[Phys-L] Re: notation for initial velocity components

[trebor at WINBEAM.COM (Bob Sciamanda)]

c) How about putting the Xdot (velocity) in parentheses, like:

(Xdot)_o   ?

Bob Sciamanda
Physics, Edinboro Univ of PA (Em)
http://www.winbeam.com/~trebor/
trebor@winbeam.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Carl Mungan" <mungan@USNA.EDU>
To: <PHYS-L@LISTS.NAU.EDU>
Sent: Thursday, October 20, 2005 11:29 AM
Subject: notation for initial velocity components


|I may be worried about nothing important, but I thought I'd shoot
| this out for comments anyhow in case anyone has any significant
| comments or insights.
|
| Is anyone bothered about our usual symbols for initial velocity
components?
|
| Particularly egregrious is x_dot_zero. (This is where ascii is
| hopeless: I mean write down x, then put a dot above it [what is that
| called by the way? an "overdot"?], then add a subscript "0". We all
| know what it means, but naively interpreted it could be read as "the
| time derivative of the initial x-component of the position" which of
| course is zero (derivative of a constant).
|
| Somewhat better is to subscript the initial velocity with a zero. My
| main difficulties are:
|
| (a) Should the "0" come before or after the "x" subscript? One can
| either read it as x-component of initial velocity, or as initial
| value of x-component of velocity. These happen to mean the same
| thing, but I can never remember which I prefer and end up switching
| from one to the other randomly.
|
| (b) How about putting a zero in parentheses after the symbol:
| x_dot(0) or v_x(0)? Is this notation to be preferred? It seems it
| could be preferable for the former case but more cluttered for the
| latter case.
|
| As I said, probably minor issues. But in the interests of refining my
| own notations in writing on the board or in articles, I'd welcome
| comments. -Carl
| --
| Carl E. Mungan, Asst Prof of Physics  410-293-6680 (O) -3729 (F)
| Naval Academy Stop 9c, 572C Holloway Rd, Annapolis MD 21402-5002
| mailto:mungan@usna.edu     http://usna.edu/Users/physics/mungan/
|