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There is a funny, award-winning book Science made Stupid that parodies gradeschool textbooks. In this book, there is the following table of symbols used in mathematics.

Amusing symbols used in mathematics

These symbols are each made of typical symbols available in tex. But I was wondering how one might go about making these available (in math mode) in latex? I'm particularly interested in the first four — but I suspect that once any of them are made, all can be made with a bit of twiddling.

It's probably possible to create the symbol in tikz, but I don't think this works well in math mode (e.g. what if I want to put "is very reminiscent of" as a subscript?). I have similar qualms about using kludge formed with rotatebox in graphicx. I suspect there are better ways.

Sandy G
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davidlowryduda
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  • It can be done. Yjere is always metafont. See also https://tex.stackexchange.com/questions/28567/how-to-install-and-use-simpsons-font?r=SearchResults&s=1%7C64.6642 – John Kormylo Nov 28 '22 at 23:02
  • If you want to put it as a subscript, you can define your TikZ symbol using \mathchoice. – Davislor Nov 29 '22 at 01:23
  • You might find either ⋚ (less than, greater than or equal to) or ⋛ (greater than, less than or equal to) an adequate stand-in for “greater than, less than, or possibly equal to.”Also ⪋ or ⪌. Or maybe ⪑ or ⪒ . – Davislor Nov 29 '22 at 01:37

1 Answers1

4

There are a few different techniques used here.

  1. For the "perhaps equal to" symbol, the symbol is drawn using TikZ and scaled to the height of a \cong symbol using \scalerel* from the scalerel package. Since \cong changes size in scripts, the new symbol does also.
  2. For the "has some kind of relation to" symbol, \mathpalette is used together with \rotatebox to rotate a ? symbol. Note: \rotatebox requires the graphicx package, which is loaded by scalerel.
  3. For the "reminiscent" symbol, \mathpalette is again used, together with \ooalign to superimpose an = with a \wr symbol (the vertical \sim).
  4. Finally, for the "probably has nothing to do with" symbol, \mathchoice is used since there are minor spacing adjustments needed for each style.

enter image description here

More details can be found in this question and its answers.

Here is the code:

\documentclass{article}

\usepackage{tikz, scalerel}


\newcommand{\perhaps}{\mathrel{\scalerel*{\tikz{
    \useasboundingbox (0,-.2) rectangle (1,.6);
    \drawline width=1.4pt, line cap=round, line join=round--(1,-.04)(0,.2)--(.4,.2)--(0,.5)(1,.2)--(.6,.2)--(1,.5);
}}{\cong}}}


\makeatletter
\newcommand{\somekind}{\mathrel{\mathpalette\some@kind\relax}}
\newcommand{\some@kind}[2]{%
    \rotatebox[origin=c]{-90}{$\m@th#1?$}
}


\newcommand{\reminiscent}{\mathrel{\mathpalette\reminisc@nt\relax}}
\newcommand{\reminisc@nt}[2]{%
  \ooalign{%
    $\m@th#1=$\cr
    \hidewidth$\m@th#1\wr$\hidewidth\cr
  }%
}
\makeatother


\newcommand{\probnothing}{\mathrel{\mathchoice
  {\ooalign{\rotatebox{90}{?}\cr\raisebox{1.7ex}{\rotatebox{-90}{?}}\cr}}
  {\ooalign{\rotatebox{90}{?}\cr\raisebox{1.7ex}{\rotatebox{-90}{?}}\cr}}
  {\ooalign{\raisebox{-.1ex}{\rotatebox{90}{$\scriptstyle ?$}}\cr\raisebox{1.25ex}{\rotatebox{-90}{$\scriptstyle ?$}}\cr}}
  {\ooalign{\raisebox{-.1ex}{\rotatebox{90}{$\scriptscriptstyle ?$}}\cr\raisebox{1ex}{\rotatebox{-90}{$\scriptscriptstyle ?$}}\cr}}
}}


\begin{document}


$A\perhaps B_{A\perhaps B_{A\perhaps B}}$


$A\somekind B_{A\somekind B_{A\somekind B}}$


$A\reminiscent B_{A\reminiscent B_{A\reminiscent B}}$


$A\probnothing B_{A\probnothing B_{A\probnothing B}}$


\end{document}
Sandy G
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