Editing Sign convention (section)

{{Short description|Agreed-upon meaning of a physical quantity being positive or negative}}

In [[physics]], a '''sign convention''' is a choice of the physical significance of [[sign (mathematics)|sign]]s (plus or minus) for a set of quantities, in a case where the choice of sign is arbitrary. "Arbitrary" here means that the same physical system can be correctly described using different choices for the signs, as long as one set of definitions is used consistently. The choices made may differ between authors. Disagreement about sign conventions is a frequent source of confusion, frustration, misunderstandings, and even outright errors in scientific work. In general, a sign convention is a special case of a choice of [[coordinate system]]  for the case of one dimension.

Sometimes, the term "sign convention" is used more broadly to include factors of the [[imaginary unit]] {{mvar|i}} and {{math|2{{pi}}}}, rather than just choices of sign.