Series on Blogging with LaTeX
This is the 2nd post in the series. Previous one:
This series shows my first experiences with using the mathematical expressions handling tools provided by WordPress for blogging. They use a version of the LaTeX syntax.
Many of the examples shown here were adapted from the Wikipedia article Displaying a formula, which is actually about formulas in Math Markup.
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Accents – Diacritics
Examples on how to put accents in mathematical expressions:
\acute{a} \grave{a} \hat{a} \tilde{a} \breve{a}
\check{a} \bar{a} \ddot{a} \dot{a}
x’, y”
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Superscript and subscript
How to display subscripts and superscripts, indexes and exponents:
Subscripts:
- a_i gives
- b_{ij} gives
- C_{m,n} gives
- \delta_{j+k} gives
Superscripts:
- x^y gives
- a^{j2\pi} gives
- x^2_3 gives
- C^k_{\mu,\nu} gives
Composition with preceding indexes: {}_1^2 \Psi_3^4 gives
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Underlines, overlines and stackings
Includes vectors
\hat a \ \bar b \ \vec c
\overrightarrow{a b} \ \overleftarrow{c d} \ \widehat{d e f}
\overline{g h i} \ \underline{j k l}
\overbrace{ 1+2+\cdots+100 }^{5050}
\underbrace{ a+b+\cdots+z }_{26}
A \xleftarrow{n+\mu-1} B \xrightarrow[T]{n\pm i-1} C
\overset{\alpha}{\omega} \underset{\mu}{\nu} \overset{\beta}{\underset{\Delta}{\tau}} \stackrel{\zeta}{\eta}
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Sets
Sets operations and related symbols.
\in \ni \notin \varnothing \complement
\subset \subseteq \subsetneq \supset \supseteq \supsetneq
\cap \bigcap \cup \bigcup
\ell \mho \Finv \Re \Im \wp
Others – examples using the calligraphic font (\cal) and the Greek font for designating sets:
{\cal A} \setminus {\cal B} gives
\Omega \smallsetminus \omega gives
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Logic
Logical operators and relations:
\forall \exists \nexists \bar{A} \mid
\And \wedge \vee \neg \to \gets \iff
\bigwedge \bigvee \diamond \lozenge
\vdash \Vdash \vDash \Vvdash \models \dashv
Examples:
- \forall p,q \, \exists q \mid \bar{q} \to p gives
- \bigwedge _{x \in A} gives
- \bigwedge \limits _{x \notin A} gives
- \bar{A \vee B} = \bar{A} \wedge \bar{B} gives
- A \iff B = A \to B \wedge A \gets B gives
- \bigcap \limits _{i=1}^n \bigcup \limits _{j=1}^n {\cal B}_{i,j} gives
Obs – the statement \limits shown in the examples above puts the indexes exactly above and / or below the symbol. In the first example, \, is used to put an extra space. .
Operators
Several types of operators:
+ \oplus \bigoplus \pm \mp -
\times \otimes \bigotimes \cdot \circ \bullet \bigodot
\star * / \div \frac{1}{2}
\sqrt{2} \sqrt[n]{x}
\nabla \partial x \dot x \ddot y
Examples:
- \rho = \sqrt{x^2 + y^2} gives
- \nabla \phi (x,y) = \frac{\partial \phi}{\partial x} + \frac{\partial \phi}{\partial y} gives
- \nabla^2 \phi (x,y) = \frac{\partial^2 \phi}{\partial x^2} + \frac{\partial^2 \phi}{\partial y^2} gives
- \frac{\partial^2 \phi}{\partial x \partial y} = \frac{\partial^2 \phi}{\partial y \partial x} gives
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Relations and definitions
To specify relations, mappings and definitions
\sim \approx \simeq \cong \dot =
< > \le \ge \ll \gg
\lessgtr \lesseqgtr \lesseqqgtr
\equiv \not\equiv \ne \propto
\mapsto \longmapsto
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Geometric
Geometric symbols
\circ \bigcirc \Diamond \Box \triangle
\vartriangle \triangledown \triangleleft \triangleright \vartriangleright \vartriangleleft
\angle \sphericalangle \measuredangle 45^\circ
\perp \mid \nmid \| \asymp \parallel
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Arrows
Some more frequent types of arrows (there are many more – see in Wikipedia article)
\leftarrow \rightarrow \leftrightarrow \Leftarrow \Rightarrow \Leftrightarrow
\leftarrow \gets \rightarrow \to \not\to \leftrightarrow \longleftarrow \longrightarrow
\rightleftharpoons \leftleftarrows \leftrightarrows \Lleftarrow \leftarrowtail
\uparrow \downarrow \updownarrow \Uparrow \Downarrow \Updownarrow
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Special symbols
Some special symbols. There are many more in Wikipedia article
\S \P \% \dagger \ddagger \ldots \cdots
\smile \frown \wr \triangleleft \triangleright \infty \bot \top
\imath \hbar \jmath \surd \ast \amalg \therefore \backepsilon \sharp
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Summations, Integrals and Products
Several cases, including limits, sequences and series. Notice in the examples below that when you want to put the limits with the same vertical alignment of the math symbol, you must use the \limits declaration. Otherwise, the limits will be put ahead of the symbol.
