Re: Degrees in French: spaces before the degree sign or not

From: Tony Harminc (tzha0@amdahl.com)
Date: Thu Oct 15 1998 - 17:04:44 EDT


On 15 Oct 98, at 6:31, Alain wrote:

> [Michael] :
> >The _Lexique des règles_ clearly differentiates 37 °C from 37° of arc, you
> >you can't (as you have) say that a fine space is used for both of them.
>
> [Alain] :
> You got me. You're right, I just checked. I will have learned something today.

> PS: The specific, clear and explicit note says (as Michael says):
> "REMARQUE. -- On composera : Ce vin titre 12°,
> mais : la température est de 18 °C."

Without more context I don't find this note clear and explicit. It
could just as well be distinguishing the case of standalone degree
sign from that where the degree sign is followed by something else
(like C), as distinguishing degrees of temperature from those of
alcohol or arc.

As it happens, after reading much of this discussion yesterday, I
went home and noticed the bilingual labels on a container of
medication. There is a warning about not storing it at a temperature
above
(on the English side): "30°C"
(on the French side): "30 °C" .

Of course °C is non-SI anyway, so we have nothing to worry about...

Tony H.



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