Math, Display-math and Equation

Mathematics is treated by TEX completely differently from ordinary text. There are two special <#47#>modes<#47#> for mathematics, <#48#>math mode<#48#> and <#49#>display math mode<#49#>.

Math mode commands are surrounded by 1 and 2.
#eg266#

Display math mode commands are surrounded by 3 and 4.
#eg272#

There is a variant of Display math mode, the equation environment which automatically generates an equation number.


#eg278#

The short examples above show the main types of commands available in math mode.

  1. Subscripts and superscripts are produced with 5 and 6, as in 7 #math41#x1 = p2.
  2. Fractions are produced by the 8 command. 9 #math42##tex2html_wrap_inline2609#.
  3. Various commands give names to mathematical symbols.
    10 #math43#∞  ⇒  √  #tex2html_wrap_inline2611#
  4. Arrays are produced by the array environment. This is identical to the tabular environment described in <#76#>essential-LATEX<#76#> except that the entries are typeset in math mode instead of LR mode. Note that the array environment does not put brackets arround the array so it can also be used for setting determinants, or even sets of equations in which you want the columns to line up.
  5. The commands 11 and 12 produce delimiters which grow as large as needed, they can be used with a variety of symbols eg. 13 14 15. The full set of these delimiters is shown in Table #dels#77> below.