From: jwkenne@attglobal.net   
      
   On 2014-05-15 22:18:56 +0000, William Vetter said:   
      
   > Twenty-five years ago, I defended a chemistry PhD thesis.   
   > In the experimental section, many chemical syntheses were   
   > described, and often the sentences began with a numerical   
   > quantity.  A typical example would be:   
   > 10.00g sodium was added to a 250mL round bottomed flask.   
   >   
   > One of the committee members told me that no sentence can   
   > begin with a number, meaning no sentence can begin with   
   > numerical digits.  He crossed out the beginnings of all   
   > such lines in my thesis manuscript, which was maybe a fifth   
   > of the sentences in the whole book.  Of course, I wanted   
   > him to sign the thesis so I could finish, so I changed all   
   > of them to one of the forms:   
   > Ten grams of sodium were added to a 250ml round bottomed   
   > flask.   
   > or   
   > Sodium (10.00g) was added to a 250ml round bottomed flask.   
   > or   
   > To a 250ml round bottomed flask was added 10.00g sodium.   
   > Which made him happy.   
   >   
   > I have not been able to find this rule in any English   
   > Composition text or style guide ever.  Not relating to any   
   > type of writing, technical or fiction.  (Sorry in advance   
   > if I am completely wrong and it is stated in every rule   
   > book.)   
   >   
   > There are certain situations in fiction where one might   
   > want to begin a sentence with the Arabic numerals:   
   > "100" was lithographed into the green scrollwork at all   
   > four corners of each stock certificate.   
   >   
   > Is this acceptable?   
      
   It's a new one to me. I do remember being taught at one point that it's   
   "zero" to "twenty" but "21" and up -- but that doesn't seem to be a   
   real rule, either.   
      
   --   
   John W Kennedy   
   "Sweet, was Christ crucified to create this chat?"   
     -- Charles Williams.  "Judgement at Chelmsford"   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)