This isn't a pure English question, but it is about writing style: Sometimes entities that aren't words end up being in sentences.
I know that when mathematical expressions are inline as follows:
We used the equation x + y = z. This is the next sentence.
they are treated as any other word, and the sentence needs to end with a period.
But suppose I have text in a paper such as:
We used the equation
x + y = z
This is the next sentence.
Notice that the equation isn't inline. Should there still be a period after the equation (right after z) to indicate the end of the sentence?
Best Answer
I don't know if LaTeX is considered a definitive source for mathematics writing style (although it was developed for typesetting math equations), but this link and this one seem to indicate that, yes, a period would be inserted after the equation in the example
The Wikipedia Manual of Style (Mathematics), which cites several published mathematics style guides, offers this wisdom (emphasis added by me):
The reference for this section is Higham, Nicholas J. (1998), Handbook of Writing for the Mathematical Sciences (second ed.), SIAM, ISBN 0-89871-420-6. The notation states that this is the style adopted by "many mathematics journals," so it is probably a safe choice.
Alternatively, you could use