r/math•
Ryugar

In math/geometry why do they always skip the letters I and J when labeling points or vectors?

Removed - post in the Simple Questions thread

[removed]

Posted Jan 11, 2020, 8:14 PM UTC

14
chebushka•

How many letters in a row are you seeing in use in a diagram: something like ABCDEFGHKLM...? Please give some better context with actual examples where you see I and J being skipped.

5
jhnna•

Mostly i as an imaginary number, although a few other things play in. Lots of people write i and j very similarly as well. It's important to use letters that are easy to recognise and distinguish when you label things. Also, the three letters you mention are also very frequently used as indices in sums / series / products / components of vectors. You don't want to talk about the ith component of vector j.

2
zepazuzu•

Well, first, i is an imaginary number, so not very convenient. Also, i, j and k are the standard coordinate vectors in R3, so maybe to avoid this confusion too

2
edderioferMODAlgebraic Topology•

Unfortunately, your submission has been removed for the following reason(s):

  • Your post appears to be asking a question which can be resolved by relatively simple methods, or describing a phenomenon with a relatively simple explanation. As such, you should post in the Simple Questions thread (which you can find on the front page) or r/learnmath. This includes reference requests - also see our lists of recommended books and free online resources. Here is a more recent thread with book recommendations.

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1