In physics, a sign convention is a choice of the physical significance of signs (plus or minus) for a set of quantities, in a case where the choice of sign is arbitrary. "Arbitrary" here means that the same physical system can be correctly described using different choices for the signs, as long as one set of definitions is used consistently. The choices made may differ between authors. Disagreement about sign conventions is a frequent source of confusion, frustration, misunderstandings, and even outright errors in scientific work. In general, a sign convention is a special case of a choice of coordinate system for the case of one dimension.
Sometimes, the term "sign convention" is used more broadly to include factors of i and 2π, rather than just choices of sign.
Read more about Sign Convention: Other Sign Conventions
Famous quotes containing the words sign and/or convention:
“We “need” cancer because, by the very fact of its incurability, it makes all other diseases, however virulent, not cancer.”
—Gilbert Adair, British author, critic. “Under the Sign of Cancer,” Myths and Memories (1986)
“No convention gets to be a convention at all except by grace of a lot of clever and powerful people first inventing it, and then imposing it on others. You can be pretty sure, if you are strictly conventional, that you are following genius—a long way off. And unless you are a genius yourself, that is a good thing to do.”
—Katharine Fullerton Gerould (1879–1944)