Degree (symbol)
From Exampleproblems
| Punctuation marks |
|---|
|
apostrophe ( ' ) ( ’ ) |
| Interword separation |
|
spaces: ( ) ( ) ( ) |
| Other typographer's marks |
|
ampersand ( & ) |
- This article describes the typographical or mathematical symbol. For other meanings, see Degree
The degree symbol (°, Unicode: U+00B0, HTML: °) is a typographical symbol, or glyph, that is used to represent degrees of arc (see Geographic coordinate system ) or temperature.
Due to a similar appearance in some fonts in print and on computer screens, some other characters may be mistakenly substituted for it: the "masculine ordinal indicator" (U+00BA, º ), the "ring above" (U+02DA, ˚ ), "superscript zero" (U+2070, ⁰ ), superscript zero proper ( 0 ) or superscript letter "o" ( o ), and the "ring operator" (U+2218, ∘ ).
On Macintosh computers, the degree sign can be typed by option-shift-8 on most keyboard layouts, including Australian, British, Canadian, US and US Extended layouts.
On Windows computers, the degree sign can be typed by ALT + 0176 on the Numeric Keypad. This will require activating the numeric keypad function on keyboards without a separate numeric pad.
Typography
In the case of degrees of arc, the degree symbol is always printed with no space between it and the number.
In the case of degrees of temperature, several scientific and engineering standards bodies, BIPM and the U.S. Government Printing Office prescribe printing the degree symbol with a space between the degree symbol and the number, as in "10 °C". However, in many professionally typeset works, including scientific works, such as those published by The University of Chicago Press or Oxford University Press, the degree symbol is printed with no spaces between the number, the symbol, and the C or F representing Celsius or Fahrenheit, as in "10°C". Still others place the space between the degree sign and the letter (10° C), in a manner probably no longer recommended by any of the major style guides.
References
- Chicago Manual of Style, 15th Edition.
- U.S. Government Printing Office, Style Manual, 29th ed. (2000), § 10.6:chapter 10 pdf file
- The Bureau International des Poids et Mesures (BIPM), The International System of Units (SI), 7th ed. (1998): http://www.bipm.fr/en/si/si_brochure/.
