17/06/2013
Infinity symbol: "โ"
John Wallis introduced the infinity symbol to mathematical literature.
John Wallis is credited with introducing the infinity symbol, , (sometimes called the"Lemniscate") in 1655 in his "De sectionibus conicis". One conjecture as to why he chose this symbol is that he derived it from a Roman numeral for 1,000, which was in turn derived from the Etruscan numeral for 1,000, which looked somewhat like CIฦ and was sometimes used to mean"many". Another conjecture is thathe derived it from the Greek letter ฯ (omega), the last letter in the Greek alphabet.
The infinity symbol is also sometimes depicted as a special variation of the ancient"ouroboros" snake symbol. The snake is twisted into the horizontal eight configuration while engaged in eating its own tail, a uniquely suitable symbol for endlessness.
