What is the mathematical name for the infinity symbol?
Hi, The infinity symbol introduced by John Wallis in 1655. This symbol was first given its current mathematical meaning in “Arithmetica Infinitorum” (1655) by the British mathematician John Wallis (1616-1703). The symbol itself is properly called a lemniscus, a latin noun which means “pendant ribbon” and was first used in 1694 by Jacob Bernoulli (1654-1705) to describe a planar curve now called the Lemniscate of Bernoulli. In Florian Cajori’s “A History of Mathematical Notations”: The sign [infinity] to signify infinite number was introduced by John Wallis in 1655 in his “De sectionibus conicus” in this manner: “Esto enim [infinity] nota numeri infiniti.” The conjecture has been made that Wallis, who was a classical scholar, adopted this sign from the late Roman symbol [infinity] for 1000. I hope that helps!!
