[Blindmath] Speech text for powers and superscripts

[J.Fine]

Hi

Here are some examples of speech text for powers.  This post is mainly for the record, but if you're interested read on and comment. Just to remind you, this is for students of S151 "Mathematics for Science" at the Open University.  The course has powers, logarithms, trig and an introduction to differentiation.

In what follows x can stand for pretty much anything, such as "open a plus b close".

Here are simple examples of powers

x squared
x cubed
x to the 4
x to the minus 1

I find complicated and non-numerical exponents (or superscripts) difficult.  A classic example in TeX notation is "x^{i + j}"  versus "x^i + j".

Here's an idea. Following the TeX notation we introduce group and end group for left and right braces.  (I know group is already a mathematical concept, but as a word it very rarely occurs in a formula, so perhaps this will be OK.)  Don't think of the sequences of characters for begin and end group as hard-coded.

When we do this we can say

x super i plus j
x super group i plus j end group

Now suppose we have a complicated superscript that is already grouped, such as "(i + j)".  In that case the groups can usefully be dropped and so we might allow both

x super open i plus j close
x super group open i plus j end group close

If you're still here I'd welcome your comments.


Jonathan

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