Wednesday, May 25, 2022

Can we have an approximately unequal “≉” sign?

 

We know that mathematically and linguistically, Approximately equal “≈” doesn’t mean total equality, but an almost equality, thus the sign “≈” can be used interchangeably with that of unequal/different “≠”. E.g. : 3.95 is approximately equal to 4, but 3.95 is still absolutely different from 4.

But if we suppose the existence of an approximately unequal” symbol, it will have different meanings depending on whether it’s approached from a linguistic view or a mathematical one:

·         Linguistically: approximately unequal” doesn’t mean total unequality, but an almost unequality, thus the sign “” can be used interchangeably with that of equality/indifference “=”. E.g. : A is approximately/almost unequal to B, but A is still equal to B;

·         Mathematically: asserting that A and B are approximately unequal implies there is at least an infinitesimal epsilon intrinsic difference between A and B, which would render them not purely mathematically equal like a 3 would be with a 6/2; thus approximately unequal is more similar to approximately equal (and its  interchangeability with “≠”) .

Browsing the internet for “approximately unequal” gave results[1] [2] [3]that showcase:

·         The existence of the approximately unequal’s symbol used here instead of the identical one we came up with independently before (& used in the form of a miniature Paint image);

·         And also that it has the connotation “Not Almost Equal To”, which inclines that this symbol usage is more aligned with the former supposition than the latter.

Asking Steve Mould led to this final intriguing -& potentially trivia- answer:


Of course I had to ask him first if he don’t mind me sharing this on a blog post, and he didn’t –expectedly from a Mouldian biological framework-, thus I did without a thanking back because I already bothered him enough (if not much).

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