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| Question 394693:  In the following example what does the [ mean  and why are { } used after the = sign and why is the I between the two x's.  [a,oo)= {xIx > a}  (there is a line under the greater than sign, I do not know what the symbol means)
 My name is Dolly and my email is elkm@suddenlink.net
 Answer by jrfrunner(365)
      (Show Source): 
You can put this solution on YOUR website! In the following example what does the [ mean and why are { } used after the = sign and why is the I between the two x's. [a,oo)= {xIx > a} (there is a line under the greater than sign, I do not know what the symbol means) My name is Dolly and my email is elkm@suddenlink.net
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 in mathematics (and many other disciplines), there are short hand or short cuts for saying something.
 a "[" means that the value is included, a ")" means the value is not included
 "{}" is a way to say the set of numbers
 the "I" is really not an I, but a short line to imply the meaning "such that"
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 so [a,oo) means all values between a and infinity including a but since we do not know what infinity is it is left unincluded.
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 {xIx > a}  this means the set of x numbers, such that x is greater than a.
 of course this statement is wrong since they are trying to define [a,oo) which includes "a".  So the statement should look as [a,oo)= {xIx >= a}, its missing teh equal sign to show that it includes "a"
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