Latex

Latex is a powerful technology to add mathematical expressions in documents, including websites. Here’s a few tips.

Standard operations

Expressions are surrounded in this markdown script with a dollar ($) symbol, which causes the rendering javascript engine to interpret the internal expression.

ie. $<expression>$

Standard symbols are prefixed with a \ character

Symbol	Expression	Comment	Example	Result
$\sum$	\sum	sum	\sum_{x=1}^{K}(r)	$\sum_{x=1}^{K}(r)$
$\int$	\int	integral	\int_{a}^{b} x^2 dx	$\int_{a}^{b} x^2 dx$
$\prod$	\prod	product	\prod_{i=a}^{b} f(i)	$\prod_{i=a}^{b} f(i)$

Further extension of these are also available

Symbol	Expression	Comment
$\iint$	\iint	double integral
$\iiint$	\iiint	triple integral
$\oint$	\oint	contour integral
$\oiint$	\oiint	closed surface integral
$\oiiint$	\oiiint	closed volume integral

Superscript and Subscript

Superscript, expressed with the hat ^ character, can be used to express a power function. An example of this is the famous Pythagorean triangle to calculate lengths of the sides of a triangle.

Symbol	Expression
$x^2 + y^2 = z^2$	x^2 + y^2 = z^2

Subscript, expressed with the underscore _ character, can be used to express limits or membership of a variable.

Symbol	Expression
$y = x_i$	y = x_i

The superscript and subscript can also modify the visual location of several items, by surrounding the argument with curly brackets {}, although support is limited

Symbol	Expression
$f(x)=x^{jk}$.	x^{i+j}.
$f(x)=x_{i+j}$.	x_{i+k}.
$f_{a+b}=g^{a - b}$.	f_{a+b} = g^{a - b}.

Brackets and Parenthesis

Type	LATEX markup	Renders as
Parentheses; round brackets	(x+y)	$(x+y)$
Brackets; square brackets	[x+y]	$[x+y]$
Braces; curly brackets	\{ x+y \}.	${x+y}$.
Angle brackets	\langle x+y \rangle	$\langle x+y \rangle$
Pipes vertical bars	|x+y|	$|x+y|$
Double pipes	||x+y||	$||x+y||$

Latex Greek Characters

Symbol	Expression
$\alpha A$	\alpha A
$\beta B$	\beta B
$\gamma \Gamma$	\gamma \Gamma
$\delta \Delta$	\delta \Delta
$\epsilon \varepsilon E$	\epsilon \varepsilon E
$\zeta Z$	\zeta Z
$\eta H$	\eta H
$\theta \vartheta \Theta$	\theta \vartheta \Theta
$\iota I$	\iota I
$\kappa K$	\kappa K
$\lambda \Lambda$	\lambda \Lambda
$\mu M$	\mu M
$\nu N$	\nu N
$\xi \Xi$	\xi \Xi
$o O$	o O
$\pi \Pi$	\pi \Pi
$\rho \varrho P$	\rho \varrho P
$\sigma \Sigma$	\sigma \Sigma
$\tau T$	\tau T
$\upsilon \Upsilon$	\upsilon \Upsilon
$\phi \varphi \Phi$	\phi \varphi \Phi
$\chi X$	\chi X
$\psi \Psi$	\psi \Psi
$\omega \Omega$	\omega \Omega

Arrows

Symbol	Expression
$\leftarrow$	\leftarrow
$\Leftarrow$	\Leftarrow
$\rightarrow$	\rightarrow
$\Rightarrow\;$	\Rightarrow
$\leftrightarrow$	\leftrightarrow
$\rightleftharpoons$	\rightleftharpoons
$\uparrow$	\uparrow
$\downarrow$	\downarrow
$\Uparrow\;$	\Uparrow
$\Downarrow$	\Downarrow
$\Leftrightarrow\;$	\Leftrightarrow
$\Updownarrow$	\Updownarrow
$\mapsto$	\mapsto
$\longmapsto\;$	\longmapsto
$\nearrow$	\nearrow
$\searrow$	\searrow
$\swarrow$	\swarrow
$\nwarrow$	\nwarrow
$\leftharpoonup$	\leftharpoonup
$\rightharpoonup$	\rightharpoonup
$\leftharpoondown$	\leftharpoondown
$\rightharpoondown$	\rightharpoondown

Miscellaneous Symbols

Symbol	Expression
$\infty\;\;$	\infty
$\forall\;$	\forall
$\Re$	\Re
$\Im$	\Im
$\nabla$	\nabla
$\exists$	\exists
$\partial$	\partial
$\nexists$	\nexists
$\emptyset$	\emptyset
$\varnothing\;$	\varnothing
$\wp$	\wp
$\complement$	\complement
$\neg$	\neg
$\cdots$	\cdots
$\square$	\square
$\surd$	\surd
$\blacksquare$	\blacksquare
$\triangle$	\triangle

Binary Operations and Relation Symbols

Symbol	Expression
$\times$	\times
$\div$	\div
$\cap$	\cap
$\cup$	\cup
$\neq\;$	\neq
$\leq$	\leq
$\geq$	\geq
$\in$	\in
$\perp\;$	\perp
$\notin$	\notin
$\subset$	\subset
$\simeq$	\simeq
$\approx$	\approx
$\wedge$	\wedge
$\vee$	\vee
$\oplus\;$	\oplus
$\otimes$	\otimes
$\Box$	\Box
$\boxtimes$	\boxtimes
$\equiv$	\equiv
$\cong$	\cong