TITLE: Maths symbol that looks like Sputnik
QUESTION [20 upvotes]: I'm doing some marking for a year 8 (12 to 13-year-old) scholarship paper and I saw this symbol that looks like the Sputnik probe and I have no idea what it is, does anyone know?

REPLY [43 votes]: I think it is a typesetting problem with the parentheses.
My best guess at the intended question would be:
$$\left( 2-\frac 12 \right) \left( 2-\frac 23 \right) \left( 2-\frac 34 \right) \left( 2-\frac 45 \right)$$
This seems reasonable given the level of the other questions.