to tilde or not to tilde

[Peter Flynn]

On 06/10/2019 21:39, Thomas Schneider via texhax wrote:
> Dear TexHaxers:
> 
> In a paper we are finishing, my co-author, a physicist, added a tilde
> '~' in front of the period '.' or comma ',' at the end of equations,
> for example
> 
> \begin{equation}
> A = \pi r ^2 ~.
> \end{equation}
> 
> He says ``It is a stylistic convention that some physicists use. But
> it's not universal practice.''
> 
> Is it a typographically recommended practice or should it be avoided?

My take as a typesetter, not a mathematician, is that it should only be 
there if the equation is semantically the end of a sentence if you were 
to read the paper aloud. Otherwise it has no business being there. If 
you do use one, then yes, some extra spacing would make it clear that 
it's not part of the equation. But math conventions are arcane, so it 
may be best just to follow the practise of your discipline.

///Peter