The √ of the Vorsprung logo has a myriad history, in-keeping with the foundation of Vorsprung itself. The meaning of the word Vorsprung is undefined: ‘to leap ahead’ is the closest.
People often assume, that, it simply represents the ‘V’ of Vorsprung, however it is more than this.
The actual physical sign, of the logo, is the root symbol in mathematics. This has its own significance, in that, it symbolises the way that Vorsprung’s work is (rooted) the ‘root’ of the problems and the source of the solution is the ‘root’ facts.
In mathematics, the radical sign, radical symbol, root symbol, radix, or surd is a symbol for the square root or higher-order root of a number. The square root of a number. Each positive real number has two square roots, one positive and the other negative. The square root symbol refers to the principal square root, which is the positive one. The two square roots of a negative number are both imaginary numbers, and the square root symbol refers to the principal square root, the one with positive imaginary part.
In this way, the ‘√’ symbol is showing Vorsprung to be a positive thing.
The origin of the root symbol (√) is largely speculative. Some sources imply that the symbol was first used by Arab mathematicians. One of those mathematicians was Abū al- Hasan ibn Alī al-Qalasādī (1421–1486). Legend has it that it was taken from the Arabic letter ‘ج’ (ǧīm, which is the first letter in the Arabic word ‘جــــذر' (jadhir, meaning “root"). However, some scholars, including Leonhard Euler, believe it originates from the letter ‘r', the first letter of the Latin word "radix" (meaning "root"), referring to the same mathematical operation.
The symbol was first seen in print without the vinculum (the horizontal ‘bar’ over the numbers inside the radical symbol) in the year 1525 in Die Coss by Christoff Rudolff, a German mathematician. In 1637 Descartes was the first to unite the German radical sign (√) with the vinculum to create the radical symbol in common use today.
It is also used for other meanings in more advanced mathematics, such as the radical of an ideal.
The ‘√’ symbol for Vorsprung is:
A radical ideal.
The root / source.
A higher order.
The ‘V’ for Vorsprung.
Vorsprung is all of this. And more...
© The Vorsprung Project 2020.
