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Symbol functions

Symbol functions

From the course: Test Prep: GRE

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Symbol functions

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- [Voiceover] In terms of functions, you might also encounter what I call a symbol function. So, a symbol function is basically somethin' that looks like this. Let's say I had a star b equals a squared plus b squared. So this is kind of a function, it's basically saying that when I see a star between two numbers, I take the first number and square it and then I take the second number and square it and then I add the two. So the star itself is meaningless, it's just kind of representing an instruction. So if I were to have this as a direction in a problem and then I saw something like two star four. I would know to say okay that's two squared plus four squared because that's my direction. So that's all I mean by a symbol function. It's just kind of weird terminology but if you see one on the GRE, you just have to say okay this is a normal function let me just figure out what instruction is going on and I'll follow the instruction with the example.

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