ScriptyR

The bane of senior PhysicsMajors and ProfessorSaeta alike. As in most of his notation, ProfessorEckert just chooses to part ways with Griffiths on this one, to the annoyance of everyone in the course who have to deal with Griffiths' notation regardless.

David Griffiths' E&M text has a number of very large problems, among which is a veritable multitude of r's. There's

• r, to denote the point in question;
• r', to denote the point of integration;
• and ScriptyR, to denote the value |r-r'|.

For some reason, Griffiths wanted to mask the complexity of his formulas, opting instead to confuse the reader with too many symbols which often have ambiguous meanings. Of course, this (and the many, many other problems) doesn't stop it from being the go-to E&M textbook for junior and senior level physics majors across the country. Hey, at least it's better than HRK.