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I am reading a paper that uses notation like $10^{15\pm1}$ that I have never seen before. I can guess that it means the number is in the interval of $10^{14}$ to $10^{16}$, but I would appreciate it if someone can confirm my guess (or tell me what it means).

user1930565
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    Showing more context would be good, but I believe your guess is right. – FShrike Oct 13 '21 at 19:08
  • The notation is used in the paper "A study of inert-gas diffusion in ionic crystals and sinters with emphasis on the ion-bombardment technique", Roger Kelly and Hansjoachim Matzkb, Journal of Nuclear Materials Volume 17, Issue 2, October 1965, Pages 179-191. They do not appear to give any interpretation of the interval, e.g., it is a 95% confidence interval or a uniform interval. – user1930565 Oct 13 '21 at 19:15
  • For people without this paper, this is still insufficient context. I recommend for future posts that you provide (typed) context in the form of extracts from the text, so you can highlight exactly what you’re confused by – FShrike Oct 13 '21 at 19:49
  • Google Scholar takes you right to the abstract that provides as much context as the full paper. – user1930565 Oct 14 '21 at 08:36

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One would need more context to be able to say for sure. However, it is likely that you are right that the author(s) most likely mean $10^{15 \pm 1}= [10^{14}, 10^{16}]$, i.e. that the number varies by plus or minus an order of magnitude (rather a lot of variation....depending on the context).

mathematics2x2life
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