7/23/25, 2:20 PM MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference - Mathematics Meta Stack Exchange

MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference

Asked 12 years, 11 months ago Modified 12 months ago Viewed 2.0m times

(Deutsch: MathJax: LaTeX Basic Tutorial und Referenz)

To see how any formula was written in any question or answer, including this one, right-click on
4161
the expression and choose "Show Math As > TeX Commands". (When you do this, the '$' will not
display. Make sure you add these: see the next point. There are also other ways to view the code
for the formula or the whole post.)

To try formatting, visit the formatting sandbox post, select one of the answers that says “free for
editing” and use the “edit” button to edit the answer however you like. Don't forget to change it
back when you are finished, so it can be used again.

1. For inline formulas, enclose the formula in $ … $ . For displayed formulas, use
$$ … $$ .

These render differently. For example, type the following to show inline mode:
$\sum_{i=0}^n i^2 = \frac{(n^2+n)(2n+1)}{6}$
2
n (n +n)(2n+1)
2
∑ i =
i=0 6

or type the following for display mode:

$$\sum_{i=0}^n i^2 = \frac{(n^2+n)(2n+1)}{6}$$

n 2
(n + n)(2n + 1)
2
∑i =
6
i=0

2. For Greek letters, use \alpha , \beta , …, \omega : α, β, …, ω.

For uppercase letters, use \Gamma , \Delta , …, \Omega : Γ, Δ , …, Ω .

Other Greek capital letters are the same as the Latin ones: A,B,E,Z and so on:
A, B, E, Z ….

Some Greek letters have variant forms: \epsilon \varepsilon ϵ , ε, \phi \varphi , ,
ϕ φ

and others.

3. For superscripts and subscripts, use ^ and _ . For example, x_i^2 : x , \log_2 x : 2
i

log x . For the prime symbol, use an apostrophe x' x'' x''' : x x x .
′ ′′ ′′′
2

4. Groups. Superscripts, subscripts, and other operations apply only to the next “group”. A
“group” is either a single symbol, or any formula surrounded by curly braces { … } .

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If you do 10^10 , you will get a surprise: 10 1

0 . But 10^{10} gives what you probably
wanted: 10 . 10

Use curly braces to delimit a formula to which a superscript or subscript applies: x^y^z
z

is an error; {x^y}^z is x , and x^{y^z} is x . Observe the differences between x_i^2

yz y

x , x_{i^2} x and {x_i}^2 x .

2 2
2
i i
i

5. Parentheses Ordinary symbols ()[] make parentheses and brackets (2 + 3)[4 + 4] . Use
\{ and \} for curly braces {} .

These do not scale with the formula in between, so if you write (\frac{\sqrt x}{y^3})
√x
the parentheses will be too small: ( 3
. Using \left( … \right) will make the sizes
)
y

adjust automatically to the formula they enclose: \left(\frac{\sqrt x}{y^3}\right) is

√x
(
3
) .
y

\left and \right apply to all the following sorts of parentheses: ( and ), [ and (x)

] [x], \{ and \} {x}, | |x|, \vert |x|, \Vert ∥x∥, \langle and \rangle ⟨x⟩,
\lceil and \rceil , and \lfloor and \rfloor ⌊x⌋. \middle can be used to add
⌈x⌉

additional dividers. There are also invisible parentheses, denoted by . : use

\left.x^2\right\rvert_3^5 = 5^2-3^2 to get

5
2 2 2
x ∣∣ = 5 − 3
3

6. Sums and integrals \sum and \int ; the subscript is the lower limit and the superscript
is the upper limit, so for example \sum_1^n ∑ . Don't forget { … } if the limits are more
n

than a single symbol. For example, \sum_{i=0}^\infty i^2 is ∑ i .

∞

i=0
2

Similarly, \prod ∏ , \int ∫ , \bigcup ⋃ , \bigcap ⋂ , \iint ∬ , \iiint ∭ ,

\idotsint ∫ ⋯∫ .
7. Fractions There are three ways to make fractions. \frac ab applies to the next two groups,
and produces a

b
; for more complicated numerators and denominators use { … } :
\frac{a+1}{b+1} is .
a+1

b+1

If the numerator and denominator are complicated, you may prefer \over , which splits
up the group that it is in: {a+1\over b+1} is .
a+1

b+1

For continued fractions, use \cfrac instead of \frac .

8. Fonts

Use \mathbb or \Bbb for "blackboard bold": CHNQRZ.

Use \mathbf for boldface: CHNQRZ chnqrz.

For expression based characters, use \boldsymbol instead: α

Use \mathit for italics: CHNQRZ chnqrz.

Use \pmb for boldfaced italics: C

CHHN
NQRZ
QRZ chnqrz
chnqrz .

Use \mathtt for "typewriter" font: CHNQRZ chnqrz .

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Use \mathrm for roman font: CHNQRZ chnqrz .

Use \mathsf for sans-serif font: CHNQRZ chnqrz.

Use \mathcal for "calligraphic" letters: CHN QRZ (Uppercase only.)

Use \mathscr for script letters: C H N QR Z chnqrz

Use \mathfrak for "Fraktur" (old German style) letters: CHNQRZ chnqrz.

9. Radical signs / roots Use sqrt , which adjusts to the size of its argument: \sqrt{x^3}
−− −
−
√x 3 ; \sqrt[3]{\frac xy} √
3
x

y
. For complicated expressions, consider using {...}^{1/2}
instead.
10. Some special functions such as "lim", "sin", "max", "ln", and so on are normally set in
roman font instead of italic font. Use \lim , \sin , etc. to make these: \sin x sin x , not sin
x sinx. Use subscripts to attach a notation to \lim : \lim_{x\to 0}

lim
x→0

Nonstandard function names can be set with \operatorname{foo}(x) .

foo(x)

11. There are a very large number of special symbols and notations, too many to list here;
see the short listing L TEX and AM S -L TEX Symbols prepared by Dr. Emre Sermutlu, or
A A

the exhaustive listing The Comprehensive L TEX Symbol List by Scott Pakin. Some of the A

most common include:

\lt \gt \le \ge \neq ,

< > ≤ ≥ ≠ , , , . You can use \not to put a slash through almost
anything: \not\lt ≮ but it often looks bad.

\times \div \pm \mp ,

× ÷ ± ∓ , , . \cdot is a centered dot: x ⋅ y
\cup \cap \setminus \subset \subseteq \subsetneq \supset \in \notin \emptyset
\varnothing , , , ,
∪ ∩ ∖ ⊂ ⊆ ⊊ ⊃ ∈ ∉ ∅ ∅ , , , , , ,

{n+1 \choose 2k} or \binom{n+1}{2k} (

n+1

2k
)

\to \gets \rightarrow \leftarrow \Rightarrow \Leftarrow \mapsto \implies \iff → ←, ,

, ,
→ ← ⇒ ⇐ ↦ , , , ⟹ , ⟺

\land \lor \lnot \forall \exists \top \bot \vdash \vDash , , , , ,

∧ ∨ ¬ ∀ ∃ ⊤ ⊥ ⊢ ⊨ , , ,

\star \ast \oplus \circ \bullet , ,

⋆ ∗ ⊕ ∘ ∙ , ,

\approx \sim \simeq \cong \equiv \prec \lhd , ,

≈ ∼ ≃ ≅ ≡ ≺ ⊲ , , , ,

\infty \aleph_0 ∞ ℵ0 \nabla \partial ∇ ∂ , \Im \Re I R ,

For modular equivalence, use \pmod like this: a\equiv b\pmod n a ≡ b (mod n) . For the
binary mod operator, use \bmod like this: a\bmod 17 a mod 17 .

Use \dots for the triple dots in a 1, a2 , … , an and a 1 + a2 + ⋯ + an

Script lowercase l is \ell ℓ.

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Detexify lets you draw a symbol on a web page and then lists the TEX symbols that seem to
resemble it. These are not guaranteed to work in MathJax, but it's a good place to start. To
check that a command is supported, note that MathJax.org maintains a list of currently
supported L TEX commands, and one can also check Dr. Carol JVF Burns's page of TEX
A

Commands Available in MathJax.

12. Spaces MathJax usually decides for itself how to space formulas, using a complex set of
rules. Putting extra literal spaces into formulas will not change the amount of space
MathJax puts in: a␣b and a␣␣␣␣b are both ab. To add more space, use \, for a thin space
ab ; \; for a wider space a b . \quad and \qquad are large spaces: a ,
b a b .
To set plain text, use \text{…} : {x ∈ s ∣ x is extra large} . You can nest $…$ inside of
\text{…} , for example to access spaces.

13. Accents and diacritical marks Use \hat for a single symbol x ^ , \widehat for a larger

formula xy
ˆ . If you make it too wide, it will look silly. Similarly, there are \bar x̄ and

−
→ ←
→
\overline , and \vec
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
xyz ¯
x⃗and \overrightarrow xy and \overleftrightarrow xy . For
dots, as in d

dx
xẋ = ẋ
2
+ xẍ, use \dot and \ddot .

14. Special characters used for MathJax interpreting can be escaped using the \ character: \$
$, \{ {, \} }, \_ _, \# # , \& & . If you want \ itself, you should use \backslash
(symbol) or \setminus (binary operation) for ∖, because \\ is for a new line.

(Tutorial ends here.)

It is important that this note be reasonably short and not suffer from too much bloat. To include
more topics, please create short addenda and post them as answers instead of inserting them
into this post.

Contents
Alphabetical list of links to MathJax topics, by title:

Absolute values and norms • Additional symbolic decorations • Aligning Equations

Alternative Ways of Writing in LaTeX • Annotations of reasoning • Arbitrary operators

Arrays • Big braces • Colors

Commutative diagrams • Continued fractions • Crossing things out

Definitions by cases (piecewise functions) • Degree symbol • Display style

Equation numbering • Fussy spacing issues • Highlighting expressions

Left and right arrows • Limits • Linear programming

Long division • Matrices • Markov Chains

Mixing code and MathJax formatting on lines • The \newcommand function

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Numbering Equations • Overlaying Symbols • Packs of cards

Symbols • System of equations • Tables

Tags and references • Tensor indices • Units

Vertical bars • Vertical spacing

support faq mathjax reference

Share Follow edited Jun 7, 2024 at 17:31 community wiki

121 revs, 59 users 34%
MJD

41 Some capital Greek letters are the same as the Roman equivalents, so they are not separated in L TEX . A

For a capital beta, one must use something like \mathrm{B} : B – robjohn Mod Aug 28, 2012 at 2:06

11 Two related questions: How do I insert a table when asking a question? and How to show the integral
symbol on this site? – Martin Sleziak Aug 28, 2012 at 13:26

41 A quick addition to point 11: If you want to use a sin-like symbol that is not already defined, the command
is \operatorname : e.g., \operatorname{Spec} A gives Spec A . – Charles Staats Aug 28, 2012 at 16:45

24 It might be useful to mention hanging subscripts for things like _5C_3 5 C3 . You could also mention
\frac vs \dfrac . – axblount Aug 29, 2012 at 18:09

8 My basic idea is that if a beginner can express a formula clearly, then someone else can come in and clean
up the typesetting afterwards. I am considering getting rid of the section about \big , \left , and
\right for this reason, and trimming the section on spacing. – MJD Aug 30, 2012 at 2:06

10 Most of the references to TeX or LaTeX in this and the answers ought to be to MathJaX (the exception
that I can see being the output of Detexify). I know this is a bit pedantic, but would it be alright to correct
this? – Andrew Stacey Sep 11, 2012 at 14:13

6 @AndrewStacey Thanks for pointing this out. Let's by all means be as correct as possible, particularly
when there's no extra cost. – MJD Sep 11, 2012 at 14:15

4 @MJD Okay, I've had a go (also the answer about arrays). I wonder also whether or not it is worth a
sentence at the end pointing out that whilst MathJaX does its best to emulate TeX, it isn't TeX and so
while knowing how something is done in TeX gives you a starting point, it isn't a guarantee that the same
thing works in MathJaX. (As a case in point, questions about MathJaX are generally off-topic over on
TeX-SX.) – Andrew Stacey Sep 11, 2012 at 14:22

7 @AndrewStacey I wouldn't. They are close enough that it seems to me to be a needless refinement. I
might even argue that MathJax is TEX , although an alternative implementation. We're willing to accept
that other programming languages (JavaScript, for example) that have slightly incompatible
implementations are nevertheless the same language; why not in this case as well? – MJD Sep 11, 2012
at 14:35

11 @MJD Except that this is meant as a tutorial for those who aren't familiar with the distinction (and there
really is a distinction: "slightly incompatible implementations" doesn't really fit the bill here). One thing
tutorials often include is a "Where to find out more" section. This doesn't. Someone who doesn't know the
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distinction might be tempted to search for help on TeX or LaTeX instead and wonder why it doesn't work.
– Andrew Stacey Sep 11, 2012 at 14:40

7 @AndrewStacey All the tips given here would work in any TEX /L TEX environment with the proper
A

packages. MathJax is just the service used to render it. You wouldn't say "Miktex tutorial" or "texlive
tutorial". – axblount Sep 11, 2012 at 15:01

