# Using basic latex in your posts

2 replies to this topic

### #1 Raui

Raui

Posted 15 July 2013 - 02:14 PM

I thought I'd post a quick and very basic latex tutorial for those unfamiliar with it. First of all LateX is a text rendering program which is awesome for rendering mathematical expressions. Obviously with the material on here we're going to need to show mathematical expressions.

First of all to start an equation we use the either of the following tags

$Equation$
$Equation$


Now for some examples. You will first see the rendered equation and then see the BB code responsible for generating it.

Fractions example;

[LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist]

$R=\frac {V}{I}$


Subscript example

[LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist]

$V_{1}=5$


Powers example;

[LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist]

$e^{ix}=\cos x + i\sin x$


Note that the '\' character in latex denotes that what follows until the next space is an identifier. This identifier works for most common math expressions and more importantly greek letters.

Symbols example;

[LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist]

$\psi = \Psi + \phi + \Phi + \Pi + \pi$


Note that if we want the capital greek letter we start the identifier off with a capital eg \Psi instead of \psi

I will make a thread sometime tomorrow with a more comprehensive list of commands. While it might seem daunting at first it becomes second nature to you after a while. Just in case the post tomorrow doesn't get made in time for wanting to post an equation here is a good website which you can design the equation how you want and it'll show you the code you need to represent it in latex.

CodeCogs Equation Editor

Enjoy.

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### #2 G4ΓΓ3ττ

G4ΓΓ3ττ

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Posted 16 July 2013 - 06:55 PM

Excellent tutorial Router!

I thought I would complement your post with some external links to help people look up specific operators and symbols when posting math expressions in LaTeX:

Art of Problem Solving - LaTeX Guide

LaTeX Symbols

Good reference source to look up more advanced symbols such as a partial derivative [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist], as well as simple ones like plus-minus [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist] or minus-plus [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist].

LaTeX Commands

Covers the basics of various mathematical commands like; exponents [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist], fractions [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist], radicals [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist], logarithms [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist], trig functions [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist] (you use extra formatting to get big parentheses btw), and calculus [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist]  or  [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist].

WikiBooks

LaTeX/Mathematics

Similar to the above references but covers some slightly different things like matrices [LaTeX Error: One or more directories do not exist] and variants of math commands.

Trinity College, Dublin - School of Mathematics

Getting Started with LaTeX

Covers all the basics of LaTeX, not just the math side, for those who want to learn more about how and where it's used.

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### #3 Raui

Raui

Posted 17 July 2013 - 06:53 AM

Thanks for posting those links Garrett, that's saved me from writing out a more in-depth tutorial

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