Scientific American spoke to Rojas about this history, the deeply engaging humanity of mathematics and the egos at play in defining the mathematical language we take for granted today.

So there are similarities as well as differences. Lam King-fui, 15, Carmel Bunnan Tong Memorial Secondary School: The math symbol in my family is the division sign (÷) . In my family, everyone ...

Convert Current to Linear transforms the selected equation into a one-line format using mathematical symbols, while Convert All to Linear applies this to every equation in the document.

Algebraic notation close algebraic notationA series or system of written symbols used to represent numbers, amounts or elements in mathematics. is used to present information concisely.