Talk:2687: Division Notation

Fun fact: In Poland, we don't write the long division like that; we just write A:B with the bar above. I was VERY confused the first time I saw that notation. 172.70.246.235 21:03, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Unrelated to Polish notation, i presume? 172.70.134.13 22:43, 19 October 2022 (UTC)Bumpf

In German elementary school we learned the a:b notation. When we learned more complex divisions in secondary school it was with the "scientist" notation. And as I am a software engineer AND (presumably) a normal person I use in general the respective notations. Elektrizikekswerk (talk) 07:24, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

For me, the version on the xkcd website has an additional line ("A/B: Software Engineer") that's not on this site. I think the comic might have been updated. Is anyone else seeing that? JBYoshi (talk) 23:20, 19 October 2022 (UTC)

Updated. Natg19 (talk) 00:31, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

For the Unicode one, I think it’s a reference to ⁄ (U+2044, fraction slash) or characters like ½, ¼, etc. - Cherryblossom (talk) 00:24, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

Is it important to note that 1/2 auctocorrects to ½ in many text-based programs like Microsoft Word?--Theunlucky (talk) 02:32, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

It's possible to use fraction-style notation in LaTeX by using \frac, or am I missing something?--162.158.2.125 05:49, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

"the long division symbol is only used in some countries". Only English-speaking ones, to be more precise. Most of the countries of the world use a different notation. 172.68.51.80 06:19, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

In the UK, the 'long division symbol' is nowadays often referred to (particularly with Primary classes, children aged 4 - 11) as the "Bus Stop Method". Because it looks like a UK bus shelter. MarquisOfCarrabass (talk) 07:07, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

As a Dutch primary schoolchild, I have used a÷b for calculations and "a over b" for fractions (e.g. ⅘). For more difficult divisions, like what is 785/35, we used Staartdelingen (nl), long division, of which the primary notation is 35/735\. I think in early highschool we started using a over b for more complex calculations, "like (x+3) over 5 = 2, what is x". I had up to this XKCD never seen B⟌A, and would confuse it for what we use as square root symbol (√). IIVQ (talk) 07:16, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

Come to think of it, it's kind of odd that we used ":" for division. Why are there this many different division notations anyway? Same for multiplication. There's x, *, ⋅, x but centered vertically, and concatenation (for letter variables)!

In Austria, school children are using the "scientist" notation from this comic. 172.68.50.51 08:17, 20 October 2022 (UTC)

• Same thing in Russia 172.71.98.97 08:46, 20 October 2022 (UTC)