Arithmetic in Urdu or Hindi?

[Vidyasankar Sundaresan]

On Tue, 17 Jun 1997, Anand Venkt Raman wrote:

> So used did I eventually get to using the new terminology that I
> started using dy over dx for dy/dx for them later only to be surprised
> that was still called "dy by dx"!
> 
> Is this difference purely an Australasian phenomenon or is it also
> observed in America and Europe?

It is very much an American phenomenon also. Many Indian grad student
teaching assitants barely make sense to undergraduates here when they
use by and over in ways they are used to in India. However, none of my
American friends has been able to explain why dy by dx is not dy over dx!

Vidyasankar