The notation for vector analysis has a contentious nineteenth century history, with many different notations describing the same or similar concepts competing for use. While the twentieth century has seen a great deal of unification in vector analysis notation, variation still remains. In this paper, the two primary notations used for expressing…

The method for geometric transforms (probability generating functions) is used to study the expected number of observations until the pattern 123123 . . . 123 is obtained. These results provide a first generalization of similar problems considered by other authors. (Contains 1 figure.)