Typographic Temperature Technicality

Did you know that you don’t use the degree sign when you write the wind chill?

Here’s the whole paragraph:

With the new [as of 2001] formula, Environment Canada began reporting wind chill as an index stripped of units, so that a calculated wind chill of, say, -30°C is communicated simply as -30. “The current index is expressed in temperature-like units because it is the format that was preferred by most Canadians,” says the agency. “However, since the wind chill index is not actually a real temperature but, rather, represents the feeling of cold on your skin, it is reported without the degree sign.”

https://www.wunderground.com/cat6/How-Wind-Chill-Got-Started-and-What-Its-Doing-US-Midwest

So there you have it.

To make the degree sign, by the way, hold down the Alt key while you type 0176 on the numeric keypad. So 40° below, for example. On a Mac, it’s Option-Shift 8.

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I wrote about this back in 2012, but I repeat myself occasionally, so here’s the lesson again, particularly since I have a comic for it:

Maybe that’s what happens when you and your résumé don’t match…

(ahem) Anyway, how do you get that accented “e”?

On a Windows computer, hold down the Alt key while you type 0233 on the numeric keypad, then release the Alt key.

On a Mac, Hold down the Option key while you type an e, then release both keys, and then type “e” again.

May you and your résumé always match, and may the résumé be outstanding.

You need a context to be able to tell whether “each” refers to two things. For example, you could say that each hand has a glove on it, or each team member was in uniform.

Let’s assume the context implies two things. You still have an important difference between these two words:

“Both” refers to two things together.
“Each” refers to two things separately.

Here’s a good example of getting it wrong:

There is one [polar vortex] at both poles, and other planets have them too. 

https://www.forbes.com/sites/marshallshepherd/2019/01/23/4-weather-concepts-that-confuse-people-did-polar-vortex-make-the-list

Sorry, each pole gets its own vortex.

Just for grins, here’s a Hubble photo of Saturn’s polar vortex.

Some nouns don’t have a plural form, “species,” for example. Here’s what can happen if you make up a plural:

As Searses and Toys-R-Uses evaporate from suburban shopping centers, thrift stores are shuttering, too.

https://www.citylab.com/life/2019/01/tidying-up-with-marie-kondo-netflix-where-to-donate/580396/

Change them to adjectives and you get rid of the awkwardness: Write “Sears and Toys-R-Us stores…”

That latter is a good example of the rule (usually applied to acronyms) that you should add an apostrophe when you make a plural whenever not using the apostrophe could cause confusion.

You all know that quotation marks (“little goose feet” if you’re a grade schooler in Germany) are used to indicate that you’re repeating exactly what someone says (or writes).

We have another use, in the typography trade, called “scare quotes.” They’re used to separate something from its context. You just saw two sets of scare quotes in this post, so far.

Another use just occurred to me: to indicate how to pronounce something. Here’s my example:

The only exceptions are single polygons larger than a triangle, and something called the θ₀ (“theta zero”) graph, in which a vertex in the center of a hexagon is connected to two opposite vertices.

https://www.quantamagazine.org/a-childs-puzzle-has-helped-unlock-the-secrets-of-magnetism-20190124

If they hadn’t said otherwise, I’d have pronounced it “theta sub zero.”

I think I run into this use mostly in subjects that are somewhat abstruse, such as some mathematics and physics. The sentence is in an article about the atomic structure of magnetism. Go follow the link if you’re interested.

So there you have it. Make sense?