[Help] Input Type Symbol Character

wxMaxima provides a method of entering special symbols using the keyboard:

• A special symbol can be entered by pressing the ESC key and then starting to type the symbol character’s name.
• Alternatively it can be entered by pressing ESC, one letter (or two for the Greek symbol omicron) and ESC again.

In this case the following symbols are supported:

Greek characters

Lower case

Key	Greek letter	Symbol
a	alpha	α
b	beta	β
g	gamma	γ
d	delta	δ
e	epsilon	ε
z	zeta	ζ
h	eta	η
q	theta	θ
i	iota	ι
k	kappa	κ
l	lambda	λ
m	mu	μ
n	nu	ν
x	xi	ξ
om	omicron	o
pi	pi	π
r	rho	ρ
s	sigma	σ
t	tau	τ
u	upsilon	υ
f	phi	φ
c	chi	χ
y	psi	ψ
o	omega	ω

Upper case

Key	Greek letter	Symbol
A	Alpha	A
B	Beta	B
G	Gamma	Γ
D	Delta	∆
E	Epsilon	E
Z	Zeta	Z
H	Eta	H
T	Theta	Θ
I	Iota	I
K	Kappa	K
L	Lambda	Λ
M	Mu	M
N	Nu	N
X	Xi	Ξ
Om	Omicron	o
P	Pi	Π
R	Rho	P
S	Sigma	Σ
T	Tau	T
U	Upsilon	Υ
P	Phi	Φ
C	Chi	X
Y	Psi	Ψ
O	Omega	Ω

Mathematical Symbols

Symbol	Keys to enter	Symbol description
ℏ	hb	Planck’s constant: a h with a horizontal bar above it
Ħ	Hbar	a H with a horizontal bar above it
	2	squared
	3	to the power of three
½	/2	1/2
∂	partial	partial sign (the d of dx/dt)
∫	integral	integral sign
√	sq	square root
ⅈ	ii	imaginary
ⅇ	ee	element
∈	in	in
⇒	impl	implies
⇒	implies	implies
∞	inf	infinity
∅	empty	empty
▶	TB	big triangle right
▸	tb	small triangle right
⋀	and	and
⋁	or	or
⊻	xor	xor
⊼	nand	nand
⊽	nor	nor
⇔	equiv	equivalent to
¬	not	not
⋃	union	union
⋂	inter	intersection
⊆	subseteq	subset or equal
⊂	subset	subset
⊈	notsubseteq	not subset or equal
⊄	notsubset	not subset
≅	approx	approximately
∝	propto	proportional to
≠	neq	not equal to
≠	!=	not equal to
≠	/=	not equal to
≠	#	not equal to
±	+/-	a plus/minus sign
±	pm	a plus/minus sign
≤	<=	equal or less than
≤	leq	equal or less than
≥	>=	equal or greater than
≥	geq	qual or greater than
≪	<<	much less than
≪	ll	much less than
≫	>>	much greater than
≫	gg	much greater than
∎	qed	end of proof
∇	nabla	a nabla operator
∑	sum	sum sign
∏	prod	product sign
∏	product	product sign
∃	exists	there exists sign
∄	nexists	there is no sign
∥	parallel	a parallel sign
⟂	perp	a perpendicular sign
⟂	perpendicular	a perpendicular sign
↝	leadsto	a leads to sign
→	->	a right arrow
⟶	-->	a long right arrow

Unicode characters

If a special symbol isn’t in the list it is possible to input arbitrary Unicode characters by pressing ESC [number of the character (hexadecimal)] ESC.

ESC 61 ESC therefore results in an a.

Note

Please note that most of these symbols (notable exceptions are the logic symbols) do not have a special meaning in Maxima and therefore will be interpreted as ordinary characters. If Maxima is compiled using a Lisp that doesn’t support dealing with Unicode characters they might cause an error message instead.