On 2015-07-01 09:37, Hilarie Orman wrote:
Based on a quick survey of 100 typefaces, it's wrong. The "W" is a combination of two "V"s, and the "V" always has the thicker stroke on the left; the "W" always follows the same convention.
I offer a warning about complaint. Another math-funner once entered a shop to let them know that their sign had the word "apothecary" spelled wrong. He learned that the owner's name was "Carey" and the sign was a deliberate play on words. So maybe you will find that the owner of this shop is "Backwards Will".
Yeah, I almost complained about "mandarines" at a Mexican produce stand.
The two "H"s seems to have the crossbar at different heights.
Hilarie
Fantastic--Just what Wolfram needs for the "Dilbert Lambda" function! I teased him about the name ProductLog instead of LambertW, imagining that W was Lambert's original name, when actually it was named by the Maple guys in the 1990s. "I'll bet at Eton a bully named Lambert beat you up, and "ProductLog" was your revenge." And of course I repeated my pitch about how it should've been the inverse of x e^x^2, which he should call WolframW. The problem with that: TraditionalForm already renders ProductLog as W. So for the former, it can use backwards W! Or maybe Triple U. Oh well, W₂. Damn the IRS. --rwg
Date: Wed, 1 Jul 2015 10:24:52 -0400 From: James Propp <jamespropp@gmail.com> Subject: [math-fun] Backwards W?
Typography is a bit removed from math, but I know some of you are font geeks, and in any case, the ability to attend to minutiae of notation is a part of the mathematician's toolkit.
So without further apology, let me ask: Is the "W" in http://jamespropp.org/backwards-w.jpg truly backwards, as I think it is? Or does this sort of font-asymmetry admit variations?
What's the relevant nomenclature describing the thickness of ascending and descending strokes? (If, ignoring my wife's counsel, I end up entering the Hollingworth 5 and 10 to tell them that their W is backwards, I want to sound like I know what I'm talking about, even if I actually don't.)
Jim Propp
_______________________________________________ math-fun mailing list math-fun@mailman.xmission.com https://mailman.xmission.com/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/math-fun