The plus-minus sign and its complement, the minus-or-plus sign, are mathematical symbols with several related meanings. The plus-minus sign most commonly indicates a choice between two values, such as the two roots of a quadratic equation, or expresses a measurement tolerance where a stated value could lie within a range above or below it. It is encoded in Unicode as U+00B1, with the minus-or-plus sign encoded separately as U+2213, and both appear throughout mathematics, science and engineering wherever a quantity can take either of two related values.
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1. Plus-Minus Sign (Wikipedia)
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The plus-minus sign or plus-or-minus sign (±) and the complementary minus-or-plus sign (∓) are symbols with broadly similar multiple meanings.
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