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Snuppelina Posted 12 years ago
Grammar
definite vs indefinite article in scientific texts
Hi!
I've always been wondering about these kind of sentences, whether I need a definite or an indefinite article here:
The experiments were carried out at the X cyclotron within the (a) energy range 220-250 MeV, which corresponds to the (an) excitation interval Y=31-51 MeV of the nucleus.
The whole text refers to these experiments, so I need "the" prior to 'experiments', but what about the italized phrases, if we are talking about them for the first time in the text?
Or should we use 'the' because these are specific intervals?
What does your native speaker intuition suggest you?
Thank you!
I've always been wondering about these kind of sentences, whether I need a definite or an indefinite article here:
The experiments were carried out at the X cyclotron within the (a) energy range 220-250 MeV, which corresponds to the (an) excitation interval Y=31-51 MeV of the nucleus.
The whole text refers to these experiments, so I need "the" prior to 'experiments', but what about the italized phrases, if we are talking about them for the first time in the text?
Or should we use 'the' because these are specific intervals?
What does your native speaker intuition suggest you?
Thank you!
Top answer
The experiments were carried out at the X cyclotron within the energy range 220-250 MeV, which corresponds to an excitation interval Y=31-51 MeV of the nucleus.
- The experiments were carried out at the X cyclotron within the energy range 220-250 MeV, which corresponds to an excitation interval Y=31-51 MeV of the nucleus.
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1 Answers
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The experiments were carried out at the X cyclotron within the energy range 220-250 MeV, which corresponds to an excitation interval Y=31-51 MeV of the nucleus.
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