Shorthand Symbols

[Tundra]

Is it true that one of the short hand symbols is three dots/circles, and one way up it means 'therefore' and the other it means something like 'other' or... miscellaneous or something?

[MichaelB]

yup! But not the way you were describing it.
..
. . = because

. .
.. = therefore (not miscellaneous)

a full triangle (upwards) means 'change'. There are a few others, but those are the ones I use most, aside from r/ship (relationship), m'mn't (management) org'tn (organisation) gov. (government), => (leads to/causing) etc. etc.
Each field of study/work has its own set of shorthand symbols.

Most of the ones I showed above are from Business Management.

[Tundra]

oh okay thanks!
Then why in The Sims, is the 'miscellaneous items' thing something to do with three circles?

[MichaelB]

I do not know. What does it quite look like?

[Tundra]

http://games.tiscali.cz/images/news/sims3fake1.jpg
See down the bottom, there's the three circles. That. Though actually right now I can't remember if it's miscellaneous, or 'everything'.

[MichaelB]

ah. That is an ellipsis, not a dotted triangle. Elipses indicate that something has been left out, and are often used in computer programs to indicate that there is text or images that are not on the screen, and that you need to scroll across for more.

[Tundra]

I meant bottom right.

[Gene]

I don't think it has any grammatical relevance, that symbol. I reckon Maxis simply wanted a vague design to indicate 'Other stuff' and three dots can be anything when combined.

[Hippie]

Tundra, that is the Misc. button. I've got NO clue about shorthand symbols.

[TwistedFirestarter]

..
. . = because

. .
.. = therefore (not miscellaneous)



Weird. I've always learnt therefore as .'. (not '.')

[AXJ]

Weird. I've always learnt therefore as .'. (not '.')

Yep, that's the way it's taught (AFAIK, universally) for doing mathematical / logical proofs.

Therefore sign (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Therefore_sign) (which also shows the inverted one as 'because')

[Gene]

I use the ones Twistie and AXJ use; they were introduced in chemistry to put before following equations.

[/offtopic]

[Tundra]

So are there any symbols that mean miscellaneous or other? For shorthand or whatever else?

[MichaelB]

&c. is the one I see used most often.

On my poster of the First Fleet cargo and inventory list, the miscellaneous category is labelled "List of Provisions, Livestock &c." I would assume that even though &c literally means "et cetera", it was used to denote miscellany.

[adam]

I was always taught (not always, it wasn't until my discrete math course that I had a clue what any of these symbols meant) that the three dots in the delta shape means therefore and in the gradient shape (since I'm too lazy to actually try and get it onto the screen) meant because.

But quite honestly, I think my instructor made up a lot of stuff as he went. Who knows what was right.