Sentence ending with a number and an exclamation point

Question

Suppose you want to emphasize some idea and your sentence ends with a number. You want to be clear to the reader that you do not mean factorial. For instance, you wish to emphasize

When using method $ABC$, your approximation is off by a factor of 3.

Would it be appropriate (and, more importantly, clear to the reader) to say the following?

When using method $ABC$, your approximation is off by a factor of 3!

I understand for this example, you could easily change "3" to "three", as in:

When using method $ABC$, your approximation is off by a factor of three!

However, this last idea would not be not pleasant for the following sentence:

When using method $ABC$, your approximation is off by a factor of $\sqrt{3}$!

Is there an accepted and common way to write these exclamation points, other than rewriting the sentence to avoid ending with a number?

Everything should be clear from the context. If a factorial really was intended an extra punctuation mark would be in order. — Parcly Taxel, May 11 '17 at 14:38
Maybe you should try to ask your question here: https://english.stackexchange.com/ — Onil90, May 11 '17 at 14:41
@Travis That was explicitly not allowed here, to encourage other methods. — Parcly Taxel, May 11 '17 at 14:42
If this is handwritten communication you could underline for emphasis. — Umberto P., May 11 '17 at 16:03

score 2 · Answer 1 · answered May 11 '17 at 15:18

2

Since it is the end of the sentence, there needs to be a period after the exclamation point, if factorial was meant. So the lack of a period would be a clear signal to the reader that the exclamation point is punctuation and not math.

answered May 11 '17 at 15:18

B. Goddard

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score 0 · Answer 2 · answered May 11 '17 at 14:40

0

Instead of rewriting the sentence, you can try to rewrite the number, where appropriate. For example, instead of writing "$\pi + 3!$", you can write "$3 + \pi!$". This decreases the likelihood of a confusion.

answered May 11 '17 at 14:40

Peter

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Sentence ending with a number and an exclamation point

2 Answers2

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