Chemistry mixture of letters and abbreviation UEB/NEM/CHEM

Thank you for sharing your question, Angela.

I think the questions we need to ask are: Does your text use both P (italicized, uppercase) as a variable for pressure and P (not italicized, uppercase) as the chemical SYMBOL for Phosphorus? If so, then my understanding is that the italics for capital P should be retained as in print.

Similarly:

• Does your text use both V (italicized, uppercase) as a variable for volume and V (not italicized, uppercase) as the chemical SYMBOL for Vanadium?
• Does your text use R (italicized, uppercase) as a variable and also R (not italicized, uppercase) as the variable for the ideal gas constant?
• Does your text use both M (italicized, uppercase) as a variable and also M (not italicized, uppercase) as the variable for molar mass?
• Does your text use both T (italicized, uppercase) as a variable for temperature and T (not italicized, uppercase) as the variable for something else?
• Does your text use both n (italicized, lowercase) as a variable for number of moles and n (not italicized, lowercase) as the variable for something else?
• Does your text use both m (italicized, lowercase) as a variable for mass and m (not italicized, lowercase) as the variable for something else?
• ...

If the answer is yes to any of the above, then my understanding is that for that letter in that case (upper or lower) the italics should be retained as in print.

The goal is to give the braille reader the same tools that the print reader gets to distinguish these "duplicate same-case letters."

Again, thank you for sharing your question.

–Kyle

• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by kdejute. Reason: update response, to address "duplicate letters"
• This reply was modified 6 years, 1 month ago by kdejute.

What is the difference between a chemical abbreviation and a chemical SYMBOL?  Is it just context?