Exploring the wealth of math symbols

Let's go beyond writing variables and basic math operators. We may need many symbols for particular purposes: relation signs, unary and binary operators, function-like operators, sum and integral symbols and variants of the latter, arrows, and many more. LaTeX and additional packages offer thousands of symbols for many purposes.

So, let's look at some math symbols and the commands for producing them. We shall cover many standard LaTeX symbols; the latexsym package provides some additional symbols. Even more symbols are accessible using, for instance, the amssymb package.

Binary operation symbols

Besides plus and minus, there are a few more operations:

Figure 9.19 – Binary operation symbols

You need to have \usepackage{latexsym} in your document preamble to be able to use the symbols in the last row here.

Binary relation symbols

Values of expressions might be equal, in which case you just need...