6 @axblount But that's precisely the wrong way around to think about it! The likelihood is that someone will
look at this tutorial to figure out how to write something on the Maths-SX site: i.e., to use MathJaX. If
they can't find help here, where do they go? If they have the idea that MathJaX is "just a javascript
implementation of TeX" then they might think to look for help with TeX, but that is quite possibly not
going to be helpful. – Andrew Stacey Sep 11, 2012 at 15:08

9 @axblount For a start, you've changed the goalposts: "LaTeX math expressions". LaTeX is so much more
than just a way of typesetting maths! Second, I don't really know but it wouldn't take me long to cook one
up. I don't use MathJaX so I haven't explored it. But I know, for example, that it can't handle catcode
changes. Which means that I can't make ( and ) automatically resizeable. I can in LaTeX.
– Andrew Stacey Sep 11, 2012 at 16:04

89 I wish I saw this post when I first joined. This post should be a main link on the home page. There should
be a button under each box: NEW TO LATEX, CLICK HERE FOR EXAMPLES. This is extremely useful,
concise. – user1527227 May 31, 2013 at 18:09

16 @MJD: I use \mathrm in many places; e.g. dx in integrals and derivatives and for operator names that
don't need the full force of \operatorname . \mathrm was intended for roman symbols in math mode;
\text was intended for text because of the way it spaces things. See this TEX thread. Since I don't
believe we can use preambles in MathJax, we can't use \DeclareMathOperator , though we can use
\newcommand , but that is orthogonal to the use of \mathrm vs \text for math symbols.
– robjohn Mod Jun 10, 2013 at 16:23

39 Answers Sorted by: Highest score (default)

1 2 Next

Matrices
466 1. Use $$\begin{matrix}…\end{matrix}$$ In between the \begin and \end , put the matrix
elements. End each matrix row with \\ , and separate matrix elements with & . For example,

$$
\begin{matrix}
1 & x & x^2 \\
1 & y & y^2 \\
1 & z & z^2 \\
\end{matrix}
$$

produces:

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2
1 x x

2
1 y y

2
1 z z

MathJax will adjust the sizes of the rows and columns so that everything fits.

2. To add brackets, either use \left…\right as in section 6 of the tutorial, or replace matrix
1 2 1 2 1 2 ∣ 1 2∣
with pmatrix ( ) , bmatrix [ ] , Bmatrix { , vmatrix
} ∣ ∣ , Vmatrix
3 4 3 4 3 4 ∣ 3 4∣

∥1 2∥
∥ ∥ .
∥3 4∥

3. Use \cdots ⋯ \ddots ⋱ \vdots ⋮ when you want to omit some of the entries:

2 n
1 a1 a ⋯ a
⎛ 1 1 ⎞
2 n
⎜ 1 a2 a ⋯ a ⎟
2 2
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⋮ ⋮ ⋮ ⋱ ⋮ ⎟

⎝ 2 n ⎠
1 am am ⋯ am

4. For horizontally "augmented" matrices, put parentheses or brackets around a suitably-

formatted table; see arrays below for details. Here is an example:

1 2 3
[ ]
4 5 6

is produced by:

$$ \left[
\begin{array}{cc|c}
1&2&3\\
4&5&6
\end{array}
\right] $$

The cc|c is the crucial part here; it says that there are three centered columns with a vertical bar
between the second and third.

5. For vertically "augmented" matrices, use \hline . For example

⎛ a b ⎞

⎜ c d ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ ⎟
⎜ 1 0 ⎟

⎝ 0 1 ⎠

is produced by

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$$
\begin{pmatrix}
a & b\\
c & d\\
\hline
1 & 0\\
0 & 1
\end{pmatrix}
$$

6. For small inline matrices use \bigl(\begin{smallmatrix} ... \end{smallmatrix}\bigr) , e.g.

(
a b

c d
) is produced by:

$\bigl( \begin{smallmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{smallmatrix} \bigr)$

Share Follow edited Nov 22, 2021 at 12:27 answered Aug 28, 2012 at 4:17
Calvin Khor MJD
36.2k 1 26 46 67.6k 9 50 72

27 This says "End each matrix row with \\". But there is no reason to end the LAST row of the matrix that
way. The double backslash means: now go on to the next row. But there isn't any next row after the last
one. – Michael Hardy Aug 28, 2014 at 5:15

5 I can't edit, but that could be phrased "Separate matrix rows with \\". – trichoplax is on Codidact now Nov
18, 2016 at 9:43

as in section 6 of the tutorial ... Which tutorial? Is there a link to this tutorial section?
– Tom Hale May 21, 2017 at 3:35

@tom The tutorial is at the top of this page. It has numbered sections. – MJD May 21, 2017 at 17:04

8 @MichaelHardy but a \\ on every line is harmless, and it makes the editing of matrices easier because
swapping with the last line can be done with one quick keystroke in many editors. – Reb.Cabin Feb 8, 2018
at 15:18

Is it possible to get smallpmatrix or something? – linear_combinatori_probabi Aug 13, 2018 at 5:49

There's something strange about the second matrix (right after "produces:"); it seems to render properly as
a matrix on this page, but on the revision permalink math.meta.stackexchange.com/revisions/5023/7 it
shows up as raw LaTeX in a code block. – j.c. Feb 16, 2021 at 21:31

vmatrix does not show the vertical bar. – alhelal Aug 4, 2022 at 5:51

vmatrix does not show the vertical bar. (

∣0 3 2x + 7 ∣
∣ ∣
2 7x 9 + 5x
∣ ∣
∣0 0 2x + 5 ∣

=0) হলে x এর মান- – alhelal Aug 4, 2022 at 6:38

I am using <script src="https://polyfill.io/v3/polyfill.min.js?features=es6"></script>

<script type="text/javascript" id="MathJax-script" async

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src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/mathjax@3/es5/tex-chtml.js"> </script> – alhelal Aug 4,
2022 at 7:06

Is there a way to combine the horizontal and vertical lines in a single matrix to show the partitions of a
matrix? – Hosein Rahnama Mar 31, 2023 at 19:31

for a reflected version of \ddots that run from SW to NE this answer on mathematics meta works:
\newcommand\iddots{\mathinner{ \kern1mu\raise1pt{.} \kern2mu\raise4pt{.}
\kern2mu\raise7pt{\Rule{0pt}{7pt}{0pt}.} \kern1mu }} – Manfred Weis Nov 4, 2024 at 10:25

Symbols
In general, you have to search in long tables about a specific symbol you're looking for, things like
343
, , , ≥ , ⊆ ... And it turns out that this operation can be frustrating and time consuming,
Ψ δ ζ

which can cause the buddy to abandon writing the complete L TEX sentence in his answer, or in
A

some cases, the complete answer itself.

That's why the tool that I will present you in this post was conceived. Basically, it is a L TEX A

handwritten symbol recognition. Example in image:

Here is the website: Detexify² No more frustration.

Share Follow answered Oct 14, 2013 at 20:15 community wiki

user93957

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6 How to implement usepackage ? I'd like to have \iddots from package mathdots available.
– Gottfried Helms Jun 15, 2016 at 11:05

1 @GottfriedHelms see this question - I think the answer is "you can't do that"... – Floris Jun 27, 2017 at
22:40

@Floris: thanks, that is indeed the informative answer! – Gottfried Helms Jun 28, 2017 at 0:35

1 It recognized my horrible drawing with a finger on my notebook's mousepad! Unfortunately the symbol it
recognized (mapsfrom) isn't part of MathJax – Manfred Weis Oct 24, 2019 at 5:55

Aligned equations
318 Often people want a series of equations where the equals signs are aligned. To get this, use
\begin{align}…\end{align} . Each line should end with \\ , and should contain an ampersand at
the point to align at, typically immediately before the equals sign.

For example,
−−−−−−−
2
−− 73 − 1
√37 = √
2
12
−−−−−−−−−−−
2 2
73 73 − 1
= √ ⋅
2 2
12 73
−
− −
− −−−−−−−
2 2
73 73 − 1
= √ √
2 2
12 73
−−−−−−−
73 1
= √1 −
2
12 73

73 1
≈ (1 − )
2
12 2 ⋅ 73

is produced by

\begin{align}
\sqrt{37} & = \sqrt{\frac{73^2-1}{12^2}} \\
& = \sqrt{\frac{73^2}{12^2}\cdot\frac{73^2-1}{73^2}} \\
& = \sqrt{\frac{73^2}{12^2}}\sqrt{\frac{73^2-1}{73^2}} \\
& = \frac{73}{12}\sqrt{1 - \frac{1}{73^2}} \\
& \approx \frac{73}{12}\left(1 - \frac{1}{2\cdot73^2}\right)
\end{align}

The usual $$ marks that delimit the display may be omitted here.

Share Follow edited Apr 22, 2015 at 7:36 answered Aug 28, 2012 at 4:28

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MJD
67.6k 9 50 72

7 The AMS's Short Math Guide recommends the align environment over eqnarray in LaTeX. In
MathJax the spacing seems to be the same , but align requires one less ampersand per line. – user856
Aug 28, 2012 at 4:41

3 Thanks. I was not sure whether to discuss that. A detailed argument against eqnarray is in this article.
– MJD Aug 28, 2012 at 4:51

Would you mind if I changed your example to use align then? – user856 Aug 28, 2012 at 5:34

@Rahul: Please go ahead and change anything that seems good to change. This is all CW. – MJD Aug 28,
2012 at 5:44

Also, if you think you have a better example, please use it; I used the first one I found. – MJD Aug 28,
2012 at 5:49

7 Correct me if I'm wrong, but I don't believe the $$ is necessary before and after the \begin{align}. I've
certainly never used it. From experience, the \begin{align} puts you into math-display mode by itself.
– TravisJ Apr 21, 2015 at 12:24

7 I sometimes find that one line of this environment is too close to another, making them uncomfortable to
read. The interline spacing can be adjusted by using input such as \\[1ex] instead of \\ . (And of
course the 1 can be changed to another value such as 1.5 or .7 in order to get enough space but not
too much.) – David K Jan 30, 2016 at 16:29

Note - in Jekyll I had to add an additional `\` to break lines. – baxx May 24, 2016 at 17:45

4 @MJD i put the equation:

\begin{align} f(x)&=\left(x^3\right)+\left(x^3+x^2+x^1\right)+\left(x^3+x^2\right)\\ f'(x)&=\left(\left(3x^2+2x+1

 
but the third & is a problem: according to Mathjax, it does not go there. then when i remove it, it says that
"a missing close brace or unclosed brace" is present. what am i doing wrong? – Alexander Day Apr 26, 2017
at 21:25

6 @AlexanderDay How did you used that boxed quote? What are commands or formats for it? – user379641
May 21, 2017 at 15:53

@AlexanderDay I notice that right after your second &= , you have two instances of \left( in a row, and
‌
3
f (x) = (x ) + (x
3 2
+ x
1
+ x ) + (x
3
​
+ x 2)

one of them is not closed. Removing one of them, I get: ′

f (x) = (3x
2
+ 2x + 1) + (3x
2
+ 2x)

′′
f (x) = (6x + 2)

Is that what you expected? – Dan Henderson Oct 2, 2017 at 13:31

4 @AlwaysConfused the box delimits a MathJax formula with a syntax error. – Dan Henderson Oct 2, 2017
at 13:32

There is a difference between aligned and align environment. Equation above are just one equation
with different representations, rather than multiple aligned equations. I think the correct environment is
aligned . – jdhao Jan 26, 2018 at 1:40

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2 The align* variation does two things differently: left-aligns the equations and omits equation numbers;
the regular align environment centers the equations and puts an equation number on each line, at least
in my version of Jupyter notebooks. – Reb.Cabin Feb 6, 2018 at 19:24

1 pandoc (or the underlying tex2pdf) actually complains if the \begin{align} is preceded by $$ – TKH Apr 18,
2021 at 7:01

Definitions by cases (piecewise functions)

Warning: If you make certain kinds of errors while entering code using this environment, you
267
can easily screw-up live update, and your only recourse is to abandon your edit and refresh the
page. Clearing out the code and re-entering it will not fix things - you will have to refresh the
page. If you are learning how to use this feature it is recommended that you cut-and-paste a
working example from here, and modify it bit-by-bit to the text you want.

Use \begin{cases}…\end{cases} . End each case with a \\ , and use & before parts that should be
aligned.

For example, you get this:

n/2, if n is even
f (n) = {
3n + 1, if n is odd

by writing this:

f(n) =
\begin{cases}
n/2, & \text{if $n$ is even} \\
3n+1, & \text{if $n$ is odd}
\end{cases}

The brace can be moved to the right:

if n is even: n/2
} = f (n)
if n is odd: 3n + 1

by writing this:

\left.
\begin{array}{l}
\text{if $n$ is even:}&n/2\\
\text{if $n$ is odd:}&3n+1
\end{array}
\right\}
=f(n)

To get a larger vertical space between cases we can use \\[2ex] instead of \\ . For example, you
get this:
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n
, if n is even
2
f (n) = {

3n + 1, if n is odd

by writing this:

f(n) =
\begin{cases}
\frac{n}{2}, & \text{if $n$ is even} \\[2ex]
3n+1, & \text{if $n$ is odd}
\end{cases}

(An ‘ex’ is a length equal to the height of the letter x ; 2ex here means the space should be two
exes high.)

