{"items": [{"author": "Aryeh", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943223041342", "anchor": "fb-943223041342", "service": "fb", "text": "English was easy enough but some of the Greek letters used in physics were really challenging. Lowercase xi always stumped me... And then to write some of them in blackboard bold, that was a whole other game.", "timestamp": "1527467857"}, {"author": "Richard", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943224747922", "anchor": "fb-943224747922", "service": "fb", "text": "I always used to tell my algebra students to write a print x and a cursive y. I found that students, especially when they were working fast, would write print y's that they later read as x's.", "timestamp": "1527468725"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943224747922&reply_comment_id=943238126112", "anchor": "fb-943224747922_943238126112", "service": "fb", "text": "→ How I distinguish x and y:", "timestamp": "1527474643"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943224747922&reply_comment_id=943238240882", "anchor": "fb-943224747922_943238240882", "service": "fb", "text": "→ I guess you could call that a print x and cursive y, actually", "timestamp": "1527474672"}, {"author": "Quinn", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943225556302", "anchor": "fb-943225556302", "service": "fb", "text": "I like and use all of these, except that I write \u201c1\u201d with top serif and bottom line to distinguish from \u201c|\u201d (absolute value or disjunction or \u201cpipe\u201d).", "timestamp": "1527469248"}, {"author": "Connie", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943226669072", "anchor": "fb-943226669072", "service": "fb", "text": "I started putting lines through my z's after an 8th grade algebra test where the answer was something like z^2+2z+2 and I got it wrong b/c by teacher couldn't tell my z's and my 2's apart.", "timestamp": "1527469760"}, {"author": "Connie", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943226669072&reply_comment_id=943227317772", "anchor": "fb-943226669072_943227317772", "service": "fb", "text": "→ I also gradually picked up all the others through college", "timestamp": "1527470078"}, {"author": "David", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943227557292", "anchor": "fb-943227557292", "service": "fb", "text": "I eventually adopted all of your examples (though I sometimes put serifs on 1's), though not before stubbornly going through a complex analysis course insisting that context should be sufficient to distinguish 2 and z. And I only started barring my 7's after spending some time living in France where it's standard.
The only one of these that I was specifically taught was the cursive l, and that was from a high school chemistry teacher telling us how to write element symbols (Cl, Al, etc.)", "timestamp": "1527470251"}, {"author": "Viva", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943239248862", "anchor": "fb-943239248862", "service": "fb", "text": "My students have trouble with distinguishing their own p from rho and other similar issues. I long ago made the symbols distinct.", "timestamp": "1527475149"}, {"author": "Leah", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943239423512", "anchor": "fb-943239423512", "service": "fb", "text": "I also sometimes write my lowercase x with italic-style serifs (like your lowercase i has) so it doesn't turn into a multiplication sign.", "timestamp": "1527475373"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943239423512&reply_comment_id=943240521312", "anchor": "fb-943239423512_943240521312", "service": "fb", "text": "→ I use dot, asterix, or just adjacency for multiplication, I think", "timestamp": "1527475953"}, {"author": "Jess", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943243550242", "anchor": "fb-943243550242", "service": "fb", "text": "The cross on the z and the 7 distinguish those from the 2 and 1, respectively, but make them harder to distinguish from each other. Luckily, 7's are pretty rare. Unlike Jeff's i and t in int, the crosses on z and 7 have infiltrated permanently into my normal (non-math) writing.
My favorite bit of nerd symbology is \"fish\", which we invented (presumably, re-invented) to complete this series: take a Greek lower-case gamma, rotate clockwise 90 degrees to get the Greek lower-case alpha, 180 degrees to get curly el (like Jeff writes it), and 270 degrees to get fish.", "timestamp": "1527478458"}, {"author": "Jeff Kaufman", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943243550242&reply_comment_id=943269622992", "anchor": "fb-943243550242_943269622992", "service": "fb", "text": "→ I also cross z and 7 in normal writing now", "timestamp": "1527507115"}, {"author": "Andrew", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943244807722", "anchor": "fb-943244807722", "service": "fb", "text": "Crossed 7s. Crossed Z's to distinguish them from \"2's.\" Serifs on y when it's used as a y-var.", "timestamp": "1527479986"}, {"author": "Daniel", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943274483252", "anchor": "fb-943274483252", "service": "fb", "text": "I often use the PalmOS Graffiti letterforms which help differentiate.", "timestamp": "1527512804"}, {"author": "Jeannine", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943283839502", "anchor": "fb-943283839502", "service": "fb", "text": "we were taught to write the variables in cursive lettering.", "timestamp": "1527519464"}, {"author": "Drake", "source_link": "https://www.facebook.com/jefftk/posts/943222736952?comment_id=943358953972", "anchor": "fb-943358953972", "service": "fb", "text": "I dislike crossed letters and numbers aesthetically, so I opt for making a loop in drawing the 2 and emphasizing the curve on top. I also make my 0s tall to distinguish from Os and make the \"spine\" of my 7 angled enough to clearly distinguish it from a 1.
One thing I feel like I don't have a good fix for yet is x's versus y's, though - I draw the left leaf of my y's from the top left, and sometimes overshoot so that it's tough to distinguish from an x.", "timestamp": "1527545225"}, {"author": "Lucas", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/117844313637558297240", "anchor": "gp-1527554418646", "service": "gp", "text": "I was never explicitly taught any of this, at least not before figuring out a similar set of disambiguations for myself. On the other hand, I had noticed (and silently wondered about) these crossed glyphs in my dad's normal handwriting for several years until ninth or tenth grade, when it suddenly seemed very obviously useful.", "timestamp": 1527554418}, {"author": "Shannon", "source_link": "https://plus.google.com/103104079397182944597", "anchor": "gp-1527658061444", "service": "gp", "text": "I self-taught and/or mimicked people. I addition to the above, I cross my lower-case v's (just the right stroke). (In calculus there are a lot of u's and v's.)", "timestamp": 1527658061}]}