Setting Numeric_Value for well-known constants
Mark E. Shoulson
mark at kli.org
Fri Apr 1 11:50:47 CDT 2022
So I was thinking, we have ℎ U+210E PLANCK CONSTANT, and SI has defined
an exact value for it (6.62607015⏨-34 J/s (I think ⏨ is very appropriate
and much cooler than "e" for scientific notation)). So it has a numeric
value, and we have a Unicode property especially for that, so it seems
obvious that we should set the Numeric_Value property of U+210E to
6.62607015⏨-34.
If we're willing to accept limited decimal precision, we can also set
the value for ℏ U+210F PLANCK CONSTANT OVER TWO PI. Which of course
means we could also do π U+03C0 GREEK SMALL LETTER PI. Actually, setting
the value of µ U+00B5 MICRO SIGN to 0.000001 is even more obvious, and
of course is precise. The Numeric_Value of φ U+03C6 GREEK SMALL LETTER
PHI could be set exactly, as "(sqrt(5)+1)/2", if we allow the use of
mathematical expressions in the field—which we clearly do, with
expressions such a "1/3" in the Numeric_Value field of ⅓ U+2153 VULGAR
FRACTION ONE THIRD, etc. And of course there's ℇ U+2107 EULER CONSTANT,
which is also specified as a constant.
So, wouldn't it be a good idea to set Numeric_Value fields for all these
well-known numbers?
(Answer: No. No, it would not be a good idea. See the date.)
~mark
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