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What are the permissible ways to punctuate a long block of equations? In the image below, I propose 3 alternatives for a sample problem. I'd like to know which of these are acceptable and/or preferable.

examples

Zorgoth
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  • I think this question contains a poor example for the intended question because every equation ends with a digit which makes the usage of comma after every equation confusing (comma may be read as a decimal point in some countries). Also, the equations in the question may be easily rewritten as a matrix. Therefore I have created a new question to capture the true spirit of the question, i.e. discuss the punctuation/conjunction/period format to use: https://math.stackexchange.com/q/2508597/23890 – Math Learner Nov 07 '17 at 04:46
  • Usually, you don't need to refer to most equations, so it's unnecessary to label all of them. – Qudit Nov 13 '17 at 21:19

1 Answers1

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I don't know if this is true for all journals or not, but physical review journals ask you to

"Treat the text and mathematical formulas as an entity. 
Punctuate mathematical expressions as sentences or parts of sentences."

Here is their example

enter image description here

See: http://home.fnal.gov/~bellanto/work/MINERvA/Phys%20Review%20Style%20Guide.pdf

stochastic
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  • So what's your answer to "Which of the above formats are acceptable and/or preferable?" Looks like you are saying all three formats are acceptable and preferable because all three formats mentioned in the question read like complete English text with proper punctuation. Am I right? – Math Learner Nov 07 '17 at 04:12
  • I'm not very good with grammar, but your third style seems closer to their example and is the style I have always used in my papers. – stochastic Nov 07 '17 at 04:18
  • The second style with the "and" is used when all the equations are in the same line. There are few other examples of equations in the Style Guide that might be worth looking at. – stochastic Nov 07 '17 at 04:25