Maths notation

Maths notation can be inserted into a text element by using LaTex and delimiters to identify it as a special element within the page. LaTeX is the industry standard way to represent maths notation for both web and print. It’s written as simple text with special syntax – that is, there’s no need for special fonts or images.

This formula was entered into the text box as shown below.

Inline

This will present the maths notation inline with a normal line of text, delimited by \( and \).

Example

This can be expressed as \(\frac{{{\rm{2 g}}}}{{{\rm{100 ml}}}}\) = \(\frac{{x {\rm{g}}}}{{{\rm{500 ml}}}}\).

It will produce the inline example below.

Note that surrounding the maths notation with \( and \) keeps it all in one line.

A note about the degree symbol

In LaTeX, the packages gensymb and textcomp provide the \degree and \textdegree commands. These commands make the degree symbol. iQualify use a different LaTeX package, so we have to use keyboard shortcuts instead.

Type Alt + 248 on your keyboard to create the symbol directly in the iQualify page. If you’re using a Mac, take a look at this keyboard entry article in Wikipedia for details about how to insert the degree symbol.

Delimiting

For the web page to know it needs to display maths it needs to be delimited. These are signals, written as text, to alert the page to:

1. Start displaying maths. Signalled by \[ or \(.
2. Stop displaying maths. Signalled by \] or \).

Each piece of maths notation requires both – otherwise it will interfere with the formatting of the rest of the page.

Ensure that your delimited maths notation is written as one line of text. Don’t insert carriage returns into the text, as this could break the formatting (for instance,the start/end delimiters will not link together). If the maths should be correctly visualised as multiple lines, this will be taken care of automatically by the rendering, as long as the syntax is correct.

Syntax

The syntax for LaTeX is extensive. However, it’s likely that you’lll only need to use a tiny fraction of what is available. For a quick overview visit the iQualify knowledge base article How to format maths and chemistry formulas with LaTeX.

There are also many useful web pages giving a comprehensive list of LaTeX syntax.

Display types

There are two ways to display maths: on its own line, or within a line of other text.

Display on its own line

This will present the maths notation on its own line. It is delimited by \[ and \].

Example

\[ \sqrt(x^2+y^2) = \exp^x + \sum_{i=1}^nx^i \]

will produce the example shown below.

Note that surrounding the maths notation with \[ and \] will produce a stand-alone example.