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The number 4

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(@suppers-ready)
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Hey y'all, new here but lurked a while. Ive worked for several different companies and I was curious...How do y'all write the number 4 on stakes, field notes, etc?

Old timer I worked with swore you have to use the traditional "4" but others have said the goalpost "4" is ok too.

Thoughts?

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 11:59 am
Norman_Oklahoma
(@norman-oklahoma)
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My thought is that the "goalpost" style is less likely to be mistaken for a 9. But if the figures are marked carefully it shouldn't be an issue either way.

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 12:16 pm
holy-cow
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Prefer the "goal post" form.  Open top.  Have found 1/4 corner stones with both styles, though.

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 12:27 pm
(@scrim)
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"Goal Post" for me.  My party chief tried to beat 4 into me, but my 4 looked too much like a 9. He gave up.

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 12:34 pm
(@lurker)
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Goal post

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 12:48 pm

(@bstrand)
Posts: 2359
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Goal post for sure.  It's bad enough when 5 and 6 look the same, we don't need 4 and 9 too.

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 1:01 pm
jimcox
(@jimcox)
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Do you cross your sevens French Style?

Somewhere along the way I picked up the habit, but I don't hook my ones they way they do

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 3:45 pm
Norman_Oklahoma
(@norman-oklahoma)
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Posted by: @holy-cow

Have found 1/4 corner stones with both styles, though.

Have you ever confused one for a 1/9th corner?

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 4:39 pm
1
Norman_Oklahoma
(@norman-oklahoma)
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Posted by: @holy-cow

Have found 1/4 corner stones with both styles, though.

Have you ever confused one for a 1/9th corner?

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 4:40 pm
not-my-real-name
(@not-my-real-name)
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Some would put the lines through each digit of the number 107 then pronounce it it "one oh seven" but the logic is even more humorous. You put a line through the seven so it won't be mistaken for a one. You put a line through the zero so it won't be mistaken for the letter O and you put a line through the one because...

Historic boundaries and conservation efforts.

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 4:52 pm

not-my-real-name
(@not-my-real-name)
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...but you can't do this trick unless you use the goal post

IMG 1301

Historic boundaries and conservation efforts.

 
Posted : January 22, 2025 7:03 pm
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OleManRiver
(@olemanriver)
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Well I do not like the goal post 4.   As someone who started reading slope stakes from earth moving equipment scrapers dozers motor grader as a teenager the goal post 4 is not as legible at a distance and angle. The 4 like this if the 6 and 9 are like this as well are easier to read. No French 7 with the line through it either. The goal post 4 is tricky from the seat of a machine. Is mistaken for 11 or a + symbol or even 0. Since my area the old timers preferred which were the contractors that those old guys read the stakes from the seat doing earthwork I continued doing that most of my career and I have surveyed in multiple states. Although now days with machine control and not as many stakes and operators reading them from the seat I reckon it doesn’t matter much as long as it’s readable. I can remember on a hwy project in Mississippi I was around 14 or 15 at the time. The operators got docked 50 cents for every stake they ran over. This old timer had grabbed several slope stakes and had them in his arms like firewood. He dropped them off with the surveyor and pulled out cash to pay for them. Told him to never make the number 7 with that line through it and showed him how to mark a stake. All the numbers. The man was not originally from the USA and had a funny way of marking stakes. His nine was the circle with a straight line. Instead of the 9. Was a funny day they and all of us laughed no anger. Just an old timer set in his ways lol. 

 
Posted : January 23, 2025 8:45 pm
john-putnam
(@john-putnam)
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@jimcox 

Pretty much all of Europe uses that style.  I still do because it is what I was taught as a youth in Germany.  It keeps them from looking like a one.

 
Posted : January 24, 2025 8:55 pm
(@minbarwinkle)
Posts: 73
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How can a 4 look like a 9? I understand the goal post 4, but what is the other type of 4 that is mentioned? See below for how I write a 4. The other question related to numbers that I've seen is 7, 3 and 2. Excuse the slightly sloppy handwriting, I'm doing it in paint with a mouse for convenience.

image
image
image
image
 
Posted : January 25, 2025 4:38 am
christ-lambrecht
(@christ-lambrecht)
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A real life example from Belgium, the 3's and 5's may be tricky sometimes.

image

 

 
Posted : January 25, 2025 12:08 pm

not-my-real-name
(@not-my-real-name)
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Untitled

Historic boundaries and conservation efforts.

 
Posted : January 25, 2025 12:16 pm
1
thebionicman
(@thebionicman)
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@not-my-real-name 'Oh' is a letter in the alphabet. Lol

 
Posted : January 26, 2025 11:23 am
bill93
(@bill93)
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Those of us old enough to have grown up with "real" telephones were trained to use zero and oh interchangeably because zero was the same as Operator. It seemed that everybody with a zero in the number spoke it as oh.

 
Posted : January 26, 2025 5:36 pm
1
not-my-real-name
(@not-my-real-name)
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At one time the typewriter number line started with 2, and it did not have a number 1 because typists would use the lower case L instead.

I learned this interesting fact while writing a computer program that could parse the date as written in any format by the user.

Historic boundaries and conservation efforts.

 
Posted : January 26, 2025 6:27 pm
(@bstrand)
Posts: 2359
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Posted by: @thebionicman

'Oh' is a letter in the alphabet. Lol

Yes!  Saying "oh" instead of zero is one of my low level pet peeves.  hahah

 
Posted : January 27, 2025 7:58 am
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