It looks like a lower-case epsilon, but the Wikipedia page on epsilon states that they are not the same.
Does this symbol have a typographic identification outside of mathematics? Where did the symbol come from?
2026-04-12 03:13:47.1775963627
What is the name of the $\in$ symbol and where does it come from?
1.2k Views Asked by Sarah T https://math.techqa.club/user/sarah-t/detail At
1
There are 1 best solutions below
Related Questions in ELEMENTARY-SET-THEORY
- how is my proof on equinumerous sets
- Composition of functions - properties
- Existence of a denumerble partition.
- Why is surjectivity defined using $\exists$ rather than $\exists !$
- Show that $\omega^2+1$ is a prime number.
- A Convention of Set Builder Notation
- I cannot understand that $\mathfrak{O} := \{\{\}, \{1\}, \{1, 2\}, \{3\}, \{1, 3\}, \{1, 2, 3\}\}$ is a topology on the set $\{1, 2, 3\}$.
- Problem with Cartesian product and dimension for beginners
- Proof that a pair is injective and surjective
- Value of infinite product
Related Questions in NOTATION
- Symbol for assignment of a truth-value?
- Does approximation usually exclude equality?
- Is division inherently the last operation when using fraction notation or is the order of operation always PEMDAS?
- Question about notation $S^c$
- strange partial integration
- What does Kx mean in this equation? [in Carnap or Russell and Whitehead's logical notation]
- Need help with notation. Is this lower dot an operation?
- What does this "\" mathematics symbol mean?
- Why a set or vector start counting from a negative or zero index?
- How to express a sentence having two for all?
Related Questions in MATH-HISTORY
- Are there negative prime numbers?
- University math curriculum focused on (or inclusive of) "great historical works" of math?
- Did Grothendieck acknowledge his collaborators' intellectual contributions?
- Translation of the work of Gauss where the fast Fourier transform algorithm first appeared
- What about the 'geometry' in 'geometric progression'?
- Discovery of the first Janko Group
- Has miscommunication ever benefited mathematics? Let's list examples.
- Neumann Theorem about finite unions of cosets
- What is Euler doing?
- A book that shows history of mathematics and how ideas were formed?
Trending Questions
- Induction on the number of equations
- How to convince a math teacher of this simple and obvious fact?
- Find $E[XY|Y+Z=1 ]$
- Refuting the Anti-Cantor Cranks
- What are imaginary numbers?
- Determine the adjoint of $\tilde Q(x)$ for $\tilde Q(x)u:=(Qu)(x)$ where $Q:U→L^2(Ω,ℝ^d$ is a Hilbert-Schmidt operator and $U$ is a Hilbert space
- Why does this innovative method of subtraction from a third grader always work?
- How do we know that the number $1$ is not equal to the number $-1$?
- What are the Implications of having VΩ as a model for a theory?
- Defining a Galois Field based on primitive element versus polynomial?
- Can't find the relationship between two columns of numbers. Please Help
- Is computer science a branch of mathematics?
- Is there a bijection of $\mathbb{R}^n$ with itself such that the forward map is connected but the inverse is not?
- Identification of a quadrilateral as a trapezoid, rectangle, or square
- Generator of inertia group in function field extension
Popular # Hahtags
second-order-logic
numerical-methods
puzzle
logic
probability
number-theory
winding-number
real-analysis
integration
calculus
complex-analysis
sequences-and-series
proof-writing
set-theory
functions
homotopy-theory
elementary-number-theory
ordinary-differential-equations
circles
derivatives
game-theory
definite-integrals
elementary-set-theory
limits
multivariable-calculus
geometry
algebraic-number-theory
proof-verification
partial-derivative
algebra-precalculus
Popular Questions
- What is the integral of 1/x?
- How many squares actually ARE in this picture? Is this a trick question with no right answer?
- Is a matrix multiplied with its transpose something special?
- What is the difference between independent and mutually exclusive events?
- Visually stunning math concepts which are easy to explain
- taylor series of $\ln(1+x)$?
- How to tell if a set of vectors spans a space?
- Calculus question taking derivative to find horizontal tangent line
- How to determine if a function is one-to-one?
- Determine if vectors are linearly independent
- What does it mean to have a determinant equal to zero?
- Is this Batman equation for real?
- How to find perpendicular vector to another vector?
- How to find mean and median from histogram
- How many sides does a circle have?
This is the membership relation, but in set theory this is also known as the epsilon relation, and historically the notation was indeed $\varepsilon$.
(For example, I have the book from 1948 by Tarski and Jonsson Cardinal Algebras where such notation is employed.)
According to this page it was Peano who used epsilon. I suppose somewhere around the 1960's or so, when typography was easier to modify the symbol was taking the modern shape of $\in$ (Bourbaki in their set theory book, ca. 1970, were using $\in$).