Homework 0

Note: you should read the full assignment prompt before getting started.

Your 0th assignment is to create your own profile for the wiki; you should have this done by Tuesday night. You can include as little or as much information about yourself as you like; this is meant to be your virtual introduction to the class, so post accordingly. It might also be nice if you would post a picture of yourself so that people can put a face to your name, but you aren't required to do so if you don't like. You are, however, required to include some mathematical expression using Wikidot's built-in LaTeX compiler, just so you get comfortable typesetting mathematics; you are encouraged to be creative in how you make your mathematical expression tie in to the rest of your profile.

You can check out Andy's profile if you want an example of what your profile might look like. After you've created your profile, check to make sure it appears on the Class Profiles page.

# Getting Started

On the left navigation panel of this page, there's a text-entry box below "add a new page." In that box you should type

profile:your-name-here


though of course you should substitute your actual name in place of "your-name-here". Clicking the button "new page" then takes you to a blank page which is yours to edit; in fact, it takes you straight to the editing panel. Play around so you get comfortable with how the Wiki formats text, and click "save" when you're done. Don't worry if you find that you made a mistake or want to later insert something else: you can change or add to your entry by clicking "edit" on the bottom right part of the page.

# Inserting Mathematics

Wikidot uses a markup language called LaTeX to generate properly typeset mathematics. Since you'll be posting to the forum and creating Wiki pages with serious mathematical content, it's good that you get some practice writing mathematical expressions in LaTeX.

## The Basics

When you're in the editing panel, you can insert mathematical expressions within your text (i.e., "inline") by using the code

[$your-mathematical-expression-here$]]


For instance, this sentence — which includes the equation $x^{2}+y^{2} = r^{2}$ — is typeset as

For instance, this sentence -- which includes the equation [[$x^{2}+y^{2} = r^{2}$]] -- is typeset as


You can also have your mathematical expressions separated from the text and placed on their own line for emphasis. For instance, if you wanted to type

Here's some fancy mathematics that I don't really understand

(1)
\begin{align} \log \zeta(s) = s\int_{2}^{\infty} \frac{\pi(x)}{x(x^{s}-1)}~dx = \log \prod_{p} (1-p^{-s})^{-1}. \end{align}

Man, that's complicated!

then you'd use the code

----
Here's some fancy mathematics that I don't really understand
[$] \log \zeta(s) = s\int_{2}^{\infty} \frac{\pi(x)}{x(x^{s}-1)}~dx = \log \prod_{p} (1-p^{-s})^{-1}. [$]
Man, that's complicated!
----


## Cheat sheet

There are not a lot of expressions for which you'll really need to know the LaTeX code, but here's a few that might be handy over time:

The expression you want The code you type
$a \mid b$ [[$a \mid b$]]
$p \nmid N$ [[$p \nmid N$]]
$7 \equiv 11 \mod{4}$ [[$7 \equiv 11 \mod{4}$]]
$n \in \mathbb{N} \subseteq \mathbb{Z}$ [[$n \in \mathbb{N} \subseteq \mathbb{Z}$]]
$\sum_{i=1}^{k} i^{2}$ [[$\sum_{i=1}^{k} i^{2}$]]
$\pi \pm j \mp k$ [[$\pi \pm j \mp k$]]

Wikidot also provides a brief summary of how to include mathematical expressions into the Wiki.

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page revision: 23, last edited: 02 Sep 2008 15:15