\lim \limits_{n \to \infty}x_n
\lim _{n \to \infty}x_n
\sum_{k=1}^N k^2
\sum \limits_{k=1}^N k^2
\prod_{i=1}^N x_i
\prod \limits_{i=1}^N x_i
\coprod_{i=1}^N x_i
\coprod \limits_{i=1}^N x_i
\int_{-N}^{N} e^x\, dx
\int \limits_{-N}^{N} e^x\, dx
\iint_{D}^{W} \, dx\,dy
\iiint_{E}^{V} \, dx\,dy\,dz
\iiiint_{F}^{U} \, dx\,dy\,dz\,dt
\oint_{C} x^3\, dx + 4y^2\, dy
Obs – the declaration \, in the above integrals puts extra spaces between consecutive letters. See more about alignement on this post : LaTeX – Fine-tunning and some extras.
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Binomials
Binomials only. For matrices, see next post.
\binom{n}{p} = \frac{n!}{p!(n-p)!}

14 comments
Comments feed for this article
March 22, 2008 at 9:49 am
Math Resources Blog » LaTeX - Use of math symbols and equations
[...] Slava Pestov: [...]
March 22, 2008 at 12:11 pm
JoeV
Can you please host this information in pdf format?
March 22, 2008 at 4:20 pm
machinehuman
Nice post João! LaTeX is really nifty.
March 22, 2008 at 5:23 pm
Joao Kogler
Hi JoeV,
I’m still trying to figure out how practical could it be to leave this information only as a post or as a page. However, sooner I’ll make a pdf version joining all my recent posts in this subject. Check my homepage in about two weeks. I’m doing a large scale maintenance in my website by the moment.
March 23, 2008 at 3:37 am
jacob
Why not use \iff, \implies, etc., in favor of the longer “\blahblaharrow” forms?
March 23, 2008 at 3:38 am
jacob
* instead of, not in favor of
March 23, 2008 at 5:28 am
Joao Kogler
Yeah, Jacob, u’re right ! I was almost forgetting… too many blahblaharrows..
I’ll take care of them soon.
Thanks !
November 6, 2008 at 3:17 pm
Mauro
João, do you know what is the convention when representing the complement of a set? The obvious choice would be to use \bar, but it looks too small on capital letters like $\bar{\mathcal{M}}_{s_j}^l$ , for instance. $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{s_j}^l$ looks awfull as well (and apparently it’s not its intended use).
Obrigado. Bom trabalho.
November 7, 2008 at 5:43 pm
Mauro
Solved, I guess it is supposed to look like
. Thanks anyway.
November 9, 2008 at 3:13 pm
Joao Kogler
Hi Mauro, actually the \overline is the recommended for the complement of a set, given that it provides scalability to wider expressions. So, it should display
. The expression would show a better visual result if a space would be used before the exponent, like: $\overline{\mathcal{M}}_{s_j}^{\;l} $, that renders 
February 19, 2009 at 1:14 am
R Todd Nelson
I’m trying to find out how to write several symbols from Geometry, namely the symbols for “line AB”, “arc AB”, and “parallelogram ABCD”. Any help would be greatly appreciated!
February 19, 2009 at 10:32 pm
Joao Kogler
Hi Todd,
I’d use \stackrel{\frown}{AB} for arc AB, that is quite usual. However, I don’t know any usual simbols for “line AB”or “parallelogram ABCD”. You are free to create your own symbols. You’ll find in my posts several examples of how you could use LaTeX rules to build them. I’ll show some ideas:





segment AB: \overline{AB}
arc AB: \stackrel{\frown}{AB}
vector AB: \overrightarrow {AB}
angle AB: \widehat{AB}
triangle ABC: \triangle ABC
square ABCD: \Box ABCD
Maybe you’d consider using \diamond for the parallelogram, however it is not usual but could be used to avoid many repetitions of the word in a text.
April 28, 2009 at 3:57 am
JR
The package yhmath gives the command \wideparen, so write \usepackage{yhmath} in the preamble in order to use this command.
\begin{document}
$\wideparen{AB}$
\end{document}
Good Luck!!
May 15, 2009 at 4:10 pm
Hello world! « xcellenc
[...] Hello world! By alanzed Tonight I’ve made the switch-over from blogging on my localhost computer to onto the wordpress.com site. Hello world indeed. I’ve got to spend a bit of time fixing up older posts so the LaTeX comes up correctly, so I’ll be in editing mode for a while. Fortunately, there is lots of help WordPress + LaTeX. Kogler has a posting with a nice summary. [...]