this post was submitted on 06 Dec 2023
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I like noticing when something is the derivative/integral of something.
Often using a derivative helps break something down and an integral might show an end result.
For example, a software product is the sum of its commits.
Whats the symbol?
?
I use the term rather loosely so it's hard to say because it depends on the setting and how pedantic you want to be.
In a continuous setting (time, for example), you will usually see the derivative of a function f(t) being denoted as a df(t)/dt. In some cases it would also be written as f'(t). Engineers are pretty much always dealing with functions across time so they added another notation which is simply a dot over a variable. E.g. if x is your position in space then αΊ is your velocity (the derivative over time). You can add another dot if you want your acceleration (the second derivative over time = the derivative of the velocity).
The counterpart of a derivative is the integral which is always denoted by β«f(t)dt.
The discrete case is a bit more tricky because these things arent that well defined in these cases. People dont seem to mind if you go with the next best thing. The derivative is the difference between steps (Im not aware of a notation for this) and for the integral you would use a sum β.
Note that even this wall of text doesnt cover all of it but I hope it gets the point across.