The nabla is a triangular symbol resembling an inverted Greek delta, used to denote the del vector differential operator. Its name comes from the symbol's shape, which resembles an ancient Phoenician harp called a nabla in Hellenistic Greek, a name suggested by the encyclopedist William Robertson Smith in an 1870 letter to Peter Guthrie Tait. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/
Facts
Origin Yearsuggested by William Robertson Smith in an 1870 letter to Peter Guthrie Tait Connections
Sources
1. Nabla Symbol (Wikipedia)
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The nabla is a triangular symbol resembling an inverted Greek delta: ∇ {\displaystyle \nabla } or ∇. The name comes, by reason of the symbol's shape, from the Hellenistic Greek word νάβλα for a Phoenician harp, and was suggested by the encyclopedist William Robertson Smith in an 1870 letter to Peter Guthrie Tait.
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