LaTeX Math Formulas
There are three environments that put LaTeX in math mode: math,
displaymath, and equation. The math environment is for formulas that
appear right in the text. The displaymath environment is for formulas
that appear on their own line. The equation environment is the same
as the displaymath environment except that it adds an equation number
in the right margin.
The math environment can be used in both paragraph and LR mode, but
the displaymath and equation environments can be used only in
paragraph mode. The math and displaymath environments are used so
often that they have the following short forms:
\(...\)
instead of
\begin{math}...\end{math}
\[...\]
instead of
\begin{displaymath}...\end{displaymath}
In fact, the math environment is so common that it has an even shorter
form:
$ ... $
instead of \(...\)
$$ ... $$
instead of \[ ... \]
Some building blocks for mathematical typesetting:
To get an expression exp to appear as a subscript, you just type
_{exp} in some of the math modes.
To get exp to appear as a superscript, you type ^{exp}. LaTeX
handles superscripted superscripts and all of that stuff in the
natural way. It even does the right thing when something has both a
subscript and a superscript.
In a math environment, LaTeX ignores the spaces you type and puts in
the spacing that it thinks is best. LaTeX formats mathematics the way
it's done in mathematics texts. If you want different spacing, LaTeX
provides the following four commands for use in math mode:
- \;
a thick space
- \:
a medium space
- \,
a thin space
- \!
a negative thin space
\frac{num}{den}
Produces the fraction num divided by den.
\sqrt[root]{arg}
The \sqrt command produces the square root of its argument. The
optional argument, root, determines what root to produce, i.e., the
cube root of x+y
would be typed as $\sqrt[3]{x+y}$.
\overline{text}
causes the argument text to be overlined.
\underline{text}
causes the argument text to be underlined.
These commands can also be used in paragraph and LR modes.
\overbrace{text}
generates a brace over text.
\underbrace{text}
generates text with a brace underneath.
TeX provides almost any mathematical symbol you're likely to need. The
commands for generating them can be used only in math mode. For
example, if you include $\pi$ in your source, you will get the symbol
"pi" in your output. Here is a partial list of what is available.
- \cdots produces a horizontal ellipsis where
the dots are raised to the center of the line.
- \ddots a diagonal ellipsis.
- \ldots ellipsis notation. This command works in any
mode, not just math mode.
- \vdots vertical ellipsis.
- Greek letters from \alpha to \omega
- Different arrows such as \leftarrow (single),
\Leftarrow (double), \longleftarrow (longer),
\uparrow, \Longleftrightarrow and the other
combinations.
- Set theoretical operators: \cap, \cup
- Mathematical functions: \sin, \cos,
\ln, \log, tan, etc.
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