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A seven is supposed to look like this: 7 not like this: 7. What's up with all these people who habitually, without any thought whatsoever, draw random lines through their sevens which don't make them look like a seven any more!?

No because it's not a 7 if it's crossed

That's an ex-seven.

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This isn't IRC, no need for / tags

fix'd

Works for me

Nein.

No, but on a mildly related note, I recently started crossing my Zs.

Occasionally. I also do those angular 3's sometimes, when I'm feeling fancy. p,o

Habitually.

My third grade teacher made us cross our 7's and Z's, but I have not done so since.

Usually I don't, but if my 7 looks too much like a 1, then I put a cross through it. That's only occasionally though, and I don't do it out of habit.

Yes. I also cross my z's. Never used to do either until I started doing lots of chicken scratch and had to be able to tell a 7 from a 1 and a z from a 2.

Characters should only be crossed to disambiguate them. Nothing else in the English alphabet or Arabic numerals is similar enough to a '7' to warrant this.

I try to be consistent in crossing my zeroes, but I frequently forget to.

T̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư wrote:Characters should only be crossed to disambiguate them. Nothing else in the English alphabet or Arabic numerals is similar enough to a '7' to warrant this.

I try to be consistent in crossing my zeroes, but I frequently forget to.

Doesn't a zero with a line through it mean "no solution" in algebra, though?

ＭＡＸＸＸＯＮ wrote:

T̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư wrote:Characters should only be crossed to disambiguate them. Nothing else in the English alphabet or Arabic numerals is similar enough to a '7' to warrant this.

I try to be consistent in crossing my zeroes, but I frequently forget to.

Doesn't a zero with a line through it mean "no solution" in algebra, though?

It doesn't happen often beyond algebra that that symbol sees meaningful use. In upper-division math, you only need to express a "no solution" as part of a proof, in which case it's more appropriate to write out "no solution".
There's always "DNE", to boot.

ＭＡＸＸＸＯＮ wrote:

T̷s͢uk̕a͡t͜ư wrote:Characters should only be crossed to disambiguate them. Nothing else in the English alphabet or Arabic numerals is similar enough to a '7' to warrant this.

I try to be consistent in crossing my zeroes, but I frequently forget to.

Doesn't a zero with a line through it mean "no solution" in algebra, though?

Actually, it means "empty set". The perpetuation of the idea that it means "no solution" rests on the shoulders of a million misinformed high school algebra teachers.

I've considered dotting my zeroes, which would ease all the confusion.

Because it's more convenient to the next number. Yes.

scythe wrote:

ＭＡＸＸＸＯＮ wrote:Doesn't a zero with a line through it mean "no solution" in algebra, though?

Actually, it means "empty set". The perpetuation of the idea that it means "no solution" rests on the shoulders of a million misinformed high school algebra teachers.

I've always used the Greek phi (i.e. Φ) to represent an empty set. The slash on the phi is vertical, whereas I slash my zeroes diagonally.
Dotting zeroes is not a bad idea, though. I might try switching to that.