Nicholas Bodley wrote:

>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.)
>

No. 1e4. e/E does not mean superscripted or "raised to the power of."
It's for scientific notation, it means "times 10 to the power of..." So
it is sensible to say 1.43e7 to mean 14300000, not to mean 1.43^7. At
least, that's how I see it in most computer notation; it may have been
different in Fortran.

> 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.
>
>

~mark