# to tilde or not to tilde

Paulo Ney de Souza pauloney at gmail.com
Mon Oct 7 00:15:33 CEST 2019

Dear Thomas Schneider,

NO centered mathematical formula should contain any punctuation at the end
of the line -- even if it is to terminate a sentence.

Punctuation have a role in typography -- to introduce a pause at reading --
and with a centered formula that pause already EXIST. The correct is:

$$A = \pi r ^2$$

even if it is ending a sentence or a paragraph.

Paulo Ney

On Sun, Oct 6, 2019 at 1:41 PM Thomas Schneider via texhax <texhax at tug.org>
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
>
>
> A = \pi r ^2 ~.
>
>
> 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?
>
> Here's a minimal example for you to try:
>
> \documentclass[12pt]{article}
> \begin{document}
> Here's an example without a tilde:
>
> A = \pi r ^2.
>
> Here's an example with a tilde:
>
> A = \pi r ^2 ~. \\
>
> \end{document}
>
> Tom
>
>   Thomas D. Schneider, Ph.D.
>   Senior Investigator
>   National Institutes of Health
>   National Cancer Institute
>   Center for Cancer Research
>   RNA Biology Laboratory
>   Biological Information Theory Group
>   Frederick, Maryland  21702-1201
>   schneidt at mail.nih.gov
>   https://alum.mit.edu/www/toms
>
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