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I have a bunch of vectors and matrices that are written using \mathbf, eg $\mathbf{w}$ and $\mathbf{W}$. What are standard ways of writing these in hand-writing?

I know this is not exactly a maths question, but I'm not sure where else to ask it really?

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    Looks like there is https://tex.stackexchange.com now. Should this be moved to there?2017-08-20

2 Answers 2

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Since it is hopeless to write bold-face characters by hand, people introduced symbols like $ \vec{w}, \quad \underline{w}, $ for vectors. Matrices are usually written in roman characters, but with upper case: $A$, $B$, $W$, etc.

Mathematicians do not like strange symbols for vectors, and they tend to write simply $v$, $w$ as if they were writing scalar quantities. The context makes the difference. Physicists and engineers prefer arrows, as far as I know.

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Why not use a tilde & a harpoon over the letter to distinguish between a matrix & a vector respectively? In control systems, capital letters are used to denote the Laplace Transform of a time-domain variable & since multivariable systems are not uncommon this could distinguish that.

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    I see that a tilde under an upper-case Roman letter is also used for matrices; with a straight line or underscore under a lower case Roman letter for a vector. I can't figure out how to produce these symbols in MathJax.2015-07-19