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putting a zero ahead of a decimal point

Posted By: Chuck Bower
Date: Tuesday, 4 May 2010, at 1:33 p.m.

In Response To: Standardizing match score notation (Klaus Evers)

(I like the idea, particularly the cube value and location. But I chime in on a minor point with several others.)

It took until I was a senior in high school for someone (physics teacher) to show me that it's better to write, for example:

0.3 than .3

The reason is that, particularly in handwriting, a decimal point can get lost, or confused with an unintended pen/pencil slippage mark. I've also found (although this may simply be a quirk of mine) that I recognize a decimal point easier if there is a digit in front of it.

Both of these are somewhat relevant for this notation. Further, a minus sign can be confusing/ambiguous (for example, what is a baseball team's record? 5-3. What does that mean? 2??)

Bottom line, IMO, is that using the letter 'a' is less confusing, more easily recognized (probably this one isn't universal), and less likely to get lost. All that for being harder to write?

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