US vs UK: Mathematical Terminology

Engagement, History 1 Minute

Math With Bad Drawings had an amusing essay concerning differences in mathematical nomenclature between American English and British English. I thought that it would be appropriate to share this around the Fourth of July.

From the essay and the comments to the essay:

  • Math vs. maths
  • Zee vs. zed
  • 3.5 vs. 3\cdot 5
  • Trapezoid vs. trapezium
  • Scientific notation vs. standard form
  • Exponents vs. indices
  • Revise and review vs. review and revise
  • Imperial units vs. metric units
  • Pythagorean theorem vs. Pythagoras
  • Slope vs. gradient
  • Root vs. surd
  • PEMDAS vs. BIMDAS
  • Billion vs. trillion (a generation ago)
  • GCD (greatest common divisor) vs. HCF (highest common factor)
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Published by John Quintanilla

I'm a Professor of Mathematics and a University Distinguished Teaching Professor at the University of North Texas. For eight years, I was co-director of Teach North Texas, UNT's program for preparing secondary teachers of mathematics and science.

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