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Hi! Can anyone explain to me what this sign means. [itex]\equiv[/itex]
I'm thinking of using it in place of the usual equality sign "=", not as a definition here. This notation is more commonplace in introductory texts in my experience. I think it's to draw attention to the fact that it's a congruence and not a usual integer equality, in case the student misses the flashing "mod d" that follows. It's tough to get the neon lights around that part in a text!arildno said:Without having seen your example, I suspect it means "equal, by definition" there..
The "[itex]\equiv [/itex]" should put in 2 places only:NeutronStar said:I've seen it used by authors in basically three ways:
"is formally defined as" - to express a formal definition.
"let this symbol or expression be defined as" - to create an informal definition within the context of a discussion.
"this expression is, by definitions, equivalent to" - showing that two expressions are equivalent by previous or formal definitions.
Generically it means, "equivalent by definition".
However, whenever things are equivalent by definition we can always use the regular equals sign to equate them as well because it's certainly also true. So author's usually only use the special "defined as" symbol to stress a definition. Many of them don't bother with this special symbol and simply use the regular equals symbol while just mentioning somewhere in the text that the equivalency is a definition.