What does symbolic mean in math?

Answer 1

In math, symbolic logic is simply expressing a mathematically logical statement through the use of symbols. For instance, one could always write down the phrase, "one plus one equals two," but using symbolic logic, that statement can be expressed much more succinctly as 1 + 1 = 2.

A better example is:

The indefinite integral of one divided by the quantity one minus the square of x with respect to x is equal to one half multiplied by the natural logarithm of the quotient of the quantities one plus x and one minus x with the constant of integration added to this result

Symbolically written, that statement is expressed as:

∫ [1/(1 - x2)] dx = ½ ln[(1 + x)/(1 - x)] + C,

which is a whole heck of a lot easier to write!