1

What is the name of the following symbol and how to type it in LATEX?

Thanks!

the symbol

Meng
  • 113
  • In mdsymbol package there is a $\hourglass$... Is it ok for you? Try it! – koleygr Oct 28 '17 at 01:01
  • Thanks! I tried $\hourglass$, but this symbol is not compatible with other math symbols, for example $\sigma$, in terms of the size and weight. – Meng Oct 28 '17 at 01:08
  • Where do you want to use it? may be a change on fontsize like {\footnotesize $\hourglass$}$\cdot \sigma$ can do your job – koleygr Oct 28 '17 at 01:16
  • I found also \upbowtie... but it is the same... – koleygr Oct 28 '17 at 01:24
  • 1
    The weight can be changed with the mdsymbol package option normalweight=Light. Size can also be scaled up via the package option size=1.3 – Troy Oct 28 '17 at 01:37

4 Answers4

4

All the ways (by using existing symbols) I found next to a \sigma:

\usepackage{tikz}
\usepackage{mdsymbol}
\usepackage{allrunes}

\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
\item $\sigma$
\item $\sigma$ $\hourglass$ %mdsymbol
\item $\sigma$ $\upbowtie$ %mdsymbol
\item $\sigma$ \tikz \node [inner sep=0,rotate=90]{$\lrtimes$};%mdsymbol
\item $\sigma$ \tikz \node [inner sep=0,rotate=90]{$\Join$};%mdsymbol
\item $\sigma$ \tikz \node [inner sep=0,rotate=90]{\textara{d}}; %allrunes
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

enter image description here

koleygr
  • 20,105
3
\documentclass[a4paper]{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{scalerel}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\myhg}{\mathbin{\scalerel*{\@hgpic}{\ensuremath{\sigma}}}}% Or \Sigma, or any symbol you want to scale to.
\newcommand{\@hgpic}{%
    \setlength{\unitlength}{0.34cm}% reduce this to increase thickness of line
    \begin{picture}(1,1.5)%
    \thicklines%
    \put(0,0){\line(2,3){1}}%
    \put(1,1.5){\line(-1,0){1}}%
    \put(0,1.5){\line(2,-3){1}}%
    \put(1,0){\line(-1,0){1}}%
    \end{picture}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}
    $\sigma a \myhg b$
    \[\sigma a \myhg b\]
\end{document}

Drawing the symbol and varying the size

It's a simple affair to draw the hourglass using picture, then using the scalerel package to scale the symbol to the \sigma symbol (change this to whatever fits your use case).

Varying the thickness of line

If you would like to make the lines thicker, you can reduce the unitlength slightly (not too much though).

Spacing around the symbol

Also, note the spacing that should go around your hourglass symbol. I follow the convention of mdsymbol's \hourglass/\upbowtiesymbol and declared it as a binary operator, hence the \mathbin. You can remove it if you are intending to use it as a letter like \sigma.

enter image description here

Troy
  • 13,741
  • +1 but I think the line width has to be fatter... And it would be better to keep both your old answer with \Sigma and the new one with both photos of the symbols because I don't know if it was too big or too small for him the symbol I found... – koleygr Oct 28 '17 at 02:17
  • Thanks, added some extra notes. Since OP mentioned \sigma I'll keep it as the small letter for now :) OP's use case is not really clear so alot of it is just assumed. (+1 to your ans too -- quite creative) – Troy Oct 28 '17 at 02:25
  • Thanks... It is not really creative... Just used the symbols I found and rottated some of them because the most of them had fall down :P . I didn't want to draw, just to show him that all the existing symbols are the same size and he have probably to resize (or draw like your answer.) But in his comment he said it is not compatible... And this word doesn't mean it is not the same size as \sigma... May be he means it is too small next to this \sigma... This is the reason I told you to keep both answers. (A too small integral symbol is also not "compatible" with a F(x)dx... ) – koleygr Oct 28 '17 at 02:35
2

You could also to use a similar code which is loaded with XeLaTeX and fontspec, where you can replace the respective hourglass code unicode instead of the asterisk (*) (for example of the type "211E).

enter image description here

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{fontspec}
\setmainfont{quivira.otf}
\renewcommand{\hourglass}{{\fontspec{quivira.otf}\symbol{*}}}
\begin{document}
\hourglass
\end{document}
Sebastiano
  • 54,118
2

You can rotate \bowtie; depending on the nature of the symbol, you may want to use \mathbin (operation) instead of \mathrel (relation).

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\hourglass}{}% preempt
\DeclareRobustCommand{\hourglass}{\mathrel{\mathpalette\hour@glass\relax}}

\newcommand\hour@glass[2]{%
  \vcenter{\hbox{%
    \rotatebox[origin=c]{90}{$\m@th#1\bowtie$}%
  }}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

$A\hourglass \sigma < B$

\end{document}

enter image description here

If it's too big, you can scale it a bit:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{graphicx}

\makeatletter
\newcommand{\hourglass}{}% preempt
\DeclareRobustCommand{\hourglass}{\mathrel{\mathpalette\hour@glass\relax}}

\newcommand\hour@glass[2]{%
  \vcenter{\hbox{%
    \rotatebox[origin=c]{90}{\scalebox{0.8}{$\m@th#1\bowtie$}}%
  }}%
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

$A\hourglass \sigma < B$

\end{document}

enter image description here

egreg
  • 1,121,712