A solidus is a diagonal slash "/" used as the bar between numerator and denominator of an in-line fraction (Bringhurst 1997, p. 284). The solidus is also called a diagonal.

Special care is needed when interpreting the meaning of a solidus in inline math because of the notational ambiguity in expressions such as . Whereas in many textbooks, "" is intended to denote , taken literally or evaluated in a symbolic mathematics language such as the Wolfram Language, it means . For clarity, parentheses should therefore always be used when delineating compound denominators.

Common examples of failure to parenthesize include (where is energy, is Boltzmann's constant, and is temperature; Arfken 1985, p. 950), its variant (where is a constant and is wavelength; Weast 1981, pp. F-109 and F-111), the exponent in the normal distribution (where is the standard deviation; Hastings 2000, p. 217). Other miscellaneous examples occur even in the standard references for computer math systems (e.g., Wolfram 2003, pp. 776, 779, and 787).

See also

Division, Fraction, Long Division Symbol, Obelus, Vinculum, Virgule

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References

Arfken, G. Mathematical Methods for Physicists, 3rd ed. Orlando, FL: Academic Press, 1985.Bringhurst, R. The Elements of Typographic Style, 2nd ed. Point Roberts, WA: Hartley and Marks, p. 284, 1997.Grossman, J. (Managing Ed.). "Solidus." §5.122 in The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th ed. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, p. 189, 1993.Hastings, K. Introduction to Probability with Mathematica. Boca Raton, FL: Chapman & Hall/CRC, 2000.Weast, R. C. (Ed.). Handbook of Chemistry and Physics, 61st ed. Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 1981.Wolfram, S. The Mathematica Book, 5th ed. Champaign, IL: Wolfram Media, 2003.

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Solidus

Cite this as:

Weisstein, Eric W. "Solidus." From MathWorld--A Wolfram Resource. https://mathworld.wolfram.com/Solidus.html

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