AW: spelling, time, and the Index

[Creighton Dement]

> Date: Thu, 26 May 2005 06:11:36 +0200
> Subject: spelling, time, and the Index
> From: "N. J. A. Sloane" <njas at research.att.com>
> To: seqfan at ext.jussieu.fr

> 
> Dear Seqfans,  I spend far too much time correcting spelling errors,
> etc.
> 
> I have started a little section in the Index to the OEIS that lists
> some of the most common errors.  At prsent it has these entries: 
> spelling and notation , <a NAME="spell">guide to (start):</a>
> spelling and notation:  the following are the correct spellings for
> some words and symbol s that are commonly mistyped in the OEIS:
> spelling: a(n) for n-th term in sequence (not a[n])
> spelling: color (not colour - the OEIS uses U.S. spelling)
> spelling: dependent (not dependant)
> spelling: dissectable (not dissectible)
> spelling: e for 2.718281828... (not E)
> spelling: Fibonacci (not fibonacci)

A (math) professor once told a class -half serious, half joking- of
which I was a part (quote taken from memory, thus not  exact): 
"It can be very hard for new term to establish itself as a standard in
literature. 
Perhaps it is possible to break this down into three stages:

Stage 1: A term you have defined establishes itself in literature. 
Conclusion: Job well done. 

Stage 2:  (A majority of) mathematicians use your last name to denote a
certain class of mathematical objects. 
Conclusion: Very nice.  Your contributions to math seem to have become
quite significant, perhaps covering a wide range of topics. 

Stage 3:  (A majority of) mathematicians use your last name written
lowercase to denote a certain class of mathematical objects (e.g. "an
abelian group"; not "an Abelian group" .  
Conclusion: Few words exist to describe your fame at this point.  Your
formidable contributions to math can hardly be overlooked;
undergraduates around the world learn about you in their introductory
lessons. 

[Side note: I am speaking of an inspiring professor I like very much
(not Prof. Floret). Visiting him in his office, he once took a look at
how I'd defined the objects shown   http://www.crowdog.de/17801.html 
and, after about 10 min.and remarked with a sigh and a smile "In math it
is very easy to think up complicated stuff that *nobody* can understand.
The really difficult part is thinking up something that is new and that
*everybody* can understand... and of course useful at the same time. ]

As far quaternions go... my impression is that, on the whole, one finds
these written lowercase as "quaternions" more frequent  than the
uppercase "Quaternions". However, there does not seem to be a consensus
on it.  I write "floretions" for this reason as well as for my own,
purely personal reasons (see above paragraph)

Sincerely, 
Creighton