Help:Math

Shortcut: A:MATH

Math can be written in the wiki in the form of LaTeX, a typesetting language used primarily to type mathematical expressions in an elegant fashion. For example, without LaTeX, would have to be written as 35/137. To use LaTeX in the forums, enclose your LaTeX code with dollar signs: $your codes here$. You can also use double dollar signs or other normal indicators: $$your codes here$$ or \[your codes here\]. (There are also deprecated [tex] tags, but let's not get into that) To use LaTeX on AoPSWiki, you can enclose the code with dollar signs as in the forum, or you can also enclose your code with math tags, like so: $your codes here$.

Useful Codes

\boxed{Answer} produces a box around your answer.

\frac{a}{b} produces a fraction with numerator and denominator .

^\circ produces the degrees symbol.

\text{Your Text Here} produces text within LaTeX. .

\sqrt{x} produces the square root of .

\sqrt[n]{x} produces the th root of .

a\equiv b \pmod{c} produces is equivalent to mod . See Modular Arithmetic

\binom{9}{3} produces 9 choose 3.

x^{y} produces x to the power of y.

x_{y} produces x with y in subscript.

\rightarrow produces an arrow to the right.

\leftarrow produces an arrow to the left.

\uparrow produces an arrow pointing upwards.

\downarrow produces an arrow pointing downwards.

\updownarrow produces an arrow pointing up and down.

\ge produces a greater than or equal to sign.

\le produces a less than or equal to sign.

\not> produces a not greater than sign.

\not< produces a not less than sign.

\not\ge produces a not greater than or equal to sign.

\not\le produces a not less than or equal to sign.

\neq produces a not equal to sign.

\inf produces an infinity sign.

\perp produces a perpendicular sign.

\angle produces an angle sign.

\triangle produces a triangle.

\ldots produces three dots at the bottom of a line (ellipsis).

\cdots produces three dots in the middle of a line (as in a series sum or product).

\times produces an as used in multiplication

\otimes produces a

On AoPSWiki, is in display mode by default, so there's no difference between \frac{}{} and \dfrac{}{}, for example. Also note that you do not have to use braces, "{" and "}", when you only want one character in the operation.

Examples

• x^y is the same as x^{y}.
• x_y is the same as x_{y}.
• BUT x^10 is not the same as x^{10}. instead of .

Fonts

Note: those are for text mode; for some commands to work, you have to wrap text stuff around \text{}.

Font families

• Roman (default): \textrm{...}
• Sans-serif: \textsf{...}

Font sizes

To activate a font size, write '{<sizecommand> text that applies}', as in '{\tiny this is so tiny}'.

• \tiny (5 pt.)
• \scriptsize (7 pt.)
• \footnotesize (8 pt.)
• \small (9 pt.)
• \normalsize (10 pt.)
• \large (12 pt.)
• \Large (14 pt.)
• \LARGE (18 pt.)
• \huge (20 pt.)
• \Huge (24 pt.)

Font styles

• Bold \textbf{...}
• Italics \textit{...}
• Slanted \textsl{...}
• Small capitals \textsc{...}
• Sans-serif \textsf{...}
• Monospace \texttt{...}
• Emphasis \emph{...}

Tutorials & Tools

• AoPS LaTeX Guide
• AoPS LaTeX Help Index
• Wikipedia Article
• This is a useful site that will change LaTeX input into a PNG image.

This article is a tutorial about the AoPSWiki or AoPS Forum.