Notation
a marking. In architecture it is a system of signs, marks, or characters appended to figures, when used to denote dimensions on drawings, as' for feet, " for inches, for parts; 10 feet, 6 inches. In arithmetic it is a system of figures or char- as 10' 6" = 10 feet, 6 inches. In arithacters used to represent numbers. Two methods of so doing are at present in as 10' 6" = use, the Roman and the Arabic.
In the Roman method seven characters are employed called numeral letters.
These sta standing separately represent the following numbers: I. for 1, V. for 5, X. for 10, L. for 50, C. for 100, D. for 500, M. for 1,000. When a letter stands alone, it represents the number given above, as V. for 5; when a letter is repeated the combination stands for the product of the number denoted by the letter by the number of times which it is taken: thus, III. stands for 3, XXX. for 30, etc.; when a letter precedes another, taken in the order given above, the combination stands for the number denoted by the greater diminished by that denoted by the less: thus, IV. stands for 5 less 1, i. e., 4; XC. for 100 less 10, i. e., 90, etc.; when a letter, taken in the order given above, follows another, the combination stands for the sum of the numbers denoted by the letters taken separately; thus, XI. stands for 10 plus 1, etc.
In the Arabic, or rather the Hindu, method, introduced by the Arabs into Europe at the close of the 10th century, numbers are represented by the symbols, 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and their combinations according to conventional rules. The characters are called figures or digits and taken in their order, stand for naught, one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine; the value of the unit depends on the place which the figure occupies in the scale adopted. The value of each figure or digit increases in a tenfold ratio from the right to the left.
NOTTINGHAM Notation in chemistry is the written language of that science. The system now in use belongs exclusively to modern times, but in all ages signs of some kind or other seem to have been employed to represent the various kinds of matter.
In 1815 Berzelius proposed using the initial letter of the element and of coefficients for the number of like atoms in a compound, as sulphate of soda NA, SO4. In organic compounds, the constitution of which is known, the symbols are so arranged as to show the various groups of radicals CH CO (C₂H₃) O ethylic acetate, but butyric acid, with the same number of atoms, is expressed by CH3(CH2) 2.
COHO In mathematics, the conventional method of representing mathematical quantities and operations by means of symbols.
In music, the system or method of expressing musical sounds in writing, by means of signs, characters, figures, or marks.