Share Follow edited Jan 11, 2024 at 4:27 answered Aug 28, 2012 at 4:34
JonathanZ MJD
12.7k 1 19 33 67.6k 9 50 72

@MJD Do we have to use the additional instruction \displaystyle when the formulas displayed are
more complex ? – jibe Jul 1, 2014 at 14:43

4 @jibs \displaystyle is enabled automatically in displays, for example between $$…$$ . You should not
ever have to use it. – MJD Jul 1, 2014 at 14:50

@jibe In general, the separate cases in this notation should be in text style unless they are very very
complex (and then, the { notation is just wrong anyways). – yo' Aug 25, 2014 at 9:53

can this be written with ascii math instead of latex @MJD – wrufesh May 24, 2018 at 7:35

What an absurd function to use as an example. Nobody would ever consider such a function. – Robert Frost
Oct 30, 2018 at 21:56

Arrays
It is often easier to read tables formatted in MathJax rather than plain text or a fixed width font.
180
Arrays and tables are created with the array environment. Just after \begin{array} the format
of each column should be listed, use c for a center aligned column, r for right aligned, l for
left aligned and a | for a vertical line. Just as with matrices, cells are separated with & and rows
are broken using \\ . A horizontal line spanning the array can be placed before the current line
with \hline .

For example,

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n Left Center Right

1 0.24 1 125

2 −1 189 −8

3 −20 2000 1 + 10i

$$
\begin{array}{c|lcr}
n & \text{Left} & \text{Center} & \text{Right} \\
\hline
1 & 0.24 & 1 & 125 \\
2 & -1 & 189 & -8 \\
3 & -20 & 2000 & 1+10i
\end{array}
$$

Arrays can be nested to make an array of tables.

For example,

min 0 1 2 3 max 0 1 2 3

0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 2 3

1 0 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3

2 0 1 2 2 2 2 2 2 3

3 0 1 2 3 3 3 3 3 3

Δ 0 1 2 3

0 0 1 2 3

1 1 0 1 2

2 2 1 0 1

3 3 2 1 0

As the source for the preceding array is long, please right-click on one of the tables and choose
Show Math As ▶ TeX Commands .

Share Follow edited Aug 28, 2014 at 5:17 community wiki

8 revs, 6 users 47%
robjohn

16 You'll have to wrap the contents of each cell in \text if you don't want
allitalics, weird − lookingspacing, an oddapostrophes. – user856 Aug 29, 2012 at 21:30
′

@RahulNarain: True. I used words just for illustration, but I guess the example was slightly misleading. If
you'd like to modify it please go ahead. – axblount Aug 29, 2012 at 22:00

2 Thanks! I like your numeric example better, since the widths of the entries are different enough that the
alignment differences are visually clear. – MJD Aug 30, 2012 at 1:37

@robjohn how do you use | while typing , i don't find it in my keyboard...... – ABC Mar 28, 2013 at 12:05

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@exploringnet: on my keyboard, it is the shifted backslash. It may be in different places (or absent)
depending on your keyboard. On my mobile device (iPhone), it is in the shifted numerics, to the right of
the backslash. In mathmode, \vert gives | and \mid gives ∣ , but neither works in the column spec for
an array. If you cannot type it on your keyboard, you can alwaays copy and paste it from another
document. – robjohn Mod Mar 28, 2013 at 17:39

It should perhaps be mentioned, that in nested arrays there seems to be no option to synchronize column-
widths and/or row-heights over the top-level. I didn't find a solution such that if two arrays are stacked
vertically one could make their column-widths matching/fit. – Gottfried Helms Aug 26, 2013 at 9:16

5 This could also be convenient for some people, althought it destroys the joy of writing tables in L TEX by A

hand! – nullgeppetto Jun 3, 2014 at 14:18

@Rahul: why did regulars not press developers to enhance HTML formatting instead of doing
inconvenient and resource-devouring detours through MathJax? When a table contains (mostly) formulæ,
the use of a formula-formatting engine looks determined. But when one wants just a table, why should it
run software with completely different purpose? I once tried to speak about it at meta.SE, but was gagged.
– Incnis Mrsi Dec 3, 2014 at 12:11

@IncnisMrsi What kind of pressure could we apply: bribery, threats, kidnapping? A feature request was
made, supported by SE communities, and declined by SE (on technical grounds, as they say). At least we
have the MathJax workaround, with all of its flaws: SO and others have nothing. – user147263 Dec 3, 2014
at 15:55

9 Center Aligned Table Captions with Left Aligned Contents

Bad Better

π iπ
i iπ/2
e 2 e 2 e
π
π/2
∫
2
π
sin x dx ∫ sin x dx
− −π/2
2

– GNUSupporter 8964民主女神 地下教會 Dec 12, 2016 at 16:41

P.S. Table copied from MJD's example below so as to make an example with cells much wider than the
caption. – GNUSupporter 8964民主女神 地下教會 Dec 12, 2016 at 16:47

@MJD Is there any command for a vertical line, like \hline ? The {cc|c} part in the array code is
confusing. – Тyma Gaidash May 14, 2022 at 16:50

There is the \rm command instead of the entire code in \text – Тyma Gaidash Apr 23, 2023 at 12:06

Fussy spacing issues

These are issues that won't affect the correctness of formulas, but might make them look
169
significantly better or worse. Beginners should feel free to ignore this advice; someone else will
correct it for them, or more likely nobody will care.

Don't use \frac in exponents or limits of integrals; it looks bad and can be confusing, which is
why it is rarely done in professional mathematical typesetting. Write the fraction horizontally,
with a slash:

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Bad Better

π iπ
i iπ/2
e 2 e 2 e
π
π/2
2
∫ π sin x dx ∫ sin x dx
− −π/2
2

The | symbol has the wrong spacing when it is used as a divider, for example in set
comprehensions. Use \mid instead:

Bad Better

2 2
{x|x ∈ Z} {x ∣ x ∈ Z}

When using stretchable delimiters (i.e. with \left and \right ), it may be preferable to use
\,\middle|\, . This produces a stretchable vertical bar with a little bit of space around it. Another
alternative is to use a colon instead.

Bad Better

m m ∣
{ ∣ m, n ∈ Z} { m, n ∈ Z}
n n ∣

For double and triple integrals, don't use \int\int or \int\int\int . Instead use the special
forms \iint and \iiint :

Bad Better

∫ ∫ f (x) dy dx ∬ f (x) dy dx
S S

∫ ∫ ∫ f (x) dz dy dx ∭ f (x) dz dy dx
V V

Use \, to insert a thin space before differentials; without this TEX will mash them together:

Bad Better

∭ f (x)dzdydx ∭ f (x) dz dy dx
V V

When using a function (e.g. f , sin, etc) followed by arguments with larger parentheses, insert
negative space before the parentheses using \! :

Bad Better

1 1
f ( ) f( )
x x

When using absolute value, use \lvert ... \rvert instead of a pair of pipes |...| .
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Bad Better

| sin x| |sin x|

Share Follow edited Apr 11, 2024 at 23:02 community wiki

14 revs, 5 users 70%
MJD

4 I think the first adjusted fraction looks better than the original, but I don't like the second. In any case, this
minor spacing imbalance is too peripheral to belong in a basic MathJax tutorial IMO. Too likely to scare
people away rather than make them feel helped. – hmakholm left over Monica Aug 31, 2012 at 21:05

3 @Henning Do you mean that the fraction example is too unimportant even to appear in an addendum on
fussy spacing, or that the fussy spacing article is too unimportant to appear as an addendum to the
tutorial? – MJD Aug 31, 2012 at 23:57

2 I was talking specifically about the fraction example. Mostly I'm concerned that somebody will come away
thinking, Eeek! Do I have to worry about THAT to use the site? But it's also arguable that the disclaimer at
the top of the answer ought to take care of that. – hmakholm left over Monica Sep 1, 2012 at 21:13

2 @MJD I like the less space, but what if we want to list the bounds for multiple integrals? Like if we have
say 3 integrals and we have 3 separate bounds for each how would we list each one? Or do we have to do
\int_bound1^bound2\int_bound3^bound4\int_bound5^bound6?? – TheHopefulActuary Nov 19, 2012 at
19:45

2 @Kyle I think that's exactly what you do in that case. – MJD Nov 19, 2012 at 20:09

33 Worth nothing you can use \middle with | to get it to work with \left and \right , like \left\
– asmeurer Jun 9, 2013 at 22:49
2

{x\middle | \frac{x^2}{2} \in \mathbb{z}\right\} : {x∣∣ x

2
∈ z}

1 Thanks very much! I wanted to do that, but didn't know how. – MJD Jun 10, 2013 at 15:47

@asmeurer Don't forget the spacing around the bar. – user76284 Apr 26, 2018 at 19:30

2 It seems \middle \mid doesn't work. What is the correct way to get the right spacing with automatic
vertical resizing? – asmeurer Apr 26, 2018 at 20:05

In the case of base e powers I would recommend using exp(iπ/2) which is, in my opinion, even better
than what's suggested in this post. – mechanicious Jun 9, 2018 at 23:08

@asmeurer I always use \left\{\, ... \,\middle|\, ... \,\right\} like in { x

2

∈ R
∣
∣
x

2
.
∈ Z}

– Christoph Dec 17, 2018 at 21:14

I've been using \; and \: along with \, , and I think they have different spacing, so it's pretty versatile
but can get you stuck on formatting an answer for ages because you were trying to get the spaces to match
on the scale of pixels :\ – sreysus Sep 29, 2023 at 1:09

Crossing things out

146
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Use \require{cancel} in the first formula in your post that requires cancelling; you need it only
once per page. Then use:

y+\cancel{x} y + x

\cancel{y+x} y + x

y+\bcancel{x} y + x

y+\xcancel{x} y + x

0
y+\cancelto{0}{x} y + x

1 9
1
\frac{1\cancel9}{\cancel95} = \frac15 =
5
9 5

Use \require{enclose} for the following:

\enclose{horizontalstrike}{x+y} x + y

x
\enclose{verticalstrike}{\frac xy}
y

\enclose{updiagonalstrike}{x+y} x + y

\enclose{downdiagonalstrike}{x+y} x + y

\enclose{horizontalstrike,updiagonalstrike}{x+y} x + y

\enclose can also produce enclosing boxes, circles, and other notations; see MathML menclose
documentation for a complete list.

It is worth noting that MathJax should not be used for formatting non-mathematical text. The
preferred way for striking out text is to use the HTML strikethrough tag, <s>[text to be
striken]</s> , which renders as [text to be striken].

Share Follow edited Sep 19, 2022 at 18:06 community wiki

5 revs, 2 users 97%
MJD

25 Can I use \enclose{counterstrike} ? :P – Akiva Weinberger Jul 27, 2015 at 19:19

63 That sneaky 19/95 = 1/5 . Nice one! – Darth Geek Dec 8, 2015 at 23:57

29 2
x
2+x

x
x +4

I see you can further resolve existing resolutions, 0 – alan2here May 1, 2016 at 2:40

2 Is enclose a L TEX package, or only a MathML option? – Tim Thayer Nov 4, 2016 at 18:51
A

3 Here is a related post on meta: Striking out equations. – Martin Sleziak Mar 20, 2019 at 3:15

Nice command to make an arrow: \cancelto{}{} – user803596 Jul 21, 2020 at 11:32

In fact, strikethrough markup should be avoided even in text as far as possible, in the interest of
accessibility: they are not picked up by screen readers (see veroniiiica.com/2020/05/29/…). CC
@XanderHenderson – The Amplitwist Sep 19, 2022 at 22:13

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Commutative diagrams
(For more examples, see this meta question.)
134
AMScd diagrams must start with a "require":

$\require{AMScd}$
\begin{CD}
A @>a>> B\\
@V b V V= @VV c V\\
C @>>d> D
\end{CD}

to get this diagram:

a

A −−−−−→ B

⏐ ⏐
b⏐ = ⏐c
↓ ↓

C −−−−−→ D
d

@>>> is used for arrow right

@<<< is used for arrow left

@VVV is used for arrow down

@AAA is used for arrow up

@= is used for horizontal double line

@| is used for vertical double line

@. is used for no arrow

Another example:

\begin{CD}
A @>>> B @>{\text{very long label}}>> C \\
@. @AAA @| \\
D @= E @<<< F
\end{CD}

very long label

A −−−−−→ B −−−−−−−−→ C

↑ ∥
⏐
⏐ ∥

D ====== E ←−−−−−−−− F

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Long labels increase the length of the arrow and in this version also automatically increase
corresponding arrows.

