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Re: "Proper" scientific notation





On Sun, 8 Mar 1998, David Simmons wrote:

This may have been addressed before, but I'd be interested in the
opinions of others on the list.

Graphing calculators give answers in scientific notation like:
2.5E3
meaning:
2.5 x 10^3 or 2500.
More and more of my students are beginning to express answers in this
format on tests and homework. Should I allow them to do this? My gut
feeling is no.

I share your gut feeling. Note that journals and textbooks do not support
that form of expression, except in the case of ASCII printout of computer
programs. Part of our job is to encourage the standard style, language,
and conventions of our profession, and those of the larger academic
community as well. It's a simple enough thing to mention this to students
once, early in the course.

I wish some journal or perhaps the APS would put their journal style
manual on the web. This might have to be done in PDF format, due to the
limitations of HTML. If it were available to students this easily, we
could point them to it and say *that* represents the standards of the
physics profession.

I think the cause is this. Students often use word processors supplied by
the shool--usually supplied without documentation. They don't know what
features the software has, and haven't taken the time to find out how to
do subscripts, superscripts, special symbols, equations, etc. WordPerfect,
Microsoft Word, and the other major players all have these capabilities,
and it's not too much to ask of students that they find these features,
using the software's "help" facility, and *use* them.

One student I recently asked thought that his answer of
2E3 was equal to 8 instead of 2000!

By insisting on having students convert to "standard" notation am I
being prudent or old fashioned?

If it's considered old fashioned, maybe that isn't such a bad thing. Some
students who spend too much time at computers think its "cool" to type
without punctuation and capitalization, but I'm not about to accept that
in homework or lab reports either.

-- Donald

......................................................................
Dr. Donald E. Simanek Office: 717-893-2079
Professor of Physics FAX: 717-893-2048
Lock Haven University, Lock Haven, PA. 17745
dsimanek@eagle.lhup.edu http://www.lhup.edu/~dsimanek
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