[jeffreyH (OP)]

For those left boggled by mathematical symbols there can be help at hand. A useful tool is the cheat sheet. A quick reference to all the mind boggling symbols. Here is one link to get you started. Feel free to report back here on how useful or otherwise these were.

http://math-blog.com/13-useful-math-cheat-sheets/

[jeffreyH (OP)]

For some of the more mysterious shorthand the following link should help.

http://mathforum.org/library/drmath/view/51433.html