On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 00:19:11 -0500, Anton Sherwood <bronto@...>
wrote:

> Dad (who teaches physics) says students are increasingly writing "1e4"
> rather than "10⁴" ...

(You must have meant "10e4", btw.) The "e" (or "E") notation is several
decades old, at least; older computer printers needed an "in-line" way to
represent exponents. In 1960, Fortran used that notation. Such a pity that
a well-known notation like that doesn't always replace "104" and such.

Fwiw, the frequencies of test tones used by phone companies are (or were)
offset slightly from "round" numbers -- e.g. 1004 Hz.* I that case, the
digit on the end is meant to be there, and is not a superscript. *Reason,
technical, is to prevent slow beats between sampling and the test tone.
Beats make level readings unstable.

> ... since the "10" is the least meaningful part of the symbol but the
> superscript is customarily written smaller!

Good point!

Btw, which markup uses ".sub." ?

Best regards,


--
Nicholas Bodley /*|*\ Waltham, Mass. (Not "MA")
Science education in Kansas: The water in
the oceans does not fall off the edges of the
Earth because it is God's will that it not do so.