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From: golding@neon.Stanford.EDU (Andy Golding)
Newsgroups: comp.text.tex
Subject: how to format -1.23e-4 ?
Message-ID: <1991Jun17.074816.9332@neon.Stanford.EDU>
Date: 17 Jun 91 07:48:16 GMT
Organization: Computer Science Department, Stanford University, Ca , USA
Lines: 19


I was wondering what is the preferred way of formatting
numbers in exponential notation, e.g.,

	-1.23e-4

I tried the following:

(a)  -1.23e-4      -->  the negative signs are wrong
(b)  $-1.23e-4$    -->  bad spacing; looks like -1.23e minus 4
(c)  --1.23e--4    -->  the dashes and spacing don't look right
(d)  $-$1.23e$-$4  -->  not bad, but cumbersome to type

Perhaps my mistake is trying to use exponential notation
in the first place... but I don't see how else to print
tiny numbers.  Any suggestions?

Thanks,
Andy