Quick LaTeX guide

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 
[[math]] 
\log \zeta(s) = s\int_{2}^{\infty} \frac{\pi(x)}{x(x^{s}-1)}~dx = \log \prod_{p} (1-p^{-s})^{-1}.
[[/math]] 
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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