Wikipedia:Reference desk/Archives/Mathematics/2021 January 29

= January 29 =

Stages in Timeline of Mathematics
A question yesterday caused me to look at Timeline of mathematics. That is divided into 3 sections by epoch: Rhetorical, Syncopated and Symbolic. I assume Symbolic refers to the development of algebra and the use of symbols within maths. I have no idea what Rhetorical or Syncopated mean here. Could a knowing person explain - and maybe even add it to the article. -- SGBailey (talk) 13:54, 29 January 2021 (UTC)


 * It's explained in History of mathematical notation. I'm not convinced that these sections are useful... --Wrongfilter (talk) 14:17, 29 January 2021 (UTC)
 * I agree. Although, obviously, the development of mathematics and the development of mathematical notation have gone hand in hand, influencing on each other, these terms are meaningful when applied to notation, but hardly relevant for the development of mathematics per se, and (next to being unclear to the reader) not helpful for a segmentation of the timeline. --Lambiam 15:57, 29 January 2021 (UTC)