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Phil Parker <[log in to unmask]>
Wed, 16 May 2001 12:35:09 -0500
text/plain (26 lines)
On 05/15/2001 at 03:04 PM, Lars Hellström <[log in to unmask]>
wrote:

>I math fonts something like that could be used to handle the choice
>between \epsilon and \varepsilon. As I understand it, these are
>semantically equivalent---i.e., people will think you've done something
>wrong if you try to use them both in the same formula to mean different
>things
>
Some might, but most (at least in the parts of math I read) wouldn't. The
general rule of thumb seems to be: if they look different, they are
(mathematically) different. In my experience, more mathematicians would
think it wrong to try and claim \epsilon and \varepsilon did mean the same,
and I know some journal editors that would change it.  Note that \in is
merely a stylized \epsilon, but is mathematically distinct from all the
other "epsilon" variants nowadays. (Before the standardization of the \in
symbol, \epsilon was used to mean "is an element of" -- and sometimes to
also be the classical analysis "epsilon" in the same formula!)

--
    Phil Parker
--------------------------------------------
URL http://www.math.twsu.edu/Faculty/Parker/
Random quote:
  Reality is an obstacle to hallucination.

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