[diffeomorphism]

> Typically we write that the solution is "x = –2"

That is not overloading "=" at all. It is overloading the word "solution".

What your teacher probably told you is:

"x+3=1 is equivalent to x=-2 by .... Hence, the solution of x+3=1 is the same the solution of x=-2 (which is -2 in both cases). Since the solution of x=-2 is so obvious, we also say the solution is x=-2 to mean that it is the same solution as of the equation x=-2."

Same difference as in "Q:Would you like a large coffee or a small coffee? A: Large " The correct answers should only be either phrase "A large coffee" or "a small coffee", but the answer was an adjective.

[sykh]

I don’t know the precise definition of overloaded. I was merely claiming that the use of = in an equation, like a polynomial equation, is very much different than the use of = in something like the statement of the distributive property of the real numbers.

I’m a mathematician so it’s something my teacher said as such but something that I noticed consciously when I started doing some programming.