The use of ⊙ can be traced back to the work of the Englishman john beal in 1630. It is estimated that he is probably composed of Arabic division symbols-and comparison symbols:.

In China, people once called unit multiplication "cause", unit division "return", multiplicand "real", multiplier "method" and product. In division, although dividend and divisor are also called "real" and "method", the result of their division is called "quotient".

In modern publications in many countries, "+"and "-"are used to express addition and subtraction, while "×" and "-"are far from common. For example, textbooks in some countries use "×" instead of "×". It is difficult to see "#" in Soviet Union or German publications.