Math & Science ⇒ Simple Question: When to use $...$ for scientific values

[RiW]

Hi,

Just written my first report after teaching myself (basic) Latex from the wikibook. However, I still have a few questions which I was hoping people might be able to help me with.

When writing inline mathematical values and including the units, should you always or never use the math-mode? For instant, take the sentence:
The speed of light is 3 times 10 to the power of 8.

In Latex should it be:

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The speed of light is $3 \times 10 ^8$

OR

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The speed of light is 3 $\times$ 10$^8$

I suppose this is a general question and what I'm really asking is when writing technical reports, should numeric values and/or units be placed in the $....$ environment?

Many Thanks!

[torbjorn t.]

The best way of writing units is, I think, the siunitx package. Your example could then be written

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The speed of light is \SI{3e8}{\metre\per\second}.

The \SI{}{}-command works both in math mode and normal text mode.

[RiW]

Fantastic - exactly what I was looking for thanks.

[localghost]

Now that the problem is solved, please be so kind and mark the topic acordingly as described in section 3 of the Board Rules (to be read before posting).


Best regards and welcome to the board
Thorsten

[RiW]

Apologies - have done this now & will repeat for future posts.

Thanks!