: Why do page headers seldom include chapter/section numbers? In many of my course books, the header of each page includes a page number, and the name of the current chapter and section. Only

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The only harm I see in adding numbers is that it takes up more space, and in some cases may make it that the entire heading no longer fits on one line, or a heading on the left runs into a heading on the right.

I don't think it's so much a matter of weighing gain versus harm, as a "why bother". I'm hard pressed to think of cases where I say, "Now I want to flip to section 6.3". If it's something I've already read, I'm more likely to remember the title than the number. If I'm flipping through a book I haven't read before looking for material of interest to me, I might well say, "Stochastic methods, that's something I've always been curious about." I can't imagine saying, "I've always wanted to read a section numbered 6.12 -- so many book end chapter 6 with section 11."

Sure, if a book has cross references that say "see equation 5.3", then it should have chapter numbers in the page headers or footers. But even with that, if chapter 5 is long and has only a few equations, finding equation 5.3 could still be a search. A well-designed book would give the page number.

Sometimes when you ask, "Why don't people do good thing X?", the answer is, "Because they're lazy and or stupid", sometimes it's "because there is this really good reason to NOT do it", and sometimes, as here, it's "because it isn't all that great an idea, it might help sometimes, but most people don't care enough to bother."

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If you know which chapter/section number you need - you know it from table of contents. And that means you know the page number and know which way to go.

OTOH, if you remember "Stochastic methods, Limitations" was roughly 2/3 into the book, you can flip pages quickly, skimming the headers, and find required section easily.

I'd find it really surprising to have readers remember section numbers only. They are quite useful in organizing the book and creating cross-references before the page numbering is fixed, but their usability to end users is marginal.

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