Talk:Prime (symbol)

message: According to the unicode names list,
 0022    QUOTATION MARK
         * neutral (vertical), used as opening or closing quotation mark
         * preferred characters in English for paired quotation marks are 201C & 201D
         x (modifier letter double prime - 02BA)
         x (combining double acute accent - 030B)
         x (combining double vertical line above - 030E)
         x (double prime - 2033)
         x (ditto mark - 3003)
 0027    APOSTROPHE
         = APOSTROPHE-QUOTE
         = APL quote
         * neutral (vertical) glyph with mixed usage
         * 2019 is preferred for apostrophe
         * preferred characters in English for paired quotation marks are 2018 & 2019
         x (modifier letter prime - 02B9)
         x (modifier letter apostrophe - 02BC)
         x (modifier letter vertical line - 02C8)
         x (combining acute accent - 0301)
And
 2032    PRIME
         = minutes, feet
 2033    DOUBLE PRIME
         = seconds, inches
The difference is that ' and " are vertical, while ′ and ″ are slanted slightly (which is how I've always seen inches and feet anyway). --Elektron 09:27, 2004 Jun 14 (UTC) 
I removed the statement that a single prime is used to denote minutes of time and the double prime to denote seconds of time. Unless a solid reference can be provided that notation should be discouraged as the existing "s" and "min" for seconds and minutes is in widespread use.— Preceding unsigned comment added by 76.113.29.12 (talk) 19:03, 13 December 2018 (UTC)
replies: text: I disagree with the removal, including edit  and . There is clearly some usage to denote time; see Is double prime (″) the correct symbol to use for specifying inches? and English notation for hour, minutes and seconds on Stack Exchange. We can mention the deprecation, but removing it altogether is confusing. --Franklin Yu (talk) 18:38, 16 May 2019 (UTC)
thread_title:  Minutes, seconds, feet, inches

message: As per Quiddities, W. V. Quine. -- Dominus 19:33, 16 Jun 2005 (UTC)
thread_title:  History of "prime" symbol 

message: So I should be using prime and double prime for linear measurement?  Very confusing. I'm used to using ' & " (but not ” & ’). --Navstar 04:29, 6 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  Symbols for feet/inches measurement 

message: Everywhere I go I see companies (and even highway signs) using quotation marks (’ and ”) instead of prime marks. It's really nauseating. —155.33.61.98 04:30, 31 October 2006 (UTC)
thread_title:  vs. Quotation marks 

message: I have added a note that triple-prime is used in watchmaking to represent the ligne unit, based largely on its use as such in ETA's site. Sharkford 19:44, 19 February 2007 (UTC)
thread_title:  Triple prime for ligne 

message: I'm currently involved in a discussion here regarding the use of ′ and ″ which should display the prime and double prime symbols. However in Firefox (and probably IE) they display and look like regular straight apostophes. Is there a way around this?
—MDCollins (talk) 00:30, 17 February 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Displaying the Prime correctly in web browsers 

message: Prime redirects to Prime number, I think it should redirect here. Who’s with me? Jikybebna (talk) 16:42, 7 March 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Oppose. In common usage term a prime is almost unambiguosly refers to a prime number. cherkash (talk) 01:34, 11 March 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Redirection 

message: Why do standard fonts on my computer (which happens to run Ubuntu Linux 13.04, but it's not much better under Windows 7) render the Unicode prime and double prime so tiny? They are much smaller than the ASCII apostrophe. The LaTeX version is long and beautiful, similar to classic typography. Is there a historic background to this? --LA2 (talk) 14:37, 4 August 2013 (UTC)
thread_title:  Rendered tiny 

message: The triple prime was used in the result of multiplying feet & inches by feet & inches to get an area.
1st feet & inches by 2nd feet + 2nd feet & inches by 1st feet &c. gives 3 N° marked single, double & triple prime.
86.144.106.83 (talk) 10:41, 1 May 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  times feet & inches 

message: What is the combining prime? ··gracefool 💬 01:18, 9 September 2016 (UTC)
thread_title:  Combining prime ◌ - article gives no explanation 

message: in math for steps higher than tierce, roman numerals is used not quadruple primes etc. example: 
24′16″53‴27iv39v48vi32vii ...
Tabascofernandez (talk) 03:45, 12 September 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  higher precision  

message: I can find no support that these should work - and, for me at least, they don't.  Therefore I'm removing them from the table. Please feel free to replace if I'm wrong. All the best: Rich Farmbrough, 22:36, 22 November 2017 (UTC)
replies: text: User:Andrewa commented on similar above regarding web display of these characters.  The edit referred to by User:Rich Farmbrough appears to have been reverted at some point. On the computer I'm currently using (PC, Win7), Chrome displays single, double, and triple prime fine but shows a  (edit: .notdef glyph) for quad. Firefox displays all four but appears to use a different typeface for quad, so it looks out of place.  If these issues are common to others I would suggest that the infobox should use an image rather than relying on unicode display so that all users can see what each one should look like. Retswerb (talk) 04:34, 17 May 2020 (UTC)

text: Since the entities are documented (and even work, just not here), I will replace them in the article. I'll see if anyone on ref desk can explain what's happening.  All the best: Rich Farmbrough  (the apparently calm and reasonable) 15:52, 17 May 2020 (UTC)
replies: text:  All the best: Rich Farmbrough  (the apparently calm and reasonable) 17:32, 17 May 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: &tprime; and &qprime;

message: http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/Sound/dopp.html
:Yes that document shows many uses of prime to indicate derivative and double prime to indicate the second derivative.Spitzak (talk) 20:27, 16 April 2020 (UTC)
thread_title: is prime symbol use in Doppler effect

message: I read somewhere that the prime, double prime (or second), triple prime (or third), and quadruple prime (or fourth) symbols are actually stylized versions of superscript Roman numerals (I, II, III, and IIII—as an alternate version of IV). However, I don't remember where I read this. I'll keep researching this idea and merge it into the article if I can, but if anyone is able to locate a reference on this, and should you have the time, can you also include this information in the article with its source? Otherwise, you can just message me the reference and I can put it into the article, and make sure that you share credit in some way. Thank you so much.
— Champaign (talk) 10:19, 12 August 2023 (UTC)
thread_title:  Origin of Prime Symbols (&prime;, &Prime;, &tprime;, &qprime;) as Stylized Superscript Roman Numerals