I am giving a presentation tonight, and the mathematical terms x' and x'' feature heavily in it. I pronounce them as "x-dash" and "x-dash-dash", but this gets a bit tiresome by the end of the presentation.
A - Am I correct in pronouncing them this way? B - Is there an alternative way of saying x' and x'' that is less of a mouthful?
On
$x$ dash is common in the UK for $x'$. So Brian is definitely not correct when he says "$x$ dash is definitely not correct". [Since I am in the US, I definitely hear $x$ prime primarily, though.] Griffin2000 does not say where he is.
Littlewood has a joke about this in his Miscellany. Derived sets in point-set topology are denoted like $E'$. Some mathematician was talking about something that would hold for such derived sets, and ended up saying "for any dashed set" ...
On
x', x prime, is the first derivative of x and x'', x double prime, is the second derivative of x. I have never heard of x dash before, but I have see alternative versions of writing x' and x''. Almost two years ago, I had an ODE book that wrote $\dot x$ (first derivative) and $\ddot x$ (second derivative). It was strange, but eventually I got used to its meaning.
x' is x prime. x'' is x double prime.