WebMath: standard notation for negative numbers?

[Guillermo Alzuru]

Hi,

I'm very interested in this subject, but not being a native English speaker I am
afraid I don't understand the discussion because I don't know what a "raised" sign
is. Also, what is the difference with a "subtraction" sign?

Is what you call the subtraction sign the minus key on every keyboard? Is the
raised sign the HTML character (–) ?

Thanks,

Guillermo


Pam Bishop wrote:

> Is there an international standard in notation for negative numbers?  One
> enquirer has asked:
>
> "Personally, I have been brought up differentiating between 'negative seven'
> and 'subtract seven' through the former being a 'raised' sign compared with the
> subtraction sign.  However, is this 'standard' world-wide or is there no agreed
> standard?  I note on several web sites that often a raised sign is not used for
> 'negative' and a 'subtraction' sign is used instead.  However, I don't know
> whether that is because that is standard in that country or whether they are
> just being 'lazy' (also, of course, the issue of computers may make people not
> bother using a raised sign as it is not as easy to produce on a computer as a
> standard subtraction sign).  Of course, it may well be the case that there is
> no standard at all."
>
> Comments welcome - Pam
>
> ===============================================================
>
> Pam Bishop, Assistant Director
> LTSN Maths, Stats & OR Network
> School of Mathematics and Statistics    p.bishop at bham.ac.uk
> The University of Birmingham            tel 0121-414 4800
> Birmingham  B15 2TT                     fax 0121-414 3389
>
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--
Guillermo Alzuru
Web Instructional Development
University of Georgia Center for Continuing Education, # 194D
Athens, GA 30602
Ph: (706) 542-4476 - Fax: (706) 542-6720


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