Nabla symbol

The symbol nabla ( ∇) is a mathematical characters, which is mainly used to indicate the nabla operator.

Description

The symbol nabla is not a letter, but arose from similar symbols of Quaternionenanalysis of William Rowan Hamilton. Peter Guthrie Tait introduced the current shape of an upside down delta Δ. The name " nabla " comes from the theologian William Robertson Smith (1846-1894), the shape of an ancient harp (Hebrew נבל Nevel, gr νάβλα nabla, lat nablium ) remembered.

The nabla is identical to the symbol of water in the ancient four- element theory. However, there is neither the content, nor historical relationship between the two symbols.

The sign nabla is in HTML as ∇ and in LaTeX as \ nabla represented. In the Unicode character set it has received symbol number 8711 (hexadecimal 0x2207 ).

Use

The symbol is in an area of ​​mathematics, vector analysis, as nabla operator use. It is used in this context as a vectorial differential operator, with the aid of the gradient, the divergence and rotation can be expressed.

In differential geometry, the symbol of affine connections is used.

In shipbuilding, the design displacement is symbolized in cubic meters with nabla.