A recent discussion raised the fact that C#, often called “See Sharp” is technically incorrect because the symbol used is not the musical symbol sharp, but is the octothorpe, also known as Pound, Hash, Splat, Number Sign, etc.

An example of the differences is shown here (provided your browser and current font set support it).  The character above the 3 key on most US keyboards is this: # – but the musical sharp symbol is this: ♯.  See the difference?  Simply, one has angled vertical lines (“pound”), but the other has angled horizontal lines (“sharp”).

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