How do Mathmeticians Pronounce This?

[CaptainADHD]

How do Mathematicians pronounce the ellipsis? (...) for instance:

1 + 2 + 3 + ... + a_n

"One plus two plus three plus dot dot dot plus a sub n"?

I'm using a digital tape recorder to better understand text, and I don't want to pronounce this incorrectly.

Also: do mathematicians say "the arc tangent of one" or "the inverse tangent of one"?

 

[mgb_phys]

"and so on"
I would say arc-tan but that's from a software background

 

[CaptainADHD]

"and so on"
I would say arc-tan but that's from a software background

Got it, thanks ^^

 

[Office_Shredder]

I usually say "sumfrom k equals one to 'n' of [whatever the kth term is in terms of k]" and get rid of the ellipsis entirely

or sometimes even

"sigma from k equals one to 'n' of [whatever the kth term is in terms of k]"

And I would say "arctan of one" also, or sometimes "tangent to the minus one of one" but that's a bit unwieldy

When I'm looking at a complicated expression and just want to get the notation right.

 

[CaptainADHD]

It is actually very interesting to hear how other people put a mathematical expression into words: it kind of forces you to define what it is you are talking about beyond just symbols and numbers.

On a side note, my professor had a wonderful time laughing when I said "you-ler" instead of "oil-er" for Euler's number.

 

[kidmode01]

One of my old professors got a good laugh when people pronounced the 's' in l'Hospital's rule. It seems the more common spelling is l'Hôpital's. Another one of my professors told me the 's' wasn't always silent. Can anyone confirm that?

 

[CaptainADHD]

One of my old professors got a good laugh when people pronounced the 's' in l'Hospital's rule. It seems the more common spelling is l'Hôpital's. Another one of my professors told me the 's' wasn't always silent. Can anyone confirm that?

My professor pronounces it "leh-pee-tal's rule" or "pee-tal's rule".

 

[robphy]

It is actually very interesting to hear how other people put a mathematical expression into words: it kind of forces you to define what it is you are talking about beyond just symbols and numbers.

Check out the audio examples from the AsTeR project:
http://www.cs.cornell.edu/home/raman/aster/aster-toplevel.html

 

[cristo]

Another one of my professors told me the 's' wasn't always silent. Can anyone confirm that?

Nope, you're professor is wrong. Just think about it: it's a person's name, so it should sound the same regardless of how it's spelt. The s is silent and arises when replacing the circumflex.