How do you properly pronounce subscripts in physics equations?

[wrongusername]

How do you pronounce some variable with a subscript 0 attached to it, like "v₀"? My first-semester physics professor pronounced it as something like "v nort," 2nd-semester prof said "v nut," and my current 3rd-semester prof says "v not" instead.

 

[xxChrisxx]

It doesn't matter.

 

[georgir]

How about you just read it as-is, "V Sub-zero"?
Then you go on to V Scorpion, V Reptile, etc... Later on V Sektor and V Cyrax. For V Smoke you may need to indicate if it is the robotized version or not though.
Or you may chose not to index your variables with Lin Kuei members at all. V Liu Kang would demolish them all anyway.

:p
No, really, with a post like that, this answer could not be avoided at all.
But on a more serious note, I'd just read that notation "V zero"

 

[xxChrisxx]

How about you just read it as-is, "V Sub-zero"?
Then you go on to V Scorpion, V Reptile, etc... Later on V Sektor and V Cyrax. For V Smoke you may need to indicate if it is the robotized version or not though.
Or you may chose not to index your variables with Lin Kuei members at all. V Liu Kang would demolish them all anyway.

:p
No, really, with a post like that, this answer could not be avoided at all.
But on a more serious note, I'd just read that notation "V zero"

Sadly, I had exactly the same thought.

 

[Amanheis]

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nought

 

[wrongusername]

How about you just read it as-is, "V Sub-zero"?
Then you go on to V Scorpion, V Reptile, etc... Later on V Sektor and V Cyrax. For V Smoke you may need to indicate if it is the robotized version or not though.
Or you may chose not to index your variables with Lin Kuei members at all. V Liu Kang would demolish them all anyway.

:p
No, really, with a post like that, this answer could not be avoided at all.
But on a more serious note, I'd just read that notation "V zero"

Thanks for the laugh! lol
I remember one of my other professors do read it as "v zero," though the majority seem to prefer something like:

http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/nought

which does sound like what they all were trying to say.

 

[Char. Limit]

That's obviously pronounced "v null" to me. But then, I have to be different, don't I?

Banter aside, I looked at that and said "v null".

 

[lisab]

That's obviously pronounced "v null" to me. But then, I have to be different, don't I?

Banter aside, I looked at that and said "v null".

But that sounds like http://www.thefreedictionary.com/venal" .

 

[Jack21222]

I've heard it pronounced V-nought and V-zero. I usually pronounce it however my professor at the time pronounces it. I don't have my own pattern yet.

 

[KalamMekhar]

I am a man of the V-sub-zero clan. Nought sounds too much like ought, as in .30/06

 

[bp_psy]

It's naught. v zero is

 

[DrGreg]

I've never really thought about this before, but it's curious that I pronounce a subscript v₀ as "vee-naught", a zero on its own as "naught", and a zero before a decimal point 0.2 as "naught point two", but in almost all other contexts I pronounce a zero digit as "oh" (e.g. 306 = "three-oh-six").

But for some reason \aleph_0 is "aleph-null".

 

[wrongusername]

Funny that now I know what it is, I prefer to call it "zero" instead. Dunno, "nought" just sounds... weird to me

 

[Mu naught]

look at my name :)

μ₀

 

[rootX]

v_naught, naught is more than natural than zero

 

[Pythagorean]

V naught or "v sub zero"

but you have to say it almost like "veese of zero"

only "ob zero"

"veese ob zero"

or

"veese ob oh"

 

[Pythagorean]

Visaboh!

 

[Noxide]

v-sub-oh
v-not

 

[Phrak]

I am a man of the V-sub-zero clan. Nought sounds too much like ought, as in .30/06

Aught or ought: Same archaic word meaning 'nothing', apparently.

zero
aught
ought
naught
oh
null

the list grows.

 

[Gokul43201]

I think I use 'zero' with letters of the modern English alphabet, 'naught' with Greek symbols, and 'null' with Hebrew characters.

 

[Office_Shredder]

'null' with Hebrew characters.

WTF. I've never thought about that before.

This is going to bother me for the rest of my life

 

[wrongusername]

I think I use 'zero' with letters of the modern English alphabet, 'naught' with Greek symbols, and 'null' with Hebrew characters.

Huh? how would you write "naught" and "null"?

 

[Gokul43201]

Huh? how would you write "naught" and "null"?

All the same way.p_0 = "pee zero"

E_0 = "ee zero"

\mu_0 = "mu naught"

p_0 = "epsilon naught"

\aleph_0 = "aleph null" -> the generalization of that pronunciation to all Hebrew characters was a joke! I can't think of any others that I use.

 

[Char. Limit]

All the same way.


p_0 = "pee zero"

E_0 = "ee zero"

\mu_0 = "mu naught"

p_0 = "epsilon naught"

\aleph_0 = "aleph null" -> the generalization of that pronunciation to all Hebrew characters was a joke! I can't think of any others that I use.

Well, isn't there also a number using a Hebrew character pronounced "bet-null" or "beth-null"?

 

[Danger]

I'm an Albertan. We pronounce "sub-zero" as "Brrrrr..."

I'm not sure if this is technically correct or not, but in my neck of the woods "naught" is a general term for "nothing", whereas "ought" refers specifically to the number zero.

 

[georgir]

How would all the naught-y people pronounce v₁ and so on then?

 

[Char. Limit]

How would all the naught-y people pronounce v₁ and so on then?

"vee-one"

 

[Danger]

"vee-one"

Unless you were a member of the RAF, in which case you would pronounce it "buzz bomb"...