Definition:Parenthesis/Also denoted as
Parenthesis: Also denoted as
There is no universal convention as to exactly what shaped brackets are used for parentheses, but (usually) round brackets $\paren \;$ are used.
A notable counterexample is the elegantly-presented 1996: H. Jerome Keisler and Joel Robbin: Mathematical Logic and Computability, which uses square ones: $\sqbrk \;$.
Some sources use the vinculum, that is, a line over the aggregated terms:
- $3 \times \overline {6 - 4}$
Some authors, when writing complicated statements with nested parentheses, use differently shaped brackets, either square brackets $\sqbrk \;$ or braces $\set \;$ for each different parentheses, in an attempt to make it clearer which brackets go with which substatements.
However, some have the opinion that this does not actually aid comprehension and can add unnecessary confusion -- especially when particular bracket styles are being used for particular mathematical tasks, as they frequently are.
It also happens, unfortunately, that square brackets do not render well in all browsers when they have been automatically scaled by our rendering software.
Therefore it is recommended that on $\mathsf{Pr} \infty \mathsf{fWiki}$ round brackets are used throughout for parenthesis.
Sources
- 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): aggregation
- 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): aggregation