Mathematical Punctuation

Some of the punctuation keys on your keyboard are used in mathematics. In this article, we're going to enumerate these punctuation marks.

Plus sign (+): Found near the top right corner of the keyboard, the plus sign is used to signify addition.

Equal sign (=): The same key can also type the equal sign, used to convey that two quantities or objects are equivalent in value.

Minus sign (-): The hyphen is also used as a minus sign, signifying subtraction.

Tilde (~): This squiggly line is used to show near-equivalence. It is most commonly found in approximations.

Dollar sign ($): The dollar sign is placed before a number to indicate that that number is a monetary amount in dollars.

Percent sign (%): This symbol, when placed after a number, means that the number's actual value is 1/100 of the number stated. For instance, 3% is actually 0.03. It is usually multiplied to another number to change that number's value.

Greater than and less than symbols (> and < respectively):

There are also many mathematical punctuation marks not found on the keyboard. Here are a few of them.

Plus-minus symbol (±): This symbol is used to mean "more or less." It might be a little more or a little less than explicitly stated.

Unequal sign (≠): The unequal sign is used to show that two quantities are not equal to each other.

Double tilde (≈): This is used in a similar fashion to the tilde, conveying approximation.

Permille (‰): The permille is similar to the percent sign, but it conveys that a number's value is 1/1000 of the number stated, rather than 1/100. Thus, 3‰ is 0.003.

Permyriad (‱): Its function is similar to that of the percent sign and permille. A permyriad after a number means that the number's value is 1/10000 of the number stated. 3‱ is 0.0003. The permyriad is not supported in the font we are using, Lato, so it appears as it does in the Arial font.