$\require{AMScd}$
\begin{CD}
RCOHR'SO_3Na @>{\text{Hydrolysis,$\Delta, Dil.HCl$}}>> (RCOR')+NaCl+SO_2+ H_2O
\end{CD}

Hydrolysis, Δ, Dil. HCl

RCOHR'SO3 Na −−−−−−−−−−−−−→ (RCOR')+NaCl+SO2 + H2 O

Share Follow edited Jul 30, 2022 at 0:39 community wiki

11 revs, 6 users 67%
Lehs

\begin{CD} RCOHR'SO_3Na @>{\text{Hydrolysis,\Delta, Dil.HCl}>> (RCOR')+NaCl+SO_2+ H_2O

\end{CD} Why does this code not give the correct output? – Quark Feb 4, 2016 at 10:04

@Quark: The main error was a missing bracket after HCl. – Lehs Feb 4, 2016 at 11:38

@Lehs Thanks. That was a silly mistake :| What if I wanted to write something below the arrow? Also,
could you suggest some online website to learn MathJax? – Quark Feb 4, 2016 at 11:58

@Quark: then you move a > sign: @>>{\text{very long label}}> I learn MathJax from the examples i.e. in
this tread. – Lehs Feb 4, 2016 at 15:06

@Lehs Why did you rollback my edit...? You removed the formatting from the list, broke again (in Chrome)
the example diagram, and reinserted your duplicate example. Why? – Najib Idrissi Feb 4, 2016 at 15:25

@NajibIdrissi: because your edit appeared as a mess in IE. The diagram wasn't even written out. Maybe
there is something wrong in your or in my web-program. Now it looks good in IE. – Lehs Feb 4, 2016 at
15:44

@NajibIdrissi: Now it also looks good in Chrome for Windows and for Android, plus Safari for Androids. I
don't know what the problem is with the current version. – Lehs Feb 4, 2016 at 15:56

3 I realize this thread is quite old, but what about diagonal arrows? – A. Thomas Yerger Mar 23, 2017 at 5:01

2 @AlfredYerger: there are no such possibilities in AMScd. – Lehs Sep 28, 2017 at 3:57

3 @AlfredYerger Maybe presheaf can help there? See also answer and suggestions about this here: How to
draw a commutative diagram? – Martin Sleziak Nov 6, 2017 at 11:44

how to draw a double arrow pointing both directions to the left as well as to the right between two points in
commutative diagram? – Uncool Mar 17, 2021 at 13:43

How does one draw a curved arrow like in quiver? – Тyma Gaidash Aug 27, 2022 at 14:42

Additional decorations

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134 ¯¯¯
\overline : A AA
¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯ ¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
AAA

\underline : B BB BBB
–– –––– –––––

\widetilde : C̃ ˜
C
˜
C CCC

\widehat : ˆ
ˆ DDD
D̂ DD

\fbox : E EE EEE

abc

\underleftarrow : F FF FFF variant: \xleftarrow{} : ←−

−
←← −
−← −−−

abc

\underrightarrow : G GG GGG variant: \xrightarrow{} : −

−→
→ −
−→ −−−→

\underleftrightarrow : H HH HHH
↔←−→ ←−−→

−
−→ −−−−→ −−−−−−−→
\overrightarrow AB ABAB ABABAB

 

\overbrace : (n − 2) + (n − 1) + (n + 0) + (n + 1) + (n + 2)

\underbrace : (n − 2) + (n − 1) + (n + 0) + (n + 1) + (n + 2)
 

\underbrace : underbraces can be nested, like this:

(n − 2) + (n − 1) + (n + 0) +(n + 1) +(n + 2)


 

\overbrace and \underbrace accept a superscript or a subscript, respectively, to annotate the

brace. For example, \underbrace{a\cdot a\cdots a}_{b\text{ times}} is

a ⋅ a⋯a

b times

Note: \varliminf : lim and \varlimsup :lim have special symbol of their own.
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯

–––

Single character accents

\check : Iˇ

\acute : J´

\grave : K
`

→
\vec : u ⃗ AB (c.f. \overrightarrow above)

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\bar : z̄

\hat : x
^

~
\tilde : x

...
\dot \ddot \dddot : ẋ , ẍ , x

\mathring : A
˚

General stacking
If you cannot find your symbol remember that you can stack various symbols using

@ 2 ∙∘∘∙
x

\overset{above}{level} : ABC ⟼ T

\underset{below}{level} : ABC ⟼ T
@ 2 ∙∘∘∙
x

You can use these together too. You can type X → Y with X\overset{a}{\underset{b}{\to}}Y .
b

Arc over points

⌢
\overset{ \huge\frown}{PQ} : P Q denotes the arc over points P and Q (As per comment of
@Calvin Khor to @Paul Sinclair's question)

Share Follow edited Mar 11, 2023 at 15:38 community wiki

12 revs, 8 users 55%
Américo Tavares

Instead of using $\fbox$ , you could also use $\boxed{...}$ – Mr Pie Oct 19, 2017 at 21:23

2 added arrows with text variants, some new single char accents and general stacking section. – zwim Oct 27,
2017 at 1:42

5 stackrel also seems to work well, as in \stackrel{\text{def}}{=} ⟶=

def
– Reb.Cabin Feb 6, 2018 at
16:48

Is there a way to do arcs over points, such as to indicate the arc of a curve between two points P and Q?
\widearc {PQ} doesn't seem to work. – Paul Sinclair Jul 29, 2019 at 21:41

⌢ PQ kind of. – user645636 Sep 13, 2019 at 21:36

1
⌢

The best I've been able to come up with is \overset{\frown}{PQ} : P Q. But since \frown doesn't
adjust in size, it doesn't look right. Does anyone know how get a properly sized arc? – Paul Sinclair Sep 20,
2019 at 23:47

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2 @PaulSinclair I offer the following \overset{\frown}{AB}\overset{ \large\frown}

{CD}\overset{\Large\frown}{EF}\overset{ \huge\frown}{GH}\overset{\Huge\frown}{ABC}
⌢ ⌢ ⌢ ⌢ ⌢
AB C DEF GH ABC – Calvin Khor Sep 22, 2019 at 7:11

System of equations
Use \begin{array}…\end{array} and \left\{…\right. . For example, you get this:
127
⎧ a1 x + b1 y + c1 z = d 1
⎪

⎨ a2 x + b2 y + c2 z = d 2
⎩
⎪
a3 x + b3 y + c3 z = d 3

by writing this:

$$
\left\{
\begin{array}{c}
a_1x+b_1y+c_1z=d_1 \\
a_2x+b_2y+c_2z=d_2 \\
a_3x+b_3y+c_3z=d_3
\end{array}
\right.
$$

Alternatively we can use \begin{cases}…\end{cases} . The same system

⎧ a1 x + b1 y + c1 z = d 1

⎨ a2 x + b2 y + c2 z = d 2
⎩
a3 x + b3 y + c3 z = d 3

is produced by the following code

$$\begin{cases}
a_1x+b_1y+c_1z=d_1 \\
a_2x+b_2y+c_2z=d_2 \\
a_3x+b_3y+c_3z=d_3
\end{cases}
$$

To align the = signs use \begin{aligned}...\end{aligned} and \left\{…\right. (see

asmeurer's comment)

⎧ a1 x + b1 y + c1 z = d 1 + e 1

⎨ a2 x + b2 y = d 2
⎩
a3 x + b3 y + c3 z = d 3

whose code is

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$$
\left\{
\begin{aligned}
a_1x+b_1y+c_1z &=d_1+e_1 \\
a_2x+b_2y&=d_2 \\
a_3x+b_3y+c_3z &=d_3
\end{aligned}
\right.
$$

To align the = signs and the terms as in

⎧ a x + b1 y + c1 z = d 1 + e1
⎪ 1

⎨ a2 x + b2 y = d2
⎩
⎪
a3 x + b3 y + c3 z = d3

use array with l (for "align left"; there are also c and r ) parameters

$$
\left\{
\begin{array}{ll}
a_1x+b_1y+c_1z &=d_1+e_1 \\
a_2x+b_2y &=d_2 \\
a_3x+b_3y+c_3z &=d_3
\end{array}
\right.
$$

Vertical space between equations. As explained in Definition by cases to get a larger vertical
space between equations we can use \\[2ex] instead of \\ . The system
p
1
⎧ a1 x + b1 y + c1 z =
⎪
⎪
⎪
q
1
⎪
⎪
⎪
p
2
⎨ a2 x + b2 y + c2 z =
q2
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩
⎪
p
3
a3 x + b3 y + c3 z =
q
3

is generated by the following code

$$\begin{cases}
a_1x+b_1y+c_1z=d_1 \\[2ex]
a_2x+b_2y+c_2z=d_2 \\[2ex]
a_3x+b_3y+c_3z=d_3
\end{cases}
$$

in comparison with

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p
1
⎧ a1 x + b1 y + c1 z =
⎪
⎪ q
1
p
2
⎨ a2 x + b2 y + c2 z =
q
2
⎪
⎩ p
⎪ 3
a3 x + b3 y + c3 z =
q
3

whose code is

$$\begin{cases}
a_1x+b_1y+c_1z=\frac{p_1}{q_1} \\
a_2x+b_2y+c_2z=\frac{p_2}{q_2} \\
a_3x+b_3y+c_3z=\frac{p_3}{q_3}
\end{cases}
$$

In response to elect's comment. The following code

$$ \left\{ \begin{array}{l}
0 = c_x-a_{x0}-d_{x0}\dfrac{(c_x-a_{x0})\cdot d_{x0}}{\|d_{x0}\|^2} + c_x-a_{x1}-
d_{x1}\dfrac{(c_x-a_{x1})\cdot d_{x1}}{\|d_{x1}\|^2} \\[2ex]
0 = c_y-a_{y0}-d_{y0}\dfrac{(c_y-a_{y0})\cdot d_{y0}}{\|d_{y0}\|^2} + c_y-a_{y1}-
d_{y1}\dfrac{(c_y-a_{y1})\cdot d_{y1}}{\|d_{y1}\|^2} \end{array} \right.
$$

produces

⎧ (cx − ax0 ) ⋅ d x0 (cx − ax1 ) ⋅ d x1

⎪
⎪ 0 = cx − ax0 − d x0
⎪ + cx − ax1 − d x1
⎪ ∥d x0 ∥
2
∥d x1 ∥
2
⎪

⎨
⎪ (cy − ay0 ) ⋅ d y0 (cy − ay1 ) ⋅ d y1
⎪
⎪
⎪
⎩ 0 = cy − ay0 − d y0
⎪ + cy − ay1 − d y1
2 2
∥d y0 ∥ ∥d y1 ∥

Share Follow edited Mar 16, 2017 at 16:37 community wiki

11 revs, 2 users 93%
Américo Tavares

6 Is it possible to rotate text? To have a vertical word written in front of the large curly bracket that spans
over all the equations? – Steeven Jul 3, 2017 at 14:21

4 @Steeven Go here ⟶ math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/27798/… – Mr Pie Feb 1, 2018 at 4:32

1 Thank you, @user477343. This would be a useful feature on this list. – Steeven Feb 1, 2018 at 14:38

Colors
Named colors are browser-dependent; if a browser doesn't know a particular color name, it may
125
render the text as black. The following colors are standard in HTML4 and CSS2 and should be

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interpreted the same by most browsers:

\color{black}{text} text

\color{gray}{text} text

\color{silver}{text} text

\color{white}{text} text

\color{maroon}{text} text

\color{red}{text} text

\color{yellow}{text} text

\color{lime}{text} text

\color{olive}{text} text

\color{green}{text} text

\color{teal}{text} text

\color{aqua}{text} text

\color{blue}{text} text

\color{navy}{text} text

\color{purple}{text} text

\color{fuchsia}{text} text

HTML5 and CSS 3 define an additional 124 color names that will be supported on many
browsers.

Math Stack Exchange's default style uses a light-colored page background, so avoid using light
colors for text. Stick to darker colors like maroon, green, blue, and purple, and remember also
that 7–10% of men are color-blind and have difficulty distinguishing red and green. (Some
people have difficulty distinguishing other colors too, so don't rely on colors saying "the blue
part" over and over again.)

The color may also have the form #rgb where r, g, b are in the range or 0 – 9 , a – f and
represent the intensity of red, green, and blue on a scale of 0– 15, with a =10, b =11, … f =15.
For example:

#000 text #00F text

#0F0 text #0FF text

#F00 text #F0F text

#FF0 text #FFF text

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#000 text #005 text #00A text #00F text

#500 text #505 text #50A text #50F text

#A00 text #A05 text #A0A text #A0F text

#F00 text #F05 text #F0A text #F0F text

#080 text #085 text #08A text #08F text

#580 text #585 text #58A text #58F text

#A80 text #A85 text #A8A text #A8F text

#F80 text #F85 text #F8A text #F8F text

#0F0 text #0F5 text #0FA text #0FF text

#5F0 text #5F5 text #5FA text #5FF text

#AF0 text #AF5 text #AFA text #AFF text

#FF0 text #FF5 text #FFA text #FFF text

You can have a look here for quick reference on colors in HTML.

