The burner's reference document carries an explicit instruction: read the limitations before quoting any number. Ten of them are listed — from the undesigned plug to the synchrotron model's fitted range to the flat-profile approximation — because a number without its caveat is a number waiting to be misused.
The limitations are specific and consequential: the plug is a requirement not a design; the confinement prefactor is a calibrated shape assumption; the synchrotron fit is used slightly outside its range and it decides the answer; the profiles are flat; the bremsstrahlung form is mildly optimistic. Each is stated with its direction and magnitude.
Putting the caveats first — and telling the reader to read them first — inverts the usual practice of burying limitations in a back section. It is the clearest expression of the 'shows its work' identity: the design would rather be understood than admired.
| Instruction | read limitations before quoting |
| Listed | 10 limitations |
| Examples | undesigned plug, synchrotron fit range, flat profiles |
| Each stated with | direction and magnitude |
| Placement | before the results, not after |