How do I write maths notation in a post?

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How do I write maths notation in a post?
« on: 23 June, 2018, 10:06:03 pm »
We've had a good think about the best ways of inputting maths and science notation - which using a laptop or mobile phone keyboard is not a straightforward ask. There are currently three ways of writing maths notation directly in a post...

The first method is to use $$\LaTeX$$. This is a special typesetting language that's easy to learn (see the Learn $$\LaTeX$$ in 30 minutes guide for details).

For example, say I want to write the fraction a half like this:
$\frac{1}{2}$
... so that it actually looks like a fraction. To achieve this then in $$\LaTeX$$ I would write the following code:
Code: [Select]
\frac{1}{2}.

In order to tell the forum that this is $$\LaTeX$$ we need to surround the code with special tags like this:
Code: [Select]
$...$
So, the following:

Code: [Select]
$\frac{1}{2}$
... is rendered as:

$\frac{1}{2}$

If you want the notation to appear in a line of text (like this: $$y=mx+c$$ then use the 'inline' flag like this:

Code: [Select]
[latex=inline]y=mx+c[/latex]
The second method is to use the built-in $$\LaTeX$$ editor based on fMath - see the button with the '$$\pi$$ and pencil' icon in the text editor when you write your post. I'm in the process of writing a blog post on this feature so there'll be more information on this soon!

The third method is to write out your question, take a photo and then attach it to a post using the Attachments and other options settings underneath the text editor. This is the easiest option but watch out for the file size limit.