Quote:
Originally Posted by Bilbo1967
Looking at Biili's very close guesses, it looks like = and / were missing. Is it one/both of those?
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We have a winner! Specifically, the = sign. In his 1557 treatise
The Whetstone of Witte, Robert Recorde introduced this sign thus:
Quote:
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To avoide the tediouse repetition of these woordes: is equal to: I will sette as I doe often in woorke use, a paire of paralleles, or gemowe lines of one lengthe: bicause noe .2. thynges, can be moare equalle.
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I came across a reference to this in
New Scientist. I found it interesting that we have such a specific record of the introduction of something as fundamental as this.
Wikipedia also credits Recorde with inventing the + sign, but that appears quite a bit earlier in various German texts. Recorde does, however, appear to have been the first to use the + and - signs in a printed English text. The same
Whetstone of Witte includes:
Quote:
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There be other 2 signes in often use of which the first is made thus + and betokeneth more: the other is thus made - and betokeneth lesse.
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Recorde's country of birth was Wales. Fbone got the date, Bilbo has the symbol. Have at it, gentlemen.