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Well, this will take awhile, if I understand what you want, but I'm having my morning coffee so what the heck …
1. zero point zero nine OR nine hundredths
2. three x squared [distinguished from "three x quantity squared" = (3x) ²]
3. one half OR one over two
4. one and eight ninths [yes, mixed numbers are hard to write clearly without special formatting, like using a vinculum and no space after the 1]
5. radical three OR the square root of three
6. four is less than six [although inequalities like this are rarely spoken, this is how it would be "read"]
7. x is less than or equal to y [same comment as above]
8. the limit of two x minus three as x approaches two OR the limit, as x approaches two, of the function two x minus three
Better than I could have done. I'll just add that "1.08" can be read "one point zero eight" or, less formally, "one point oh eight". And sometimes, especially when you're reading a lot of such formulae, your examples #6 and #7 can optionally drop the "is"; "6>4" can be read "six is greater than four" or "six greater than four".
Good point Bob. I thought about including naught as another possible reading of #1, but then decided that was more a British English variation. Rarely hear it here in the States. But I do hear oh for zero frequently. I wonder if that's because oh is a contraction of zero, or a literal alternate reading of the symbol?
Which brings up a perennial gripe of mine … why do people who design serial numbers even use that ambiguous symbol? Sure, you'll sometimes see the zero written with a slash through it to distinguish it from the letter O, but not consistently. Same goes for the letter L and numeral 1 (in certain fonts).
Given that most serial numbers are so many digits long, you'd think that excluding those letter/numerals would cause no problem. And it would save people who are trying to register their product online a lot of trial and error. I was trying to register a tape drive some years back with Iomega, and the serial number just wouldn't take. When I called customer service she said "Well, that first one has to be the letter O because the first three characters are always letters." Of course, it was immediately followed by the numeral zero, which looked identical in that font.
Regarding #6 and #7, dropping the is might be acceptable. Depending on context, six greater than four could be interpreted as ten.
As a computer programmer I'm a little fussier than most folks about slashing 0s and, in some situations, making a little swirlicue at the top of an O. And sometimes I have to pick a font carefully, for Notepad or for a mainframe terminal emulation, to be sure I can tell the difference, because I do a lot of data analysis.
But I think the folks who design serial numbers, VINs etc specify that letters or numbers only will go in each position. A VIN, for example, has only numerals in the last six digits; some other positions are carefully defined, and still others are left up to the manufacturer. One is a check digit. SSNs are all numeric. And so on. So with a well designed number there shouldn't be any doubt. Of course, that applies only to codes that are well designed—and even when one is, that doesn't guarantee that you will know what the design is.
There is also a trend toward avoiding 0, O, 1 and l in things requiring serial numbers, just to avoid confusion. A coworker mentioned this just last week, and I had to tell him a story from the opposite end of the spectrum: My aunt, who was a retired English teacher, had a very difficult time with her first computer. It kept rejecting her commands as invalid, because she used a lower-case 'l' ('L') instead of a one ('1'). The old typewriter keyboards that she used most of her life didn't have a '1' key - everyone knew to use a lower-case 'l' instead.
Ah, yes, I remember; I was taught that too, on some older typewriters. When I entered college my parents gave me an electric typewriter that had a '1' key, so it's been a while. But even today, in the Courier font the '1' and the 'l' are indistinguishable.
...Oh, wait, they aren't, though. Hm. ... Well, they used to be.
Martha Barnette
Grant Barrett
Grant Barrett
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