History Infinity symbol

john wallis introduced infinity symbol mathematical literature.

the shape of sideways figure 8 has long pedigree; instance, appears in cross of saint boniface, wrapped around bars of latin cross. however, john wallis credited introducing infinity symbol mathematical meaning in 1655, in de sectionibus conicis. wallis did not explain choice of symbol, has been conjectured variant form of roman numeral 1,000 (originally ciƆ, cƆ), used mean many , or of greek letter ω (omega), last letter in greek alphabet.

symbol used euler denote infinity

leonhard euler used open variant of symbol in order denote absolutus infinitus . euler freely performed various operations on infinity, such taking logarithm. symbol not used anymore, , not encoded separate character in unicode.