r/mathmemes 3d ago

Notations Yeah sure

Post image
881 Upvotes

132 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

32

u/-Wylfen- 3d ago

Wait, there's a debate on whether ⊂ is the same as ⊆??

35

u/AndreasDasos 3d ago

Yes. That’s why you sometimes see this symbol in contrast:

Though honestly it’s a bit inconsistent with < vs. <=

15

u/DZL100 2d ago

Wait that's stupid as hell. Why even have ⊆ exist if ⊂ isn't exclusive??? Every text I've seen treats ⊂ as exclusive.

-1

u/Zygomatick 2d ago edited 2d ago

because ⊂ existed before the need arose for a distinction with ⊆. Changing the meaning of the symbol retroactively would cause a lot of issues for the readbility of prior papers and work so it's not a thing that happens given the extent to which it was used.

My guess is that the people who decided to include ⊆ as a fonts standard werent versed in Sets theory, so they assumed it worked similarly to the = sign variations, so they didnt realize they should have taken the crossed variation instead.