Share Follow edited Jan 31, 2023 at 12:57 community wiki

7 revs, 4 users 69%
MJD

12 We should add that colors can be used on items other than text, such as variables and operators. The
'\color' command applies to the next item: surround anything longer with braces. – Rory Daulton Feb 21,
2015 at 20:30

1 One can in fact use any CSS-compatible colour specification here, including rgb , rgba , hsl , and
hsla colours. (I'd edit the answer, but have no time now. Maybe later, if nobody else beats me to it.)
– Harald Hanche-Olsen Oct 11, 2018 at 14:31

Can colors be used on striking out text and equations. If so, how? – ThankYouForFlyingRyanair Feb 26 at
5:50

Tags & References

106 For longer calculations (or referring to other post's results) it is convenient to use the
tagging/labelling/referencing system. To tag an equation use \tag{yourtag} , and if you want to
refer to that tag later on, add \label{somelabel} right after the \tag . It is not necessary that
yourtag and somelabel are the same, but it usually is more convenient to do so:

$$ a := x^2-y^3 \tag{*}\label{*} $$

2 3
a := x − y (*)

In order to refer to an equation, just use \eqref{somelabel}

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$$ a+y^3 \stackrel{\eqref{*}}= x^2 $$

(*)
3 2
a + y = x

or \ref{somelabel}

Equations are usually referred to as $\eqref{*}$, but you can also use $\ref{*}$.

Equations are usually referred to as (*), but you can also use *.

As you can see, references are even turned into hyperlinks, which you can use externally as well,
e.g. like this. Note that you can also reference labels in other posts as long as they appear on the
same site, which is especially useful when referring to a question with multiple equations, or
when commenting on a post.

Due to a bug blocks containing a \label will break in preview, as a workaround you can put
$\def\label#1{}$ in your post while editing and remove that on submission - unfortunately this
means you won't spot misspelled references before submitting... Just don't forget to remove
that \def again

Share Follow edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:22 community wiki

3 revs
Tobias Kienzler

12 Also works in comments: \eqref{*} yields a clickable (*) – Tobias Kienzler Oct 31, 2013 at 10:22

To enable automatically tagging your queations with incremental numbers, add <script type="text/x-
mathjax-config"> MathJax.Hub.Config({TeX: { equationNumbers: {autoNumber: "all"} }}); </script> to
your header. – Gerald Senarclens de Grancy Jan 20, 2016 at 20:56

@GeraldSenarclensdeGrancy That would however yield a global numbering on all answers to one
question, not per-answer. And it would break the current expectation of by default not having tags despite
using unstarred \begin{align} etc.... Though personally I'd agree with this – Tobias Kienzler Jan 21,
2016 at 7:19

6 I'm just curious, is there a way to have the tags on the left side of the equation? Something like

(1) ∑k

But the (1) tag is all the way to the left. – Crescendo Aug 26, 2017 at 16:46

How do we write a tag without brackets (because I want to tag a little square as a box of accomplishment)?
– Mr Pie Dec 12, 2017 at 1:20

@user477343 No idea, you could ask at tex.stackexchange.com or see if the manual of amsmath has
something... – Tobias Kienzler Dec 12, 2017 at 9:30

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@Crescendo You could ask on tex.stackexchange.com for a solution. A workaround could be

\begin{array}{lc} or similar. – Tobias Kienzler Dec 12, 2017 at 9:31

3 Hey, I figured how to tag without brackets. You simply put what is inside the braces: {\tag*{…}} which I
learnt from here ⟶ math.meta.stackexchange.com/questions/27731/… – Mr Pie Jan 28, 2018 at 0:42

How do I add several tags analogously to empheq? e.g.

2x1 + 3x2 = 8 (1a)

{
7x1 + 9x2 = −13 (1b)

– Dmitrii Demenev Jul 19, 2022 at 13:22

I can't make \tag{*}\label{*} work—when I use it, the equation is never rendered into an image and
in the code that is displayed in place of the image this show up as "\tag{}\label{}". \tag{1}\label{1} on
the other hand does work. – HelloGoodbye Mar 2, 2023 at 16:53

Continued fractions
To make a continued fraction, use \cfrac , which works just like \frac but typesets the results
104
differently:

2
1
x = a0 +
2
2
a1 +
2
3
a2 +
4
4
a3 +
a4 + ⋯

Don't use regular \frac or \over , or it will look awful:

2
1
x = a0 +
2
2
a1 +
32
a2 +
44
a +
3
a +⋯
4

You can of course use \frac for the compact notation:

2 2 2 4
1 2 3 4
x = a0 + ⋯
a1 + a2 + a3 + a4 +

Continued fractions are too big to put inline. Display them with $$ … $$ or use a notation like
[a ; a , a , a , …] .
0 1 2 3

Share Follow answered Aug 31, 2012 at 19:46 community wiki

MJD

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4 The RHS of the following continued fraction

a1 a1 a2 a3
=
a2 b1 + b2 + b3 + …
b1 +
a3
b2 +

b3 + ⋱

can be typeset with the \genfrac command '{\genfrac{}{}{}{}{a_1}{b_1}} {\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{}{+}}

{\genfrac{}{}{}{}{a_2}{b_2}} {\genfrac{}{}{0pt}{}{}{+}} {\genfrac{}{}{}{}{a_3}{b_3}} {\genfrac{}{}
{0pt}{}{}{+\dots}}' – Américo Tavares Sep 17, 2012 at 20:39

I wonder if something like would be good enough? It is much simpler.

1 3

2 + 4

( \frac12{\vphantom{1}\atop+}\frac34 ) – MJD Sep 17, 2012 at 22:30

2 Yes, it is. I didn't mention it because in User’s Guide for the amsmath Package it is written the following:
"Note. For technical reasons, using the primitive fraction commands \over, \atop, \above in a LATEX
document is not recommended (see, e.g., amsmath.faq)." – Américo Tavares Sep 17, 2012 at 22:44

5 Happily, we are not writing L TEX documents here. – MJD Sep 17, 2012 at 22:44
A

12 Or write \underset{j=1}{\overset{\infty}{\LARGE\mathrm K}}\frac{a_j}{b_j}=\cfrac{a_1}

{b_1+\cfrac{a_2}{b_2+\cfrac{a_3}{b_3+\ddots}}} to get
∞
aj a1
K = .
j=1 bj a2
b1 +
a3
b2 +

b3 + ⋱

– Américo Tavares Jan 24, 2013 at 9:15

11 @AméricoTavares Or use \mathop instead of \overset and \underset : \mathop{\LARGE\mathrm

K}_{i=1}^\infty \frac{a_i}{b_i}
∞
ai
K
i=1 bi

– AlexR Feb 21, 2015 at 20:48

@AméricoTavares, Why don't you edit the answer and put this extremely helpful command into there, I
think that would be more helpful. – user249332 Jan 24, 2016 at 15:44

Using \newcommand

97 I would like to remark that it is possible to define LaTeX commands as you do in your TeX files. I
felt so happy when I first discovered it! It's enough to insert something like

$ \newcommand{\SES}[3]{ 0 \to #1 \to #2 \to #3 \to 0 } $

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at the top of your post (remember the dollars!). Then you can just use your commands as you are
used to do: in my example typing $$ \SES{A}{B}{C} $$ will produce the following:

0 → A → B → C → 0

It's also possible to use plain \def :

\def\ses#1#2#3{0 \to #1 \to #2 \to #3 \to 0}

and then $\ses{A}{B}{C}$ will produce the same output.

Share Follow edited Feb 12, 2015 at 12:43 community wiki

3 revs, 3 users 67%
Abramo

12 Be aware that this affects the entire post, possibly even the frontpage, so it should be used with great care.
– AlexR Feb 21, 2015 at 20:55

2 \SES123 – ericw31415 May 7, 2018 at 22:03

7 @AlexR It's been fixed since. – iBug Apr 10, 2019 at 3:40

This unfortunately doesn't work in stackedit.io which I sometimes use to compose and edit longer
stackexchange posts. Anyone aware of possible workarounds or alternatives? – joseville Jan 7, 2022 at
18:19

Why does this not work with \def? – Тyma Gaidash Apr 23, 2023 at 12:19

\implies ( ⟹ ) is a marginally preferable alternative to \Rightarrow (⇒ ) for implication.

There's also \iff and \impliedby .

88
⟺ ⟸

\to (→ ) is preferable to \rightarrow or \longrightarrow for things like f : A → B . The reverse

is \gets (← ).

Share Follow edited Apr 13, 2017 at 12:34 community wiki

4 revs, 3 users 71%
leonbloy

6 Why is it preferable? – MJD Jul 9, 2013 at 20:00

19 implies looks nicer as the arrow is longer and \to is quicker to right (and it's also what you say in your head
while typing it). at least that's what I think. – John Salvatierrez Jul 29, 2013 at 13:21

4 Remember the difference between \to and \mapsto as in T : R → R, x ↦ x + 1 produced by

T:\mathbb R\to \mathbb R,\; x\mapsto x+1 – yo' Aug 25, 2014 at 9:57

9 I prefer using \to when it appears as part of a larger propositional formula, rather than at the top level,
i.e. p ∧ ((q ∨ r) → s), because the spacing is similar to that of other binary operators. \implies is better

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for sentence- or clause-level implications, or in displays, i.e.

x + 2 = 4 − x ⟹ x = 1.

– Mario Carneiro Feb 2, 2015 at 14:22

I have always used \Longleftarrow for \impliedby. It generates the same thing anyway, for which the
former generates ⟸ and the latter generates ⟸ with \Leftarrow ⇐ as an alternate for reverse
implication. – Mr Pie Jan 16, 2018 at 6:47

@yo' instead of \mathbb you could also use \Bbb as a matter of fact :) – Mr Pie Jan 16, 2018 at 6:53

Is there a way to add some text above impllies? Such as "by (1)" to refer to another equation that is used for
substitution and similar cases. – Alexandros Dec 27, 2019 at 22:02

2 @Alexandros yes \overset{3.1415}{\underset{26535}{\implies}} produces

3.1415
⟹
26535

– user645636 Feb 8, 2020 at 12:12

Big braces
82 Use \left and \right to make braces - (round), [square] and {curly} - scale up to be the size of
their arguments. Thus

$$
f\left(
\left[
\frac{
1+\left\{x,y\right\}
}{
\left(
\frac{x}{y}+\frac{y}{x}
\right)
\left(u+1\right)
}+a
\right]^{3/2}
\right)
$$

renders as

3/2
⎛⎡ ⎤ ⎞
1 + {x, y}
f ⎜⎢ + a⎥ ⎟ .
⎜ ⎟
x y
⎣( + ) (u + 1) ⎦
⎝ y x ⎠

Note that curly braces need to be escaped as \{ \} .

If you start a big brace with \left and then need to match that to a \right brace that's on a
different line, use the forms \right. and \left. to make "shadow" braces. Thus,
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$$
\begin{aligned}
a=&\left(1+2+3+ \cdots \right. \\
& \cdots+ \left. \infty-2+\infty-1+\infty\right)
\end{aligned}
$$

renders as

a =(1 + 2 + 3 + ⋯

⋯ + ∞ − 2 + ∞ − 1 + ∞) .

There is also a \middle construct which is useful when one has a mid-expression brace which
must also scale up:

$$
\left\langle
q
\middle\|
\frac{\frac{x}{y}}{\frac{u}{v}}
\middle|
p
\right\rangle
$$

renders as
x
∥ ∣
y
⟨q∥ ∣ p⟩ .
u
∥ v ∣

Note that constructs like \left\langle , \left| and \left\| are also possible.

Alternatively there also exists the \big hierarchy whose pairing is not mandatory, you can type
\big(\frac 1x\big) (
1

x
)

The advantage of left/right is that it dimensions automatically, but has the inconvenient of not
producing consistent results depending of the vertical extension of its inner content, instead the
big hierarchy has fixed size:

\Bigg(\bigg(\Big(\big((x)\big)\Big)\bigg)\Bigg) (((((x)))))

Share Follow edited Jan 21, 2024 at 22:07 community wiki

3 revs, 2 users 94%
E.P.

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5 Note: \Big( ... \Big) produces ( … ) but this bracket size is fixed in all situations unlike \left(
... \right) which varies in size with its contents. \Big can be useful in various situations. – Nick Dec
19, 2014 at 6:34

Added a paragraph about the big hierarchy. – zwim Jan 21, 2024 at 21:59

Limits
2

79 To make a limit (like ), use this syntax:

x −1
lim
x−1
x→1

First, start off with $\lim . This renders as lim. The backslash is there to prevent things like lim,
where the letters are slanted.

Second, add \limits_{x \to 1} inside. The code now looks like $\lim \limits_{x \to 1}$ , and
renders as lim. The \to inside makes the right arrow, rendered as → . The _ makes the x → 1
x→1

go underneath the lim. Finally, the pair of curly braces { } makes sure that x → 1 is treated as
a whole object, and not two separate things.

Lastly, add the function you want to apply the limit to. To make the limit mentioned above,
2

, simply use $\lim\limits_{x \to 1} \frac{x^2-1}{x-1}$ .

x −1
lim
x−1
x→1

And that is how you make a limit using MathJax.

