Toward that end, I
want to explain some things about the way math often has to be written
online. Besides the familiar + and -, there are a few symbols that may
be unfamiliar:
/
division
* multiplication
^ power (exponent)
sqrt square root
For example, x-squared would be written as x^2. The expression:
would be written sqrt(1-b*x^2) or √(1-b*x^2).
Einstein's famous formula
would be E=mc^2.
Large numbers are written in scientific notation, using powers of 10. For instance, 100 is written as 102 or 1E+2, one billion is written as 109 or 1E+9. Such notation is also useful in describing things such as the National Debt ;-)
A few of more items of notation...
In physics, the symbol "c" denotes the speed of light. Velocity is v or u. The spatial coordinates are x, y, and z. For simplicity, we will always make reference frames move along the x-axis. The time coordinate is t.
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