the form of dt - Is the pronunciation the same?

Question

Here are the same Schrödinger equations with different forms of "d" - the first one is a curved form.

The question of this thread is: Do you pronounce this curved form of "d" still as /d/?

I don't know how to pronounce it, but it's called partial differential, if that helps. — Void, Mar 12, 2021 at 16:43

mdewey · Accepted Answer · 2021-03-12 16:43:44Z

4

You might be interested in a document on how to read mathematical expressions.

They suggest it is to be read as d or that you should read the whole thing out in words, the partial derivative of ... with respect to ...

Although the document comes from a French institution I believe it represents the practice of English speaking mathematicians.

answered Mar 12, 2021 at 16:43

mdewey

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Yeah... Also read the first paragraph of this Wiki article: 'read as "the partial derivative of z with respect to x"'
– Void
Mar 12, 2021 at 16:49
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@NewPlanet that is not one I use but I believe it is called a nabla.
– mdewey
Mar 13, 2021 at 11:27
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@NewPlanet I might be misremembering from college but I think the inverted-delta symbol is pronounced "del" as in "del-squared phi-sub-n."
– randomhead
Mar 18, 2021 at 5:46
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Also, regarding the original question: the proper reading is "the partial derivative with respect to time of..." but when discussing it out loud people often say "dee-dee-tee..." instead. This is technically incorrect because the normal d and curved d are different functions, see here. For the second derivative they don't usually shorten it that way, they say "the second partial derivative."
– randomhead
Mar 18, 2021 at 5:52
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The problem here is I am a statistician not a physicist so what we call them is probably not what physicists call them. I think it is best to remain silent rather than mislead you. Apologies.
– mdewey
Apr 5, 2021 at 10:03

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