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Revision as of 10:04, 1 March 2003

Manual of Style -> dates and numbers

Dates

the use of day/month/year versus month/day/year is currently under discussion

A page title that is just a number is always a year. Pages also exist for days of the year, decades, centuries and even millennia. The formats are:

• 474
  • ]
• 474 BC (note no periods)
  • ]
• February 11
  • ]
• February 11, 1958
  • ], ]
• 18th century (Note century is not capitalized. Note also that "1700s" is not a century, but a decade as illustrated below.)
  • ]
• 10th century BC
  • ]
• 1830s (note no apostrophe)
  • ]
• December, 1983 (note that December is not linked)
  • December, ]
• 320s BC
  • ]

In the last example, always add the century as well to prevent confusion, so ] rather than merely ].

Bad Formats

What not to do:

• Do not use numbers for expressing a month. Always express a month as "Feb" or "February" to avoid ambiguity
• Do not use two digits for expressing a year or decade. An encyclopedia deals with all of history, not just the last hundred years, so always use four digits for years and decades.

Time zones

Note that the date of an event depends on the time zone of the observer. To determine which date to use in an article, consider where the event happended and use the time zone there. For example, the date of the Attack on Pearl Harbor should be December 7, 1941 (Hawaii time/date). If it is difficult to judge where, consider what is significant. For example, if some cracker in Japan hacked the Pentagon, use the time zone for the Pentagon.

Style for Numbers, Weights, and Measures

Very large numbers, such as pinball scores, should be divided up by commas every three places. In scientific contexts, scientific notation is preferred: see below.

The issue of whether all units should be metric (SI) or Imperial (or American style) is acceptable is being debated at Misplaced Pages:Measurements Debate. In summary, metric is more widespread and regular, but Americans don't use it. In addition, the names of American and Imperial measurements are sloppy and don't always denote the same quantities.

If using American or Imperial, give metric as a courtesy. If using metric, remember that many readers will not know what you mean and will be aided by the equivalent.

These need not be exact equivalents unless exact measurement is involved. And if the quantity is always given in one form, you need not perform any conversion at all. Here is a good site for online conversions you might find useful.

Use standard abbreviations for metric units, m for meter, kg for kilogram, etc (see SI for the list), and two-letter abbreviations for inch-pound units, in=inch, ft=foot, yd=yard, mi=mile, lb=pound, gal=gallon, pt=pint, qt=quart, and so forth. (bear in mind that gallon & pint are ambiguous units -- they have several values)

Examples:

• The highest score recorded for the Deuces High pinball game was 11,933,750.
• The hippopotamus stands 1.5 m (5 ft) at the shoulders and weighs between 2700 and 4500 kg (roughly 6000 to 10000 lb).
• The first sub-four-minute mile was run by Roger Bannister.
• The 155mm diameter projectile offers a wide range of options for battlefield usage.
• 10 = 100
  • 10<SUP>2</SUP> = 100
• A large number such as 156,234,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 can be concisely recorded as 1.56234 × 10, and a small number such as 0.0000000000234 can be written as 2.34 × 10.
  • A large number such as 156,234,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000 can be concisely recorded as 1.56234 × 10<SUP>29</SUP>, and a small number such as 0.0000000000234 can be written as 2.34 × 10^-11.

See orders of magnitude and the talk page there for ongoing, possibly resolved debate on which style of exponent notation to use for large numbers.