# What abbreviations do you consider important? [COMPLETE FOR TIME BEING]

#### Jameson

Staff member
Hi all,

Through vBSEO we can have any word or acronym we choose appear with a dotted line under it and when someone hovers over it, show a description or definition of it. Right now this list isn't math related at all but I thought maybe we could make a list.

Any ideas?

Jameson

#### MarkFL

Staff member
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

A few off the top of my head:

MHB - math help boards

FTOC - fundamental theorem of calculus

FTOA - fundamental theorem of algebra

FLT - Fermat's last theorem

IBP - integration by parts

IVP - initial value problem

ODE - ordinary differential equation

PDE - partial differential equation

AM - arithmetic mean

GM - geometric mean

GCD - greatest common divisor

GCF - greatest common factor

LCM - least (or lowest) common multiple

LCD - lowest common denominator

ANOVA - analysis of variance

ASA - angle side angle

SSA - side side angle

SAS - side angle side

BEDMAS - brackets exponents division multiplication addition subtraction

PEMDAS - parentheses exponents multiplication division addition subtraction

CAS - computer algebra system

FOIL - first outer inner last

RK - Runge-Kutta

DNE - does not exist

QED - quod erat demonstrandum
As I think of more, I will edit this post.

If you want help to write the definitions, I will be glad to offer my services.

Last edited:

#### Deveno

##### Well-known member
MHB Math Scholar
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Some other abbreviations:

LI -linearly independent

wlog -without loss of generality

iff-if and only if (I cannot seem to recount how many times people have asked what does "iff" mean?)

CRT-Chinese Remainder Theorem

a.e. -almost everywhere

w.r.t - with respect to

(some of these might appear without the "dots").

fin.gen. -finitely generated

NSFW - not safe for work (just seeing if you're paying attention ).

#### Jameson

Staff member
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Ok I've added most of these. Some things though:

1) I didn't add any of the two word abbreviations and a few of the three word ones that I thought were pushing being lazy. We don't want to make it easier to type in shorthand all the time, right?

2) "Fermat's last theorem" isn't working because of the syntax in our system. The way I enter these abbreviations is like so -

'FLT' => 'Fermat's last theorem'

The problem is the apostrophe in the first word indicated that the abbreviation is over when it in fact isn't, so I need to figure out a work around.

3) I didn't enter in anything with dots, but maybe I should? For example ANOVA works but A.N.O.V.A doesn't.

4) Is BEDMAS common enough to add? I've never heard of it.

Thanks guys!

#### Bacterius

##### Well-known member
MHB Math Helper
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Shouldn't FLT be Fermat's Little Theorem? His Last Theorem is hardly ever cited but the Little Theorem is used a lot in number theory, so I'd think someone abbreviating FLT is more likely to be talking about the Little Theorem?

There's also:

LIATE = Logarithm, Inverse trigonometric, Algebraic, Trigonometric, Exponential (heuristic for integration by parts)

PNT = Prime Number Theorem

FTA = Fundamental Theorem of Arithmetic

One thing I see is that the fundamental theorems of arithmetic and algebra clash :/ it might make more sense to default to the FTalgebra in the Algebra section and the FTarithmetic in the number theory section, but I don't know if it's possible. Overall I think the fundamental theorem of algebra should take precedence, since the statement of the fundamental theorem of arithmetic is trivial and it can also go by other names.

Last edited:

#### MarkFL

Staff member
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Thank you, Jameson, this is a very nice tweak for the forums!

I think having PEMDAS is sufficient, and I think it is by far more common than BEDMAS.

I considered the potential confusion between Fermat's Last Theorem and Fermat's Little Theorem, but in my experience at least, it is far more common to use this for his last not his little theorem. But, I am happy to go with the general consensus on this.

#### Klaas van Aarsen

##### MHB Seeker
Staff member
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Thank you, Jameson, this is a very nice tweak for the forums!

I think having PEMDAS is sufficient, and I think it is by far more common than BEDMAS.

I considered the potential confusion between Fermat's Last Theorem and Fermat's Little Theorem, but in my experience at least, it is far more common to use this for his last not his little theorem. But, I am happy to go with the general consensus on this.
Personally, I would like to keep PEMDAS and its siblings off.
Or if you do put it on, its siblings should also be there, with a proper note how they should (not) be used.
They have been part of an internet hype in 2011, giving rise to wrong or at least dubious priority rules.
Afaik, it sort of ended with this post from Spiked Math:

#### Bacterius

##### Well-known member
MHB Math Helper
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Thank you, Jameson, this is a very nice tweak for the forums!

I think having PEMDAS is sufficient, and I think it is by far more common than BEDMAS.

I considered the potential confusion between Fermat's Last Theorem and Fermat's Little Theorem, but in my experience at least, it is far more common to use this for his last not his little theorem. But, I am happy to go with the general consensus on this.
Really? That is surprising, I don't think the Last Theorem has any application whatsoever in any field (save perhaps topology, iirc). But I don't mind. If everything else fails, wouldn't it just be possible to use "Fermat's Last/Little Theorem" and let the reader pick the right one? That way more than one conflicting definition could fit in (perhaps up to three or four).

Personally, I would like to keep PEMDAS and its siblings off.
Or if you do put it on, its siblings should also be there, with a proper note how they should (not) be used.
They have been part of an internet hype in 2011, giving rise to wrong or at least dubious priority rules.
Afaik, it sort of ended with this post from Spiked Math:
Of course, we use LaTeX on MHB, so we don't need to worry about parsing text math

$$\frac{6}{2} \left ( 1 + 2 \right )$$

Of course, this does nothing to help the irritating $a \frac{b}{c}$ notation. I've never really understood mixed fractions, they serve no purpose whatsoever besides breaking mathematical notation out of context. How hard can it be to write $1 \frac{1}{3}$ as $1 + \frac{1}{3} = \frac{4}{3}$? But I digress.

#### Bacterius

##### Well-known member
MHB Math Helper
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Bug: abbreviations occurring inside math formulae cause the mathjax rendering to fail.

HTML:
$\gcd{a, b}$ and $\gcd{a, c}$
$\gcd{a, b}$ and $\gcd{a, c}$

edit: fixed

Last edited:

#### Jameson

Staff member
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Bug: abbreviations occurring inside math formulae cause the mathjax rendering to fail.

HTML:
$\gcd{a, b}$ and $\gcd{a, c}$
$\gcd{a, b}$ and $\gcd{a, c}$
Great catch! Ok, so which other ones should I remove besides gcd? Also, should I add something for FLT? I feel like this won't be referenced enough to justify adding this abbreviation and the kinds of discussions that have them will be with those who are aware of the acronym.

#### MarkFL

Staff member
Re: What abbreviations do you consider important?

Yes, good catch!

As far as I know, gcf is the only one of our abbreviations that is also recognized as a LaTeX function.