Sign convention
Annoyingly often in
physics, some textbooks and articles would use definitions for certain quatities with the opposite sign from other textbook/articles. This lack of standardization is a frequent source of confusion, misunderstandings and even outright errors. A choice of signs in the definition is called a
sign convention. Sometimes, this term is used more sloppily to include factors of
i and 2
&pi.
A noncomprehensive list of sign conventions:
It is often considered good form to explicitly state which sign convention you are using at the beginning of every article/book.
Warning: Since this encyclopedia is written by hundreds of different mathematicians/physicists, there is absolutely no guarantee of consistency in sign conventions here. Proceed at your own peril.
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