Re: Calling all math whizzes

[Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>]

>
> That being said, I prefer seeing exponents superscripted. There's less
> chance of confusion, and it looks prettier, darn it.
>

The blog author is citing a PhD dissertation, where all such numbers are
superscripted.

My take is that any sixth grader knows what a superscripted number in this
context designates. And since effective business writing aims for a
7th-grade reading level, superscripting seems a far better choice, IMO. If
the reader (like me*) has to pause for even a moment to think about what
2^80 means, then readability suffers.

*I got as far as trig and have since read too many computer journals to
count (albeit not ones dealing with algorithmic functions).

> Chris

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