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Two rightward arrows asserting that one thing follows from another, in unrelated fields.
Look at the shaft and at what surrounds it. Logical implication is drawn with a doubled shaft and sits between statements; a reaction arrow has a single shaft and sits between chemical formulae, usually with conditions written above and below it. Neither is an equals sign, and both assert direction rather than equality.
Both are rightward arrows asserting that one thing follows from another.
| Implies sign | Reaction arrow | |
|---|---|---|
| What it asserts | If the left holds, so does the right | These reactants become these products |
| Shaft | Doubled | Single |
| What sits either side | Statements | Chemical formulae |
| Anything written on it? | No | Yes — catalyst, temperature, solvent |
| Relationship (from Symbolwise's records) | Commonly confused with Reaction arrow — Both are rightward arrows asserting that one thing follows from another. | Commonly confused with Implies sign — Both are rightward arrows asserting that one thing follows from another, in unrelated fields. |
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-07-31
Tertiary reference. Used for what the notation means in ordinary mathematical practice and for attribution of its introduction, not for a claim that any body defines it.
Wikipedia · retrieved 2026-08-01
Tertiary reference. Used for what a symbol denotes in ordinary scientific practice and for which fields reuse it, never for a claim that any body assigns the letter its meaning.
Count the arrowheads. A single head means implication: if the left statement holds then so does the right, with no claim in the other direction. Two heads mean equivalence: each statement implies the other, so they hold in exactly the same circumstances. Reading a one-way implication as though it were equivalence is the commonest error made with either symbol.
In logic it asserts that the right-hand statement follows from the left-hand one. In JavaScript the same arrow separates a function's parameters from its body. Both are drawn as two horizontal strokes followed by an angle bracket, and the notations are otherwise unconnected.
Look for the horizontal line. Fire is a plain upward triangle; air is the same triangle with a bar drawn across its upper part. Dropping the bar is the commonest error in reproductions of the element set, and it turns air into fire.
The same rule as fire and air, inverted. Water is a plain downward triangle; earth is the same triangle with a bar across its lower part. The four element signs are one designed set: two point up, two point down, and within each pair the bar is the only difference.