Notation

(no-ta's hun.) [From L. notatio.] (Math.) The recording of anything by marks, figures, or letters. Mathematical N. relates to number and quantity, or to operation. The system of numerical N., now universally adopted by civilized nations, owes its admirable simplicity to the giving both an absolute and a local value to the characters. Thus, the absolute value of 5 is five: this is never changed. Its local value depends on its 1 osi tion with regard to the decimal point: thus, 50 means five tens; 500, five hundreds, .; 05, five hundredths; 005, five thousandths, . These principles, with the power of combining the few characters employed, enable us to expre the most enormous numbers with the greatest ease, and impart the utmost simplicity to the very language we use regarding them. This system, usually termed the Arabic, is far more perfect and convenient than that of any nation of antiquity, however enlightened. See ARITHMETIC and ALGEBRA. [s. 652]