NOTATION

, is the representing of numbers, or any other quantities, by Notes, characters, or marks.

The choice of arithmetical, and other, characters, is arbitrary; and hence they are various in various nations: the figures 0, 1, 2, 3, &c, in common use, are derived from the Arabs and Indians, from whom they have their name, and the Notation by them, which forms the decimal or decuple scale, is perhaps the most convenient of any for arithmetical computations.

The Greeks, Hebrews, and other eastern nations, as also the Romans, expressed numbers by the letters of their common alphabet. See Character.

In Algebra, the quantities are represented mostly by th<*> letters of the alphabet, &c; and that as early as the time of Diophantus. See Algebra.