Jim Elwell wrote in USMA 20585: >Joe Reid writes: > >> I vote for 100x200x300mm. "x" means multiplication. "/" and ":" both >> mean division. I hesitate to suggest "1x2x3dm" > >I've never heard of ":" meaning division; is that a Canadian or European >thing? >"dm" won't work because I've been giving too simple of an example. A box >might be 125x320x390mm, so 1.25x3.2x3.9dm does not necessarily help. >Centimeters might work if we are willing to round to 10 mm, but we have >strived to use nothing but millimeters (or meters for some cables), and I >would be hesitant to change that. >How about 125|320|390mm? > >Jim Elwell
Quite so. That is why I hesitated to suggest 1x2x3dm. I still vote for your original notation: "125x320x390mm". |320| stands for the positive or absolute value of 328. I remember a section in elementary algebra called "ratio and proportion". The notation was a:b :: x:y. It could have equally well been expressed as a/b = x/y. Joseph B.Reid 17 Glebe Road West Toronto M5P 1C8 Tel. 416 486-6071
