Archimedes's Principle or Archimedes' Principle?

1. 69

   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   Which is Correct? I know I could use "the Archimedean Principle" or "the Principle of Archimedes", but I want to use a variation of forms throughout an article for the benefit of alternative search terms.
   Is it even a possessive case? Maybe it should just be "Archimedes Principle"? If it was possessive, something would have to come after "principle", because "Archimedes's Principle" would be ambiguous: Archimedes's Principle of what?
   Many websites use "Archimedes' Principle" which is incorrect because the apostrophe after the "s" should be reserved for plurals ending with "s".

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2. 68

   Sue Adamsposted 2 years ago

   https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Archimedes%27_principle
   
   Yes, even Wikipedia uses Archemedes' Principle.
   
   To form the possessive of a noun that ends in S, AP style has separate rules for proper names and generic nouns. For proper names like James, AP says, add an apostrophe only: He borrowed James' car. For generics like a boss, add an apostrophe plus S: He borrowed the boss's car.
   
   I would go for "The Archimedes Principle".

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   1. 69

      eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

      Hmm, I would always have used an extra "s" with proper nouns such as names of people, so for example it would be James's Street.
      
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St_James%27s_Street
      
      But is James's Street even possessive like James's Car? It's not like St James owns the street.
      
      I'm not sure whether Archimedes owns the principle either, well not literally owns, but "possesses" it in the sense of the possessive case in grammar. Archimedes in the Archimedes Principle is more like an adjective in that it modifies the noun: What type of principle is it? Archimedes Principle. (Of course they made up an adjective from Archimedes which is Archimedean and that of course is used instead)

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3. 69

   eugbugposted 2 years ago

   This suggests that ancient names only get an apostrophe at the end, and not 's. They suggest four different choices, and it also depends on the sound of the last syllable.
   
   https://www.apostrophes.com.au/the-poss … ent-names/

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   1. 98

      DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

      It does not matter though. You are trying to write to be SEO friendly, so I would suggest using all three forms. If your competitor only writes "the Archimedes principle" and you write with and without that apostrophe s, you may rank higher in search. (That is not always true, but I think it is worth the effort.)

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      1. 69

         eugbugposted 2 years agoin reply to this

         That's what I've done. I've used the alternative forms as H2 titles for some of the text capsules.

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         1. 98

            DrMark1961posted 2 years agoin reply to this

            I think it was a good policy to use common misspellings in the past but Google autocorrects now so I think that advice is outdated.
            (Our editors would correct them anyway!)

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4. 84

   Rupert Taylorposted 2 years ago

   In cases like this I always cheat and write "The principle of Archimedes."

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