Symbols play a key role in mathematics. They indicate sign (positive or negative) and grouping, describe operations and relationships, and represent numbers, shapes, constants, and variables in equations. The most basic type of mathematical symbol is a numeral, which is a symbol for a number. Ancient cultures used many different symbols to represent numbers. The numerals used today for the cardinal numbers (1,2,3...) are traced to Hindu and Arabic sources. The Egyptians, Babylonians, and Romans used different symbols, for example, the Hindu-Arabic numeral 10 is represented by X in Roman notation.

Although the exact origin of some mathematical symbols is not known, many were derived from the Arabic, Latin, and Greek languages and first appeared in print in Europe during the fifteenth through the seventeenth centuries. For example, the plus sign, +, is thought to originate from the Latin word et which means "and" in English. Its mathematical use...