Timeline for Beginning a sentence with a mathematical symbol
Current License: CC BY-SA 2.5
11 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 17, 2010 at 4:45 | comment | added | Robby McKilliam | @Sune: Fantastic! Now I can't even trust my own sense of `nice'. | |
| May 16, 2010 at 19:33 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Kim Morrison | ||
| May 16, 2010 at 10:36 | comment | added | Sune Jakobsen | Robby: "I can't actually construct a situation where it doesn't seem somehow nicer to add "Now" or "Then" or "Consider when" or something similar" I think one reason for this is, that many mathematicians often insert a "Now" to avoid beginning a sentence with a symbol, so you are used to this kind of constructions. If you asked a non-mathematician, I think he might prefer a construction that began with a symbol. I agree that you shouldn't begin a sentence with a symbol, but I don't think that these constructions are "nicer" English. | |
| May 16, 2010 at 8:14 | comment | added | Torsten Ekedahl | For me at least it started out that I learnt that it was a bad idea to end a sentence and start the next one by formulas. This makes a lot of sense and should be followed. However, once I started doing that my sense of esthetics changed and I ended up disliking sentences that start with a formula. I don't really see any rational justification for this more strict rule but I can live with it as it seems easier to apply reflexively than the rule that really does make sense. | |
| May 16, 2010 at 6:48 | comment | added | Harry Gindi | @Vectornaut: If you're giving the conditions in an ordered list, I think that it's fine to put the symbol at the beginning of the sentence because it's clearly set off from the prose. | |
| May 16, 2010 at 3:15 | comment | added | Robby McKilliam | @Vectornaut: Great, now I am totally confused :) I am going to undelete my answer. Gowers had convinced me that it was wrong, but now I really am not sure. If people don't like the answer they should mark it down so that it can at least inform people of what not to do! | |
| May 16, 2010 at 2:50 | comment | added | Victor Protsak | @Vectornaut: excellent illustration of exception proofs (sic!) the rule | |
| May 16, 2010 at 1:52 | comment | added | Vectornaut | The best examples I've found occur when you have a list of conditions. For example, "Theorem 1. The function f has property X if and only if one of the following is true: (1) f is surjective. (2) f is open. (3) f is bounded." | |
| May 15, 2010 at 23:17 | comment | added | KConrad | Examples can be found if you think about statements of theorems. Someone not used to avoiding symbols at the start of a sentence may be inclined to write an equation as the theorem (with quantifiers following rather than preceding it). For example, Mike Rosen told me that he doesn't have a concern about starting a sentence with a symbol and if you look at Ireland & Rosen's "A Classical Introduction to Modern Number Theory" (2nd ed.) you'll see Theorem 3 on p. 212 (or, for that matter, most of the lemmas which precede that theorem) illustrates the possibilities. | |
| May 15, 2010 at 23:01 | comment | added | Robby McKilliam | I think I agree. I can't actually construct a situation where it doesn't seem somehow nicer to add "Now" or "Then" or "Consider when" or something similar. | |
| May 15, 2010 at 22:54 | history | answered | gowers | CC BY-SA 2.5 |