Share Follow edited Jul 17, 2014 at 12:25 community wiki

2 revs, 2 users 94%
JChau

29 Why not just \lim_{x\to 1}

lim?
x→1

As I understand it \limits is only needed for operations that don't already understand limits, for
example if you want to use + and get

k
k
+ instead of +
i=1
i=1

When used inline, your suggestion will produce lim instead of the more compact form lim x→1
that
x→1

mathjax normally chooses. Are you sure this is good advice? – MJD Feb 26, 2014 at 14:10

5 @MJD $\lim_{x\to 1} renders to lim x→1

, and $\lim\limits_{x\to 1 renders as
lim\limits_{x\to 1} . Note how the x → 1 is separated from the first limit, and not directly underneath. We
do not write limits like that in real life, so we use \limits . – Anonymous Computer Feb 26, 2014 at 16:19

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2 I meant that the second limit renders to lim – Anonymous Computer Feb 26, 2014 at 16:28
x→1

10 Limits are usually written that way in typeset materials like papers and books when the limit is inline,
rather than a displayed formula, and that's why MathJax typesets it that way. – MJD Feb 26, 2014 at
16:41

14 The issue with this answer is that it is trying to "force" display mode on inline code. Doing so makes the
text look less pretty. For example, see how the spacing between the lines change when I force display mode
1
using \lim\limits_{x\mapsto 1}\dfrac1x : lim . On the other hand, when I let TEX do what it
x↦1 x

wants to do, using \lim_{x\mapsto 1}\frac1x , the spacing between the lines stays the same, which is
much neater: lim x↦1. This is much easier on the eyes. If you want to make your math mode more
1

prominent then take a new line using $$-$$ – user1729 Jul 17, 2014 at 12:30

9 The moral is: TEX was written by a jolly clever chap. Let it do what it wants, because it does it for a
reason! – user1729 Jul 17, 2014 at 12:35

2 Part 11 of the "question" shows how to write limits in the way they were meant to be written in LaTeX and
MathJax. – David K Nov 14, 2015 at 23:17

Highlighting equation
67 To highlight an equation, \bbox can be used. E.g,

$$ \bbox[yellow]
{
e^x=\lim_{n\to\infty} \left( 1+\frac{x}{n} \right)^n
\qquad (1)
}
$$

produces

n
x
x
e = lim (1 + ) (1)
n→∞ n

By default, the bounding box is "tight", so it doesn't extend beyond the characters used in the
formula. You can add a little space around the equation by adding a measurement after the color.
E.g.,

$$ \bbox[yellow,5px]
{
e^x=\lim_{n\to\infty} \left( 1+\frac{x}{n} \right)^n
\qquad (1)
}
$$

produces

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n
x
x
e = lim (1 + ) (1)
n→∞ n

To add a border, use

$$ \bbox[5px,border:2px solid red]

{
e^x=\lim_{n\to\infty} \left( 1+\frac{x}{n} \right)^n
\qquad (2)
}
$$

produces

n
x
x
e = lim (1 + ) (2)
n→∞ n

You can do both border and background, as well:

$$ \bbox[yellow,5px,border:2px solid red]

{
e^x=\lim_{n\to\infty} \left( 1+\frac{x}{n} \right)^n
\qquad (1)
}
$$

produces

n
x
x
e = lim (1 + ) (1)
n→∞ n

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4 revs, 3 users 53%
webbertiger

3 When using constructs like this, please heed the points raised in this discussion on usage of colour.
– Lord_Farin May 20, 2016 at 15:56

2 This would be a very helpful feature. – user379641 May 19, 2017 at 13:36

Arbitrary operators
67 If an operator is not available as a built-in command, use \operatorname{…} . So for things like

arsinh(x)

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write \operatorname{arsinh}(x) since \arsinh(x) will give an error and arsinh(x) has wrong
font and spacing: arsinh(x).

This was already mentioned in a comment by Charles Staats. You might consider this an addition
to the FAQ section on \lim , \sin and so on.

For operators which need limits above and below the operator, use \operatorname*{…} , as in

1
Res( ) = 1
2
z=1 z − z

New operators may also be defined using the \DeclareMathOperator syntax:

\DeclareMathOperator{newOperatorCommand}{newOperator} defines a new operator. On the page
where this code occurs, \newOperatorCommand will be rendered as newOperator.

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MvG

1 We can also use {\rm ...} . For example, {\rm arsinh} yields arsinh . – Felix Marin Aug 12, 2014 at
0:27

19 @Felix: \rm will change the font but not the spacing. \operatorname{arsinh}x renders as “arsinh x ”
while {\rm arsinh}x renders as “arsinhx”. Notice the added space between operator and operand in
the first example, which is missing in the second. On the whole, I'd say that operatorname is a lot more
in the spirit of semantic markup, declaring what you want to write instead of how you want to write it, so
I'd strongly suggest using this. – MvG Aug 13, 2014 at 11:27

5 Thanks. I didn't know there was a difference between them. I always avoided operatorname because it
was too long. – Felix Marin Aug 13, 2014 at 14:41

3 Thanks for this. I thought carefully about whether to put \operatorname in the main post, and decided
to leave it out. The reason is simple: If a beginner omits \operatorname , the resulting formula will still
be perfectly clear, and a more experienced user will have no trouble inserting the \operatorname where
it is needed. So including it in the main post would not be a good use of space. – MJD Aug 16, 2014 at
6:28

3 ... I always use "\text{operator }". Hmmm, arsinh x vs arsinh x . – JP McCarthy Feb 10, 2015 at 16:48

4 If you use the same operator many times, I think you can do \DeclareMathOperator{\arsinh}
{arsinh} at the post's top. Never tried it though… – MickG Aug 15, 2015 at 17:28

What is the code for the last one? – Laxmi Narayan Bhandari May 27, 2021 at 8:07

@Laxmi you can right-click on MathJax formulas and select "Show Math As / TeX Commands" to see the
code for any formula. You can also click on the date of the edits to see edit history, and in that history use
"Side-by-side Markdown" rendering to see the source of the whole post. – MvG May 27, 2021 at 15:07

Absolute values and norms

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62 The absolute value of some expression can be denoted as \lvert x\rvert or, more generally, as
\left\lvert … \right\rvert . It renders as |x|.

The norm of a vector (or similar) can be denoted as \lVert v\rVert or, more generally, as
\left\lVert … \right\rVert . It renders as ∥v∥ . (You may also write \left\|…\right\| instead.)

In both cases, the rendering is better than what you'd get from |x| or ||v|| , which render with
bars that don't descend low enough and sub-optimal spacing. At least on some browsers, so here
is a screenshot how it looks for me, using Firefox 31 on OS X:

And here is the same formula rendered by your browser:

|x|, ||v|| ⟶ |x|, ∥v∥

It was typeset as

$$|x|, ||v|| \quad\longrightarrow\quad \lvert x\rvert, \lVert v\rVert$$

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MvG

9 You can use \|x\| instead of \lVert x \rVert ; ∥x∥ and ∥x∥ . (I don't think that there is a difference
between them. I've tried [asking on SE](tex.stackexchange.com/questions/77767/whats-the-correct-way-
to-write-norm).) – Martin Sleziak Jun 24, 2014 at 8:48

On my browser |x| and \lvert x\rvert (|x| and |x|) look identical, contrary to your claim. Perhaps
you need to show an example more complicated than just 'x'? – MJD Jun 24, 2014 at 12:39

@MJD: What's your browser? I included a screenshot to support my claim. – MvG Aug 13, 2014 at 11:24

Usually various versions of Firefox on either Linux or Windows. I happen to have Windows 8 booted now,
so here's a screenshot from there: a.pomf.se/jrujkq.PNG The bar height looks good on both pairs of
symbols; the spacing is a little off for the || version. On Linux they looked the same. – MJD Aug 13,
2014 at 17:02

Here's a screenshot with FF 31.0 under Linux: a.pomf.se/fhwmjo.png – MJD Aug 16, 2014 at 6:23

4 The difference in output that you are seeing has to do with whether you have the STIX fonts installed
locally on your computer or not. The | in STIX doesn't descend below the baseline, while in the MathJax
TeX fonts it does. – Davide Cervone May 20, 2016 at 14:16

Giving reasons on each line of a sequence of equations

To produce this:
57

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v + w = 0 Given (1)

−w = −w + 0 additive identity (2)

−w + 0 = −w + (v + w) equations (1) and (2)

write this:

\begin{align}
v + w & = 0 &&\text{Given} \tag 1\\
-w & = -w + 0 && \text{additive identity} \tag 2\\
-w + 0 & = -w + (v + w) && \text{equations $(1)$ and $(2)$}
\end{align}

Share Follow edited Feb 15, 2016 at 18:33 community wiki

2 revs
David K

1 Using multiple \tag commands in my equations causes them to break. It only takes one tag per equation
and it labels the entire thing instead of allowing tagging on a per-line basis. Any ideas? – code_dredd Jun 1,
2019 at 20:19

@code_dredd The particular formatting in this answer still seems to work. Perhaps you could post your
formulas in a new meta question to get help with them. – David K Jun 2, 2019 at 5:20

Why would you use \tag, instead of just using ()? – Some Guy Feb 1, 2021 at 21:13

1 @SomeGuy First, this is what \tag is meant for. It puts the (1) exactly where it should be, at the right
margin. Second, if you have an equation like 0 = ax^2+bx+c and you just use (1) on it instead of
\tag1 , you end up with 0 = ax + bx + c(1) . To fix this, instead of \tag you have to insert other
2

commands to make enough blank space. Not a net gain, in my opinion. – David K Feb 2, 2021 at 0:59

Pack of cards
47 If you are asking (or answering) a combinatorics question involving packs of cards you can make
it look more elegant by using \spadesuit , \heartsuit , \diamondsuit , \clubsuit in math mode:

♠ ♡ ♢ ♣

Or if you're really fussy:

\color{red}{\heartsuit} and \color{red}{\diamondsuit}

♡ ♢

You can also enter the standard Unicode characters ( U+2660 BLACK SPADE SUIT etc.) literally, or
copy them from here:

♠ ♡ ♢ ♣

♤ ♥ ♦ ♧

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Share Follow edited May 29, 2018 at 16:09 community wiki
3 revs, 3 users 53%
David

1 This is very nice! Is there other auto-shapes or stickers? – user379641 May 19, 2017 at 13:37

1 Is it also possible to draw the spade and club in outlines and fill the heart and diamond with a colour?
– user379641 May 19, 2017 at 13:39

2 @AlwaysConfused None that come to mind. Google search turned up this which might help. Otherwise
search for a TeX/LaTeX/MathJax symbol table. – David May 22, 2017 at 23:48

1 @AlwaysConfused Unicode has those characters, so you can enter them however you normally enter
Unicode characters, or you can now use copy-paste to copy them from this answer. – MJD May 29, 2018
at 16:11

1 @MJD Not sure that your edit is a good idea, firstly because I think we would prefer questions and answers
on MSE to be in MathJax as far as possible, secondly because this page is specifically a MathJax tutorial.
However I'm not really bothered - if you still think it's a good idea, let me know and I'll approve the edit.
– David May 30, 2018 at 4:31

Is there a way to force the heart and diamond suit symbols to be filled, like the club and spade?
– code_dredd Jun 2, 2019 at 18:39

@code_dredd See my previous comment in reply to "Always Confused", also the comment by MJD.
– David Jun 2, 2019 at 22:08

@David I guess nothing has changed since then... Thanks. – code_dredd Jun 2, 2019 at 23:36

To the above commenters - it is possible, for instance

♥♡

achieved via the code $$\color{yellow}♥\!\!\!\color{blue}♡$$ but you will need to fiddle with the
number of \! s depending on where you put it, because I don't think there is a command in mathJax to
place characters on top of each other. Another example, $$\Huge \color{green}\Huge \color{green}
♥\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\!\,\color{red}♡$$ gives

♥
♡
– Calvin Khor Mar 28, 2020 at 6:02

Left and Right Implication Arrows

Another way to display the arrows for right and left implication instead of using
45
$\Rightarrow$ , $\Leftarrow$ and $\Leftrightarrow$

which produces ⇒ , ⇐ and ⇔ respectively, you can use

$\implies$ for ⟹ , $\impliedby$ for ⟸ and $\iff$ for ⟺

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The latter of which produces longer arrows which may be more desirable to some.

Share Follow edited May 6, 2014 at 22:15 community wiki

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jnh

Degree symbol
38 Standard Mathjax does not yet support a dedicated degree symbol, so here are some of the ways
to try and emulate one :

o
45^\text{o} renders as 45

o
45^o renders as 45
∘
45^\circ renders as 45

∘
45^{\large\circ} renders as 45

45\unicode{xB0} renders as 45° Actual Unicode character

90° renders as 90° Using keyboard entry of symbol

The degree symbol for angles is not ^\circ . Although many people use this notation, the result
looks quite different from the canonical degree symbol shipped with the font, as seen above.

If your keyboard doesn't have a ° key, feel free to copy from this post here, or follow these
suggestions.

