Xref: utzoo comp.text.tex:2521 sci.lang:7033 sci.math:12081 Path: utzoo!attcan!uunet!decwrl!ucbvax!huji.ac.il!yaronf From: yaronf@huji.ac.il (Yaron Farber) Newsgroups: comp.text.tex,sci.lang,sci.math Subject: Re: Can someone tell me what NABLA means? Message-ID: Date: 20 Aug 90 18:11:30 GMT References: <993@barsoom.nhh.no> <8987@ur-cc.UUCP> Sender: daemon@ucbvax.BERKELEY.EDU Followup-To: comp.text.tex Lines: 27 lowj_ltd@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (John "Travis" Low) writes: >tih@barsoom.nhh.no (Tom Ivar Helbekkmo) writes: >>I've been trying to find out these past couple of days what the origin >>of the name of the character/symbol "nabla" is. Nabla is used (as far >>as I can gather) primarily in mathematics, and is a greek delta turned >>upside down (i.e. a triangle standing on one of its points). >From my introductory calculus textbook, _Calculus_, by Howard Anton, >third edition, at the bottom of page 995: >"The symbol [insert nabla here] (read, "del") is an inverted delta. In >older books this symbol is sometimes called a "nabla" because of its >similarity in form to an ancient Hebrew ten-stringed harp of that name." >--Travis My Webster's 9th Collegiate wouldn't help, which is a shame, but indeed "nevel" is Modern Hebrew for harp (`b' and `v' are related in Semitic languages, including Hebrew) and this name also appears in the Bible. But I don't know how you can prove exactly what instrument it was. -- Yaron Farber TEL: +972-3-282520 BITNET: yaronf@HUJINIX CSNET & INTERNET: yaronf@mush.huji.ac.il Snail: 22 Hissin St., 64284 Tel Aviv, Israel