Logic Gate In logic and mathematics, logical conjunction (usual symbol and) is a two-place logical operation that results in a value of true if both of its operands are true, otherwise a value of false. ... OR logic gate. ... Concatenation is a standard operation in computer programming languages (a subset of formal language theory). ... In computer programming and some branches of mathematics, strings are sequences of various simple objects. ... In mathematics, especially abstract algebra, a binary operation * on a set S is commutative if x * y = y * x for all x and y in S. Otherwise * is noncommutative. ...

The minus sign

The minus sign has two uses in mathematics:

1. The subtraction operator: A binary operator to indicate the operation of subtraction, as in 5 − 3 = 2. Subtraction is the opposite of addition.
2. The negation operator: A unary operator to negate a number, as in −5.

In some contexts, differnt glyphs are used for these two meanings; e.g., the negation operator may be raised (as in 2–5 = ¯3). 5 - 2 = 3 Subtraction is one of the four basic arithmetic operations; it is essentially the opposite of addition. ...

Alternative plus sign

A Jewish tradition dating at least from the 19th century is to write plus using a symbol like an inverted T. This practice was adopted into Israeli schools (this practice goes back to at least the 1950s) and is now commonplace in most elementary schools (including secular schools) and some secondary schools. It is also used occasionally in books by religious authors, but most books for adults use the international symbol "+". The usual explanation for the practice is that it avoids the writing of a symbol "+" that looks like a Christian cross. Unicode has this symbol at position U+FB29 "Hebrew letter alternative plus sign" (﬩). The traditional form of the Western Christian cross, known as the Latin cross. ... Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ...

In computing

The Unicode minus sign is designed to be the same length and height as the plus and equals signs. In most fonts these are the same width as digits in order to facilitate the alignment of numbers in tables. Because of technical limitations, some web browsers may not display some special characters in this article. ... There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... A Uniform Resource Locator, URL (spelled out as an acronym, not pronounced as earl), or Web address, is a standardized address name layout for resources (such as documents or images) on the Internet (or elsewhere). ... In computing, HyperText Markup Language (HTML) is the predominant markup language for the creation of web pages. ... The equal sign, equals sign, or = is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. ...

The hyphen-minus sign (-) is the ASCII version of the minus sign, and doubles as a hyphen. It is usually shorter in length than the plus sign and sometimes at a different height. It can be used as a substitute for the true minus sign when the character set is limited to ASCII. There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ... A hyphen ( -, or ‐ ) is a punctuation mark. ... There are 95 printable ASCII characters, numbered 32 to 126. ...

See also

• Equals sign
• Plus-minus sign
• Table of mathematical symbols
• Graft-chimaera for the meaning of + in botanical names

The equal sign, equals sign, or = is a mathematical symbol used to indicate equality. ... The plus-minus sign (±) is a mathematical symbol commonly used to indicate the precision of an approximation, or as a convenient shorthand for a quantity such as the square root which has two possible opposite values. ... The following table lists many specialized symbols commonly used in mathematics. ... The small tree +Laburnocytisus Adamii is a spectacular example of a graft-chimaera in horticulture, a graft-chimaera may arise in grafting at the point of contact between rootstock and scion and will have properties intermediate to those of its parents. A graft-chimaera is not a true hybrid but... A botanical name is a formal name conforming to the ICBN. As with its zoological and bacterial equivalents it may also be called a scientific name. Botanical names may be in one part (genus and above), two parts (species) or three parts (below the rank of species). ...

External links

Look up plus sign in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Look up minus sign in
Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

• The History of Mathematical Symbols - Plus and Minus
• Earliest uses of various mathematical symbols