Question

What examples of symbols can you think of? Provide at least two examples. One should be mathematical and the other can be from daily life. Explain the meaning of the symbol and why the symbol is useful . Pretend you are explaining to someone who has never seen these symbols before

Answer 1

%
This symbol represents a sort of fraction where the number preceeding that symbol is divided by 100. Saying you have 5% of something, for example, means that 5/100 of that object belongs to you. It is useful, because it makes more sense and is easier to say you own 7% of the land than to say seven hundreth of the entire land belongs to you.

^
This symbol is the symbol for an exponent. The number preceeding this symbol is the root. The number following this symbol is the exponent. If the root is 5 and the exponent is 3, this means I mean to say 5*5*5. When you say it out, this symbol translates to raised to. So 5^3 would be said as 5 raised to the 3rd power. This is useful because when we look at large numbers, it is much easier to say two raised to the twelth than two times two times two times two times two times two times two times two times two times two times two times two.