Note that comments below indicate that on some configurations at least, ° renders inferior to
^\circ . And I recently had a post of mine edited just for the sake of turning ° into ^\circ ,
indicating that someone felt rather strongly about this. So the suggestion above does seem
somewhat controversial at the moment. I maintain that from a semantic point of view, ° is
superior to ^\circ , and if the rendering suffers from this, then it's a bug in MathJax. After all,
LaTeX offers a proper degree symbol in the tex companion fonts, indicating that someone there,
too, decided that ^\circ is not perfect. But if things are broken now, I can't fault people from
pragmatically sticking with the rendering they prefer. Personally I prefer semantics, also for the
sake of screen readers.

Accessibility

Aside from appearance, one consideration in choosing which notation to use is how it will get
parsed by screen readers. For example, ChromeVox reads both 45^\circ and 45° as "forty-five
degrees", while the other two are pronounced as "forty-five oh", which may be a reason to avoid
them.

Usepackage

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Commonly in Latex you can \usepackage{gensymb} to get the \degree symbol, however on Stack
Exchange this is not an option. Note that even if you can do this it will typically affect the entire
page, which may have side effects for other users. So don't rely on this approach.

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StephenG

2 If mathjax loads siunitx or gensymb, there is then \degree in latex which is the degree symbol. – dustin Feb
17, 2015 at 22:29

1 @dustin: I couldn't find siunitx or gensymb mentioned anywhere in the MatJax source repository. Are
they available as some kind of third-party extension? If so, where? Since MathJax is not LaTeX, packages
can't be loaded unless they have been migrated. By the way, all occurrences of “degree” in the MathJax
sources refer to something else, as far as I can tell, so there really doesn't seem to be a \degree macro.
There should be one, imho. – MvG Feb 17, 2015 at 23:39

2 I am not a mathjax expert. I just know latex. I just gave that suggestion in case they were available. Siunitx
would be a great package to have. If you aren't familiar, you will see the advantage by scanning the
documentation on ctan. – dustin Feb 17, 2015 at 23:43

16 On my display, ° looks bad and ^\circ looks good: a.pomf.se/xnlfyg.png – MJD Mar 24, 2015 at 21:10

3 Degree sign can generally be typed by holding down Alt and typing 0176 on the numeric keypad. ° (I
don't know how international the actual number is). The leading zero is required. – Joffan Apr 19, 2017 at
14:04

1 @Joffan: 167 is the decimal representation of the Codepoint for ° in Latin 1, Unicode and CP-1252.
Without the leading zero, CP-437 gets applied instead, at least in typical English-speaking countries, so
you'd use Alt+248 there. The Wikipedia article I linked to already describes those two ways of entering the
symbol, and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alt_code has some more details. – MvG Apr 20, 2017 at 22:24

How to use Radian (c) , gradian (g) and Steradian (sr) ? And also, Angstrom (though a lenght unit)?
– user379641 May 21, 2017 at 16:06

Actually we can write degrees by 90^o (O for Orange, using lowercase o, like 'o'), and it'd render it close to
degrees symbol
o o o
90 + 30 + 45

– user427802 May 31, 2018 at 14:41

1 @AbhasKumarSinha It looks quite slanty to me. – Tom Hale Jun 13, 2018 at 3:57

3 @StephenG: I'm not happy with your latest edit. I feel that it is not helpful to users if we suggest even more
ways to poorly format that symbol (like ^o imho), or to mention a LaTeX approach just to say it won't
work. You deleted the example for 45° , but kept the sentence talking about it, including the colon. I'm
reluctant to revert your edit on a CW page without a conversation, but as it stands I see the edit as a
change for the worse. Can we find a combined solution? – MvG Oct 8, 2018 at 19:09

1 I just wrote a feature request for a \degree symbol, since I believe it would be technically easy and
conceptually beneficial to have such a symbol defined for the whole site. – MvG Oct 8, 2018 at 19:25

@MvG I have added an entry to the "renders as" table for keyboard entry (which frankly looks awful IMO)
but regarding your "unhappiness" note only one line was deleted from the version preceding my first edit

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and I regard your belief that this justifies your claim my edit was "unhelpful" is nonsense. I fail to see how
undoing my edit helps anyone but you. – StephenG - Help Ukraine Oct 10, 2018 at 4:16

While we're at it, I included my comment on accessibility from the feature request post, since it may be
more useful here. It would be nice if other people tested other screen readers to get a sample size of higher
than one. – Misha Lavrov Oct 10, 2018 at 5:25

I recently discovered \mathring and hence there is a further variant a\mathring{} a˚ which is neither
circ a nor the actual unicode symbol a° – Calvin Khor Nov 22, 2021 at 2:34
∘

Long division

36 $$
\require{enclose}
\begin{array}{r}
13 \\[-3pt]
4 \enclose{longdiv}{52} \\[-3pt]
\underline{4}\phantom{2} \\[-3pt]
12 \\[-3pt]
\underline{12}
\end{array}
$$

13

4 52

4
–
12

12
––
–

One important trick shown here is the use of \phantom{2} to make a blank space that is the same
size and shape as the digit 2 just above it.

This is adapted from https://stackoverflow.com/a/22871404/3466415 (which uses slightly

different but not less valid formatting).

Share Follow edited May 23, 2017 at 12:39 community wiki

6 revs, 3 users 92%
David K

10 Synthetic division. Example to find that

3 2 2
x − 6x + 11x − 6 = (x − 1)(x − 5x + 6) + 0

3 2 1 0
x x x x

1 −6 11 −6

1 ↓ 1 −5 6

1 −5 6 | 0

\begin{array}{c|rrrr}& x^3 & x^2 & x^1 & x^0\\ & 1 & -6 & 11 & -6\\ {\color{red}1} &

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\downarrow & 1 & -5 & 6\\ \hline & 1 & -5 & 6 & |\phantom{-} {\color{blue}0}
\end{array} – Américo Tavares Aug 21, 2016 at 14:32

1 x
3
− 6x
2
+ 11x − 6
@Maria Mazur For the same example = x
2
− 5x + 6 :
x − 1

3 2
x −6x +11x −6 x − 1

3 2 2
−x +x x − 5x + 6

2
−5x +11x −6

2
5x −5x

+6x −6

−6x +6

0 0

I've used this code \begin{array}{rrrr|ll} x^3 & -6x^2 & +11x & -6 & x - 1 \\ -x^3
& +x^2 & & & x^2-5x+6 \\ \hline & -5x^2 & +11x & -6\\ & \phantom{-}5x^2 & -5x &
& & & \\ \hline & & +6x & -6 \\ & & -6x & +6 \\ \hline & & 0 & 0 \end{array}
– Américo Tavares May 16, 2019 at 20:06

Displaystyle and Textstyle

30 Many things like fractions, sums, limits, and integrals display differently when written inline
versus in a displayed formula. You can switch styles back and forth with \displaystyle and
\textstyle in order to achieve the desired appearance.

Here's an example switching back and forth in a displayed equation:

$$\sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2} \to

\textstyle \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2} \to
\displaystyle \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2}$$

∞ ∞
1 ∞ 1
1
∑ → ∑ → ∑
2 n=1 2 2
n
n n
n=1 n=1

It is possible to switch style inline as well:

Compare $\displaystyle \lim_{t \to 0} \int_t^1 f(t)\, dt$

versus $\lim_{t \to 0} \int_t^1 f(t)\, dt$.

Compare lim ∫ versus lim .

1
f (t) dt t→0 ∫ f (t) dt
t
t→0
t

Do observe that the taller formulas gotten with \displaystyle distort the line spacing.

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Filler text, more filler text and even more filler text, and an outrageous amount of filler
1

text. It would not occur to me to use lim ∫ f (x) dx here. As we see, a formula typeset
t→0
t

in displaystyle makes it necessary to move the lines further apart. A ridiculous amount of
filler text to make a point. Not pleasing to the eye at all.

In other words, there is also a reason TeX defaults to \textstyle when typesetting inline
formulas.

Share Follow edited Sep 24, 2022 at 20:07 community wiki

4 revs, 3 users 70%
Alexis Olson

4 Oh!! I was always confused on why some people had \displaystyle . – Simply Beautiful Art Nov 7, 2016
at 0:42

1 @SimplyBeautifulArt I was always wondering on why the math expressions of some people looked nicer
than mine.. – user486983 Sep 21, 2018 at 21:37

There is also AbC$\scriptstyle{AbC}$ and AbC $\scriptscriptstyle{AbC}$ . – emacs drives me nuts

Mar 5, 2020 at 8:52

Vertical Spacing
28 Some formulas such as ā + b ¯
¯
¯¯
,
¯¯¯¯¯¯¯¯
¯ −
−
= a ⋅ b √a − √b , do not look quite right when it comes to vertical
spacing. Fortunately, there is more than one way to fix this. One can for instance employ the
\mathstrut command as follows:

$\sqrt{\mathstrut a} - \sqrt{\mathstrut b}$

−
−
Which yields: √a − √b. Or using \vphantom (vertical phantom) command, which measures the
height of its argument and places a math strut of that height into the formula.

$\sqrt{\vphantom{b} a} - \sqrt{b}$

−
−
Which renders as: √a − √b.

Another issue is with the spacing within lines in situations like this,

1
Based on the previous technique, we can simplify −
−
, and we thus get the result
√a − √b

of the previous limit. [this text is added to show alignment with the above smashed

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object]

These two lines are too far apart, but this is unnecessary since the second line is very short. We
can solve this by using the \smash command, to get:

1
Based on the previous technique, we can simplify − −
, and we thus get the result
√a − √b
of the previous limit. [this text is added to show alignment with the above smashed
object]

Beware - as above - the smashed text may overlap the next line if that line extends far enough to
reach the smashed object, so this solution is not always feasible (it is esp. likely to occur in slim-
width browsers, e.g. phones). Analogous overlapping may occur with any prior lines. Note that
smash can be restricted to top or bottom with an argument: \smash[t]... or \smash[b]...

Share Follow edited Sep 5, 2022 at 20:06 community wiki

4 revs, 2 users 91%
Workaholic

Alternatively, one can also sneak in a rule of zero width \rule{0pt}{2ex} , as explained here. – on4aa
Apr 29, 2020 at 15:06

4 On Android, at least, the results of \smash look awful. The formula overlaps the text. – dfeuer Mar 5,
2022 at 1:10

@dfeuer Android is not the source of the problem. Rather it is the fact that the browser window width is so
short that the 2nd line extends far enough to be below the radical, so smashing the radical causes it to
overlap the 2nd line. The same thing occurs in any browser if you make its width small enough.
– Bill Dubuque Sep 5, 2022 at 18:20

@BillDubuque, okay, but it's still a problem for mobile browsers. – dfeuer Sep 5, 2022 at 19:42

@dfeuer Again, it's not "mobile" browsers that are the source of the problem - rather it is the fact that there
is something displayed below the smashed object. That is more likely to occur on phones since they are
more likely to have shorter width screens. If you shrink the width of a desktop browser window to be small
enough (or extend the length of the following line) then the above answer will show the problem there too
(e.g. I edited the answer to show that). – Bill Dubuque Sep 5, 2022 at 19:58

Equation numbering
28 Simple equation
To give an equation a number, use the \tag{} . To refer to it later, use \label{} to label this
equation. When you want to refer to it, use \eqref{} . For example,

2
e = mc (1)

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Equation (1) is one of the greatest equations in mankind's history. Equation (1) is produced
using the following code,

$$e=mc^2 \tag{1}\label{eq1}$$

To refer to it, use \eqref{eq1} .

