School:Physics and Astronomy/Style

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This page will be a handbook of style for writing physics text for the School of Physics and Astronomy. If you're looking for the general manual of style, see the b:Wikibooks:Manual of Style.

[edit] Language

Standard U.S. English should be used. Try to make sentences clear and concise; we want these books to be easy to grasp.

The first time an important word is used, it should be bolded and defined. It wouldn't be a bad idea to link significant terms to Wikipedia the first time (atom, electron, Schrodinger's equation, etc.).

[edit] Mathematics

Mathematical expressions should be presented in LaTeX format for anything of significant complexity. A good rule of thumb is that, if you would have to use parentheses in the expression, you should put it in LaTeX.

For example, F = m*a and F = dp/dt are fine in plaintext, but

\Delta p = \int_{t_i}^{t_f} F(t) \, dt

needs to be in TeX.

As seen above, an equation that breaks the flow of text (that is, changes line spacing) should be put on a separate line. Equations that will be referred to should be numbered:

Gauss' law
(1) \vec{\nabla} \cdot \vec{E} \equiv \frac{\rho}{\epsilon_0}
(2) \oint_{S} \vec{E} \cdot d\vec{a} \equiv \frac{Q_{total}}{\epsilon_0}

[edit] Units

Units should always be expressed in SI. When a new unit is introduced, it is acceptable (and probably desirable) to give conversion factors for other units; conversion into the fundamental SI units should always be given:

The meter is the SI unit of distance and is abbreviated 'm'. 1 meter = 1 m = 3.28 feet
The Volt is the SI unit of electrical potential and is abbreviated 'V'.
1 \mathrm{V} = 1 \mbox{Volt} = 1 \frac{\mathrm{J}}{\mathrm{C}} = 1 \frac{\mathrm{N}\,\mathrm{m}}{\mathrm{A}\,\mathrm{s}}

Units named after proper nouns should be capitalized, otherwise they should not, also SI units do not have plural forms in formal usage.(meter, not Meter or meters, and Volt, not volt or volts).

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