ith vs. i-th

[sasha mal]

Dear newsgroup,

could anyone explain how to write:
"the ith component of a tuple"
or
"the i-th component of a tuple"

Is there any general rule on this?

Thanks a lot in advance,
sasha.

[Troy Steadman]

Post by sasha mal
Dear newsgroup,
"the ith component of a tuple"
or
"the i-th component of a tuple"
Is there any general rule on this?
Thanks a lot in advance,
sasha.

The nth is quite commonplace:

"He epitomised it to the nth degree!"

...so...hmmm!

ith doesn't work does it! How about i'th?

[Troy Steadman]

Post by Troy Steadman

Post by sasha mal
Dear newsgroup,
"the ith component of a tuple"
or
"the i-th component of a tuple"
Is there any general rule on this?
Thanks a lot in advance,
sasha.

"He epitomised it to the nth degree!"
...so...hmmm!
ith doesn't work does it! How about i'th?

Looks awful as well. "i-th" gets my vote and will set many cats amongst
many pigeons!

[R H Draney]

Post by sasha mal
"the ith component of a tuple"
or
"the i-th component of a tuple"
Is there any general rule on this?

I would write "ith" without hesitation if I had italics available to distinguish
the "i" from the "th"...in the absence of such a tool, "i-th" is better than
nothing....r

[Mark Brader]

Post by sasha mal
"the ith component of a tuple"
"the i-th component of a tuple"

You're in the wrong newsgroup: this isn't an English usage question,
it's math usage. But the answer is, never use a hyphen, which might
be mistaken for a minus sign. In any environment where a distinction
between italic and roman type is available, ordinary variables should
always be italicized; here, you put "i" in italics and "th" in roman.

[John Lawler]

Post by Mark Brader

Post by sasha mal
"the ith component of a tuple"
"the i-th component of a tuple"

You're in the wrong newsgroup: this isn't an English usage question,
it's math usage. But the answer is, never use a hyphen, which might
be mistaken for a minus sign. In any environment where a distinction
between italic and roman type is available, ordinary variables should
always be italicized; here, you put "i" in italics and "th" in roman.

Exactly.

In \TeX, "the {\it i}th component of a tuple";
in html, "the <i>i</i>th component of a tuple".

If you're actually speaking mathematics, one or the other of these will do.
If you don't have either available, you're not going to be addressing any
native speakers.

-John Lawler www.umich.edu/~jlawler/geb.html Michigan Linguistics
------------------------------------------------------------------
"Mathematicians are like Frenchmen: whatever you say to them they
translate into their own language, and forthwith it is something
entirely different." -- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1829)

[John Dawkins]

Post by John Lawler

Post by Mark Brader

Post by sasha mal
"the ith component of a tuple"
"the i-th component of a tuple"

You're in the wrong newsgroup: this isn't an English usage question,
it's math usage. But the answer is, never use a hyphen, which might
be mistaken for a minus sign. In any environment where a distinction
between italic and roman type is available, ordinary variables should
always be italicized; here, you put "i" in italics and "th" in roman.

Exactly.
In \TeX, "the {\it i}th component of a tuple";

That looks awful--the leaning i crowds the th. Better is {\it i\/}th.
Better still is $i^{\rm th}$.

Post by John Lawler
in html, "the <i>i</i>th component of a tuple".
If you're actually speaking mathematics, one or the other of these will do.
If you don't have either available, you're not going to be addressing any
native speakers.

[Joe Fineman]

Post by sasha mal
"the ith component of a tuple"
or
"the i-th component of a tuple"
Is there any general rule on this?

Unfortunately, there are many. Usage varies, not only among writers,
but in the style sheets of journals etc.

As others on this thread have noted, the simplest and best style in
print is simply to italicize the i and run it in to the (roman) th.
However, it is extremely common to set the th as a superscript, or
precede it with a hyphen (which will get misprinted as a minus sign if
you're not careful) or an apostrophe (which will get misprinted as a
prime if you're not careful). ISNUP.

[sasha mal]

I've hoped there would be some standard that is taught at least in
schools or is written down in some widely accepted dictionary.
Now I see there is no general rule. I typed "the $i$th component of a
tuple", so that "i" is in italics, following the majority of your opinions.

Thanks a lot, best regards,
sasha.

[Jan]

Hello Sasha,

This is really a question for an editor: I am a native English speaker
but I have never had to write this! It is also a matter of style: there
is no 100 per cent right choice.

If you have to write it, just choose the form you prefer and use it
consistently. People should understand what you mean from the context.
If I had to do it, I'd probably put the letter i in an italic font and
the 'th' part in a regular font, perhaps in superscript, but that's
just me! You could also just look at any documents you've read and do
what they do.

Jan

[Jan]

Hello Sasha,

This is really an editor's problem. I'm a native English speaker but
I've never had to write this, so I can't give you a 'correct' answer.

In fact, there is no one correct answer. Both of your examples would --
I think -- be acceptable and understandable in context (an academic
paper, I presume). If you are writing for a particular university or
academic journal, however, they sometimes have 'style guides': rules
for how you should write things in THEIR opinion. Some other popular
style guides are The Chicago Manual of Style (for US English) and The
Oxford Guide to Style (for British English). These might be able to
help you.

If you don't have to use a particular style guide, just choose the
style you like and use it consistently. You could also check other
documents where people have written this kind of thing and see how they
did it.

Jan