Math jargon/symbols

[daofeishi]

I've got a masters degree in mathematics and have ended up with a math heavy job. The Chinese people I've worked with have usually been proficient English speakers, so very little of the math I've done has been done in Chinese. I've started to remedy that by reading mathematical texts in Chinese, but there are many symbols and formulas that are shown in print where I don't necessarily know the best way of reading them in Chinese, and where you can't just look up the answer in a dictionary. I've tried to make a list of some examples and how they're pronounced in English. Can some of you can help me with some good translations in Chinese?

Symbol             English     
--------------     --------------  
f(x)               f of x
f(g(x))            f of g of x  
f : A -> B         f is a map from A to B
f^{-1}(S)          the inverse image of S (under f)
sqrt(x^2 - 1)      the square root of x squared minus 1 
(2x)^(x^2 - 1)     2 x to the power of x squared minus 1
(x-1)/(x+1)        x minus one over x plus 1 
sqrt[n](x^2-1)     the n-th root of x squared minus one 
log_4(x)           log to the base 4 of x 
X ~ N(0,1)         (the stochastic variable) X is normally distributed with mean 0 and 
                   standard deviation 1
f ○ g              f composed with g
f = g ○ h          (the morphism) f factors through g  
f'                 f prime
f''                f double prime 
x̄                  x bar
p̂                  p hat 
x̃                  x tilde  
M^†                M dagger   
x_n                x sub n  
x mod y            x modulo y  
x ∧ y              x wedge y
xG                 the (left) coset generated by the element x (of a group G)  
G/H                (the quotient group) G mod H   
∫ f(x) dx          the integral of f of x d x. 
∮_C f(z) dz        the contour integral of f of z around the curve C  
Σ_(n=1)^(∞) f(n)   the sum of f of n from (n equals) 1 to infinity  
lim_(x->a) f(x)    the limit of f of x as x goes towards a 

[Kenny同志]

You need a native speaker with both reasonable English skills and a background in maths to help you with the translation so I am afraid Chinese Forums probably won't get you anywhere.

 

Try http://www.math.org.cn/.

[gato]

There are some Chinese-English math translation resources on Baidu Wenku that you might want to look at.  See below for some examples.  You could search for the keywords "数学专业英语翻译" or "数学翻译英语表达" on Baidu Wenku or just Baidu for some more.  

 

 

This book 《数、符号、公式、图形的英文表达》 should be particularly helpful.

https://docs.google.com/file/d/0B1XuLyergcX6NDcwNzJiM2MtOTM2NS00ZDIxLWFhYWQtODEyNzdlNzNlMDg4/edit?ddrp=1&hl=zh_CN#

http://blog.sina.com.cn/s/blog_540948070100f0ne.html

《数、符号、公式、图形的英文表达》 PDF

 

http://blog.sciencenet.cn/blog-111625-831783.html

常用数学符号、公式和等式、数学式和数学用语的英文读法

 

http://wenku.baidu.com/link?url=Qya_k6I9kwZVwMJGj7sOcVYakZQP1msq_kkO-XlPjFbsmYRLtmrH1Ho3Z55paGdzKhnjZdbz617VKXI4zlY2WChuVDm2qUHh07Bp2L_C-DO

数学符号的英语表达

 

http://wenku.baidu.com/link?url=Qya_k6I9kwZVwMJGj7sOcVYakZQP1msq_kkO-XlPjFbsmYRLtmrH1Ho3Z55paGdzKhnjZdbz617VKXI4zlY2WChuVDm2qUHh07Bp2L_C-DO

常用数学术语的英语表达

 

http://wenku.baidu.com/view/ff8835d1195f312b3169a599.html

数学专业英语 翻译 2.8函数的导数和它的几何意义

[imron]

so I am afraid Chinese Forums probably won't get you anywhere.

That's what roddy said about nuclear engineers.

[Kenny同志]

Roddy would say the same thing about mathematicians.

[roddy]

For this level of stuff, surely you can just ask a passing 10 year old, no? 

[edelweis]

The book: 科普汉语听记 from BLCUP has a few chapters dedicated to this kind of thing.

I've only studied 4 of the 7 math chapters, and I would say these like this (no guarantee   )

 

f(x) “f x”
sqrt(x^2 - 1) x平方减一的平方根
(2x)^(x^2 - 1) 二x的括号x平方减一括号次方
(x-1)/(x+1) x减一比上x加一
sqrt[n](x^2-1) x平方减一开n次方 / x平方减一的n次方根

f' f撇
f'' f两撇

 

HOWEVER:

- this book does not really cover advanced math, it's a selection of basic concepts including reading numbers, percentages, some geometry, ensemble theory, basic functions etc...

- the index at the end of the book is Chinese only - it's not easy to find what you are looking for, assuming it's actually in the book.

- the textbook doesn't have the transcripts of the audio tracks. Either you buy the bundle from the BLCUP with the “user‘s manual” which does have the transcripts, or (if you bought the textbook alone anywhere else, like, say, Dangdang   ) you have to use the CD and practice note-taking, which is what the book is actually about. (the lessons do contain some explanations, but a lot of the interesting contents is in the audio tracks only...)

 

So I can't really recommend this book as a reference book. It's not meant to be anyway.

 

 

@Roddy: do you know what the contour integral of f of z around the curve C is ?