Use of semicolon in an equation

[Alison Brown]

I've just come across an equation in an ISO health and safety standard which
puzzles me because I'm no mathematician and have never seen a semicolon used
in an equation before. Can anyone please translate this equation to plain
English for me (or as near as is possible)?
Lt,n = max (Lg,n ; Lt,n-1 - 2.5)

The n refers to a series of frequency bands from 1 to 33 and Lt,n and Lg,n
refer to the values at each frequency band n. What I can't work out is what
the semicolon says I should do to calculate Lt,n for each band (for the
first band in the series Lt = Lg)

Hope this is reasonably clear!

TIA
Alison

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[Nat Silver]

Alison Brown wrote:
> I've just come across an equation in an ISO health
> and safety standard which puzzles me because I'm no
> mathematician and have never seen a semicolon used
> in an equation before. Can anyone please translate this
> equation to plain English for me (or as near as is possible)?
> Lt,n = max (Lg,n ; Lt,n-1 - 2.5)
>
> The n refers to a series of frequency bands from 1 to 33
> and Lt,n and Lg,n refer to the values at each frequency band n.
> What I can't work out is what the semicolon says I should do
> to calculate Lt,n for each band (for the first band in the series Lt = Lg)

.

max(a, b) = the larger element in the set {a, b}.

If a = Lg,n and b = Lt,n-1 - 2.5,
then a comma is not available
anymore to be put between and
separate a from b. So, they use
a semicolon instead: max(a ; b).

[Patrick Hamlyn]

"Nat Silver" <mat...@worldnet.att.net> wrote:

A comma surely is available:
Lt,n = max ((Lg,n), (Lt,n-1 - 2.5))
--
Patrick Hamlyn posting from Perth, Western Australia
Windsurfing capital of the Southern Hemisphere
Moderator: polyforms group (polyforms...@egroups.com)