WritingNumbersinTechnicalDocuments, 3/24/2015

CeliaM.Elliott

Physicsisaquantitativescience.Thus,numbersmustberepresentedinawaythat
ensuresareaderinterpretsthemcorrectly.Tomakesurethatwereallspeaking
thesamequantitativelanguage,ruleshaveevolvedabouthownumericalvaluesare
presentedinwriting.

Learntherules,andhewtothemwitlessly.

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Inthisexample,areadermightinterprethundredthousandasarange(100to
1000),acollectionofonehundred1000spinsets,orasinglenumber(100000).
Fortunately,wehavestandardrulesabouttheexpressionofnumbersinscientific
writingtoavoidambiguityandtoensurethatareaderassignsthesamemeaningto
anumberthatthewriterintended.

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Numbersarewrittenaswordsonly forquantitiesthathavebeencounted.Ifthe
numberistheresultofameasurementoracalculation,itmust beexpressedin
numerals.

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REMINDER:Numbersarewrittenaswordsonly forquantitiesthathavebeen
counted.Ifthenumberistheresultofameasurementoracalculation,itmust be
expressedinnumerals.

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Notethattheunitofmeasureisgivenaftereachnumber,andthetimessymbolisused
insteadoftheletterx.

Toobtainthetimessymbol,usetheinsertsymbolfunctioninMSWordorPowerPoint,
ortype\timesinLaTeX.

Toavoidawkwardbreaksthatmaroonthenumberattheendofalineoftext(e.g.,7
mm)andtheunitatthebeginningofthenextline,asinthisexample,trainyourselfto
typeanonbreakingspacebetweenallnumbersandunits.Doiteverytimeuntilits
automatic.

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Itisimportanttosetlettersusedtosymbolizephysicalquantitiesinitalicsto
distinguishthemfromtherestofthetext.
Intypography,Romantextisstraightupanddown,likethistext,anditalicstextis
slanted,likethis.Romanreferstothetextstyle,notthefontortypefacename
(e.g.Helvetica,Times,CenturySchoolbook).

Notethatabbreviationsforunitsareneveritalicized.

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Notethatthedegreesymbol(0)isusedonlyfortemperaturesintheCelsiusor
Fahrenheitranges.TheSIunit,kelvin(K),isanabsoluteunit,notadegreebased
onsomearbitraryscale.Thus,writingoKordegreesKelvinisincorrect.
Someolderpapersmayshowtemperatureas oK,butthatusewaschangedbyThe
GeneralConferenceonWeightsandMeasures(French:Confrence gnrale des
poids etmesures CGPM)in1967.

Notealsothatunitsareabbreviatedwhentheydescribeaquantitythathasbeen
calculatedormeasured.

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Somesubdisciplinesofphysicsareadoptingthechangefasterthanothers;youll
seenumberspresentedbothways.

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Again,trainyourselftoinsertanonbreakingspacebetweenthenumberandthe
wordtoavoidawkwardlinebreaks.

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NoticethattheexampleSeventyfivemmholesweredrilled...,whichattemptsto
observethedontbeginasentencewithanumberexpressedinnumeralsrule,is
tantalizinglyripeformisinterpretation.

Isit70holes,5mmindiametereach?
Isit75holes,1mmindiametereach?
Orisitsomeindeterminatenumberof75mmholesthatweredrilledinthe
sample?

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Ingeneral,all wimpyqualifiersshouldbeavoidedinscientificwritingbespecific
andquantitative.

TheAmericanauthorMarkTwainhadsomestrongopinionsaboutqualifiers;he
wasparticularlyopposedthetheprofligateuseofvery.Hisadviceeverytime
youaretemptedtowritevery,substitutedamn.Thenyoureditorwillremove
allthedamnsforthesakeofpropriety,andyourwritingwillbemuchimproved.

HeedMarkTwain.

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Notethatk(kilo)isalways writtenlowercasewhenitmeansthousands.

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Ifthenumbercomesafterthenoun,thephraseistreatedasatitleandis
capitalizedaccordingly.

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*Althoughtheruleisthatpercentshouldbewrittenoutinrunningtext,usage
isevolving,andthe%signappearsmoreandmorefrequentlyinphysicspapers.
AlthoughMs.Pisloathtoabandonaprinciple,shethinksthisfightisprobablylost
andreluctantlyabandonstherule.

Reminder:Anyphysicalquantitythathasbeenmeasuredorcalculatedmustbe
expressedinnumerals.

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Highlyrecommendedreading:VernonBooth,CommunicatinginScience:Writinga
scientificpaperandspeakingatscientificmeetings,2nd edition(Cambridge,UK,
CambridgeUniversityPress,1993).

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Morethanyoueverwantedtoknowabouthyphenation:
http://people.physics.illinois.edu/Celia/Lectures/Dashes.pdf.

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Formoreinformationonthedifferencebetweenhyphensanddashesinscientific
writing,seehttp://people.physics.illinois.edu/Celia/Lectures/Dashes.pdf.

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Neverwritetwoadjacentnumbersinnumerals;useacombinationofnumeralsand
wordstoavoidambiguityandmistakesininterpretation.

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RecommendedReferences:

ScientificStyleandFormat:TheCBEManualforAuthors,Editors,andPublishers,
6thed.(CambridgeUniversityPress,NewYork,1994).(Latereditionsareavailable,
butthe6thed.containseverythingyoullneedtoknow.)

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