Multi-line equation
Multi-line equation is actually just one equation rather than several equations. So the correct
environment is aligned instead of align .

a = b + c

= d + e + f + g (2)

= h + i

Equation (2) is a multi-line equation. The code to produce equation (2) is

$$\begin{equation}\begin{aligned}
a &= b + c \\
&= d + e + f + g \\
&= h + i
\end{aligned}\end{equation}\tag{2}\label{eq2}$$

Multiple aligned equations

For multiple aligned equations, we use the align environment.

a = b + c (3)

x = yz (4)

l = m − n (5)

Equation (3), (4) and (5) are multiple equations aligned together. The code to produce these
equations is,

$$\begin{align}
a &= b + c \tag{3}\label{eq3} \\
x &= yz \tag{4}\label{eq4}\\
l &= m - n \tag{5}\label{eq5}
\end{align}$$

Share Follow edited Dec 24, 2022 at 16:06 community wiki

4 revs, 4 users 92%
jdhao

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I don’t believe there is any difference between align and aligned, but whatever feels comfortable I suppose.
– Mr Pie Feb 2, 2018 at 6:12

There is actaully a difference, read here for a detailed discussions. – jdhao Feb 2, 2018 at 6:28

thank you very much for clearing up that understanding :) – Mr Pie Feb 2, 2018 at 6:30

You are welcome. When in doubt, always google it first :). – jdhao Feb 2, 2018 at 6:32

If there's an equation with multiple lines, is there a way to add tags on a per-line basis, i.e. \tag{1} for
line 1, \tag{2} for line 2, etc? If I use the \tag{...} commands, I can only use one per equation and it
labels the entire equation, not each line. – code_dredd Jun 1, 2019 at 20:17

I am not aware of this kind of command. What is your use case? – jdhao Jun 4, 2019 at 2:27

the last equation numbering can also be used with align* instead of align – user173262 Dec 2, 2019
at 23:59

I get all tags on the first line: "a = b + c (3)(4)(5)". – Jiri Kriz Dec 13, 2019 at 13:55

Why do we need both $$ and \begin{equation} with aligned ? I noticed that when I omitted
\begin{equation} that I did not get an equation number, but that does not happen when I use only $$
without any other environments inside. – Randy Cragun May 12, 2021 at 20:41

If equations are not being numbered, is there any (practical) difference between aligned and align ? (I
understand they should be used with single equations and multiple equations respectively.) I've checked
the link mentioned in an earlier comment which shows several examples of differences, but none of them
seem to apply when using Mathjax here on Math Stack Exchange; they use environments like tabular or
list or enumerate , none of which are recognized by Mathjax. Also, is there any reason to use
\begin{equation} and \end{equation} if equations are not being numbered? – A.J. Apr 28, 2023 at
8:05

I found in physics stackexchange, MathJax doesn't support \label{ } for reference. To align multiple
equations, we need to escape twice like: \begin{align} a &= b + c \tag{Eq.3}\\\\ x &= yz
\tag{Eq.4}\\\\ l &= m - n \tag{Eq.5} \end{align} . Also, you don't need $$ , which is for a
single equation and it is equivalent to \begin{equation} – Leon Chang Sep 6, 2023 at 0:54

Linear programming
21 Formulation
A theoretical LPP can be typeset as

\begin{array}{ll}
\text{maximize} & c^T x \\
\text{subject to}& d^T x = \alpha \\
&0 \le x \le 1.
\end{array}

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T
maximize c x

T
subject to d x = α

0 ≤ x ≤ 1.

To input a numerical LPP, use alignat instead of align to get better alignment between signs,
variables and coefficients.

\begin{alignat}{5}
\max \quad & z = & x_1 & + & 12 x_2 & & & && \\
\mbox{s.t.} \quad & & 13 x_1 & + & x_2 & + & 12x_3 & \geq 5 &&
\tag{constraint 1} \\
& & x_1 & & & + & x_3 & \leq 16 &&
\tag{constraint 2} \\
& & 15 x_1 & + & 201 x_2 & & & = 14 &&
\tag{constraint 3} \\
& & \rlap{x_i \ge 0, i = 1, 2, 3}
\end{alignat}

max z = x1 + 12x 2

s.t. 13x 1 + x 2+12x 3 ≥ 5 (constraint 1)

x1 + x 3 ≤ 16 (constraint 2)

15x 1 +201x 2 = 14 (constraint 3)

x i ≥ 0, i = 1, 2, 3

We treat max , z, each variable, ± sign and RHS as one separate column, while leaving an extra
empty column on the right. Then we count the number of separators & , add one into this
number then divide it by two. (e.g. (9 + 1) ÷ 2 = 5)

\rlap is used so that the last row spans over one column.

Optional: \tag is used to label the constraints.

Change MATLAB/Octave matrices to LTEX code A

To get fractions, execute format rat at the beginning.

Writing manually the L TEX code for a matrix with many rows and columns in Octave is tedious.
A

The Octave function

strcat("\\begin{bmatrix}\n",strrep(strrep(mat2str(A)," "," & "), ...

";"," \\\\\n")(2:end-1),"\n\\end{bmatrix}\n")

converts

A = [1 2 2; 2 3 4; 4 4 2]
A =

1 2 2
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2 3 4
4 4 2

to

\begin{bmatrix}
1 & 2 & 2 \\
2 & 3 & 4 \\
4 & 4 & 2
\end{bmatrix}

so that pasting the generated code gives

1 2 2
⎡ ⎤

⎢2 3 4⎥.
⎣ ⎦
4 4 2

Simplex tableaux
Since the coefficient of the objective value variable z never changes, my habit is to omit the z-
column to save ink.

Normal simplex tableau

\begin{array}{rrrrrr|r}
& x_1 & x_2 & s_1 & s_2 & s_3 & \\ \hline
s_1 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 8 \\
s_2 & 1 & -1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 4 \\
s_3 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 12 \\ \hline
& -1 & -1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0
\end{array}

x1 x2 s1 s2 s3

s1 0 1 1 0 0 8

s2 1 −1 0 1 0 4

s3 1 1 0 0 1 12

−1 −1 0 0 0 0

It can be stacked up to give an illustration of the entering of variables at different stages.

\begin{array}{rrrrrrr|rr}
& x_1 & x_2 & s_1 & s_2 & s_3 & w & & \text{ratio} \\ \hline
s_1 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 8 & - \\
w & 1^* & -1 & 0 & -1 & 0 & 1 & 4 & 4 \\
s_3 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 12 & 12 \\ \hdashline
& 1 & -1 & 0 & -1 & 0 & 0 & 4 & \\ \hline
s_1 & 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 8 & \\
x_1 & 1 & -1 & 0 & -1 & 0 & 1 & 4 & \\
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s_3 & 0 & 2 & 0 & 2 & 1 & -1 & 8 & \\ \hdashline
& 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & -1 & 0 &
\end{array}

x1 x2 s1 s2 s3 w ratio

s1 0 1 1 0 0 0 8 −

∗
w 1 −1 0 −1 0 1 4 4

s3 1 1 0 0 1 0 12 12

1 −1 0 −1 0 0 4

s1 0 1 1 0 0 0 8

x1 1 −1 0 −1 0 1 4

s3 0 2 0 2 1 −1 8

0 0 0 0 0 −1 0

Dual simplex tableau

\begin{array}{rrrrrrrr|r}
& x_1 & x_2 & x_3 & x_4 & x_5 & x_6 & x_7 & \\ \hline
x_4 & 0 & -3 & 7 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 2 & 2M -4 \\
x_5 & 0 & -9 & 0 & 0 & 1 & 0 & -1 & -M -3 \\
x_6 & 0 & 6 & -1 & 0 & 0 & 1 & -4^* & -4M +8 \\
x_1 & 1 & 0 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 1 & M \\ \hline
& 0 & 1 & 1 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 2 & 2M \\
\text{ratio} & & & 1 & & & & 1/2 &
\end{array}

x1 x2 x3 x4 x5 x6 x7

x4 0 −3 7 1 0 0 2 2M − 4

x5 0 −9 0 0 1 0 −1 −M − 3
∗
x6 0 6 −1 0 0 1 −4 −4M + 8

x1 1 0 1 0 0 0 1 M

0 1 1 0 0 0 2 2M

ratio 1 1/2

It can be stacked up to give a theoretical illustration of what happens in the upcoming steps.

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x1 x2 x3 s1 s2 s3

s1 −2 0 −2 1 0 0 −60

∗
s2 −2 −4 −5 0 1 0 −70

s3 0 −3 −1 0 0 1 −27

8 10 25 0 0 0 0

ratio −4 −5/2 −5

∗
s1 −2 0 −2 1 0 0 −60

x2 1/2 1 5/4 0 −1/4 0 35/2

s3 3/2 0 11/4 0 −3/4 1 51/2

3 0 25/2 0 5/2 0 −175

ratio −3/2 25/4

x1 1 0 1 −1/2 0 0 30

x2 0 1 3/4 1/4 −1/4 0 5/2

∗
s3 0 0 5/4 3/4 −3/4 1 −39/2

0 0 19/2 3/2 5/2 0 −265

ratio …

x1 1 0 1 −1/2 0 0 30

x2 0 1 1/3 0 0 −1/3 9

s2 0 0 −5/3 −1 1 −4/3 26

0 0 41/3 4 0 10/3 −330

Duality
A picture is worth a thousand words.

T T
max z = c x min v = b y
duality

T
s.t. Ax ≤ b ⇄ s.t. A y ≥ c

x ≥ 0 y ≥ 0

(P C) (DC)

add ⇃slack var minus ⇂surplus var

T T
max z = c x min v = b y
duality

T
s.t. Ax + s = b ⇄ s.t. A y − t = c
some steps skipped
x, s ≥ 0 y, t ≥ 0

(P S ) (DS )

Share Follow edited Feb 16, 2019 at 9:55 community wiki

3 revs, 2 users 100%
GNUSupporter 8964民主女神
地下教會

6 It must have taken more than a thousand words to write that picture though :D – Mr Pie Jul 20, 2018 at
9:25

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How many words is a broken link worth? – mmesser314 May 10 at 15:18

Units
While L TEX has packages that format units, MathJax does not. For visual consistency, one
19
A

should format units within the same string of MathJax code as the value to which it corresponds,
separating the value and unit with \ (space-backslash-space) since the BIPM recommends a
small space between the value and units. In addition, follow the below conventions for formatting
values and units:

Decimal Separator & Digit Separation

Following the conventions of the English-speaking world, a period . should be used to separate
the decimal part of a number from the integral part, not a comma , as is common in some
languages. This is because commas are already reserved for separating mathematical notation
such as arguments of multivariate functions, elements of a set, and the coordinates of ordered
tuples.

No punctuation should be used to separate multiples of three digits on either side of the decimal
separator; instead, a small space rendered by \, should be used on both sides of the decimal
marker when the string of digits consists of more than four or five digits. For example,

4321.1234 4321.1234

54\,321.123\,45 54 321.123 45

0.56789 0.56789

0.567\,89 0.567 89

If you use a decimal separator, you should include a digit on both sides of the separator, even if
the digit is simply 0.

Powers of 10
It is preferable to write scientific or engineering notation like this: 4.15\times10^{n} 4.15 × 10
n
.
The spacing around \times × is taken care of on its own, so there is no need to insert the
spacing manually.

Nevertheless, if necessary, use an upright variant of the letter ‘E’ or ‘e’ to indicate order of
magnitude, such as

\mathrm{E}\,6 E6

\scriptsize{\mathrm{E}}\,\normalsize{6} E 6

\mathrm{e}\,6 e6

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A small space on either side is perfectly fine and recommended.

Single Units
The symbol of any unit—especially SI units—should follow the form \mathrm{u} . (I have this
command saved under the keyboard shortcut usin on my devices.) For example,

\mathrm{m} m

\mathrm{kg} kg

\mathrm{ft.} f t.

Do not use a period with symbolic units; do use a period with abbreviated units.

Units with a Dot Multiplier

Multiplied units conjoined by a dot should follow the form \mathrm{u}\!\cdot\!\mathrm{v} u⋅v .
(I have this sequence of commands saved under the keyboard shortcut umul on my devices.)
Because of how \cdot is designed (i.e., to separate numbers), the small negative space \! on
either side maintains uniform spacing throughout the whole compound unit. For example,

\mathrm{N}\!\cdot\!\mathrm{m} N⋅m

\mathrm{s}\!\cdot\!\mathrm{A} s⋅A

Do not use \times × as a separator.

Units with a Solidus Separator

Divided units conjoined by a solidus should follow the form
\left.\mathrm{u}\middle/\mathrm{v}\right. u/v. (I have this sequence of commands saved
under the keyboard shortcut udiv on my devices.) The extra markdown is to ensure that solidus
stretches the entire height of the unit, especially when exponents are involved. For example,

\left.\mathrm{J}\middle/\mathrm{s}\right. J/s

\left.\mathrm{m}\middle/\mathrm{s}^2\right. m/s
2

You may include small negative spaces \! on either side of the solidus if you please.

Exponents
Exponents can be rendered with the standard MathJax markdown. The carat and number should
immediately follow the closing brace of the mathrm{} argument. For example,

\mathrm{m}^2 m
2

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\left.\mathrm{m}\middle/\mathrm{s}^2\right. m/s
2

Parentheses
Parentheses can also be rendered with standard MathJax markdown using \left( and \right)
outside the argument of \mathrm . For example,

\left.\mathrm{kg}\!\cdot\!\mathrm{m}^2\middle/\left(\mathrm{C}\!\cdot\!\mathrm{s}\righ
t)\right. 2
kg ⋅ m /(C ⋅ s)

Exponents in Place of Separators

If you prefer to use no separators and only powers, separator each single \mathrm{} with a small
space \, and use exponents as necessary. For example,

\mathrm{m}\,\mathrm{s}^{-2} ms
−2

\mathrm{s}^{-1}\,\mathrm{mol} s
−1
mol

Examples in Context

\mu_0=4\pi\times10^{-7} \
\left.\mathrm{\mathrm{T}\!\cdot\!\mathrm{m}}\middle/\mathrm{A}\right.

−7
μ0 = 4π × 10 T ⋅ m/A

180^\circ=\pi \ \mathrm{rad}

∘
180 = π rad

N_A = 6.022\times10^{23} \ \mathrm{mol}^{-1}

23 −1
NA = 6.022 × 10 mol

Share Follow edited Apr 6, 2023 at 7:20 community wiki

4 revs, 3 users 93%
gen-ℤ ready to perish

2 @SamuelMuldoon Please don't use \mathcal{MathJax} to write MathJax . – The Amplitwist Apr 6,
2023 at 7:22

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