Introducing LaTeX to the ToeQuest Forums

Robert · 12:56 PM

LaTeX support has been added to the Theory of Everything forums. I had the pleasure of modifying the vBulletin code these past few weeks and have it ready to go. Please let me know if you have any problems or suggestions and I'll get if fixed right away.

A note of caution... Yes LaTeX is cool and all that, but lets not go crazy with it. Remember, these forums are also targeted at those non-mathematically inclined individuals who are interested in the Theory of Everything at a higher level of abstraction. Like a book filled with equations is likely to scare off most potential buyers, a forum filled with equations may have a similar affect. Please use your LaTeX code only to clarify your points and not to show off your LaTeX programming ability.

OK...some comments on usage. The images are stored as png image files and do take up resources but are cached for quicker subsequent displays. When someone creates a new formula for the first time, its image is created once and then referenced anytime someone else creates the same formula. When you see a formula in a posting--and this is really neat--click the formula and a popup window will appear that shows the LaTeX code that was used to generate the image. There are also links in the popup window that will display additional LaTeX reference information. Remember, if you have popups disabled, you will need to enable them for the ToeQuest website for this to work.

Another usage note...you will need to surround your LaTeX code with tex tags...[ tex ] latex code here [ /tex ]. Note that the real tags do not include spaces. This works for inline formulas as well.

As a demonstration of what LaTeX can do, I've added a few images below with the corresponding LaTeX code that was used to produce the images.

[ math ] x^2 [ /math ] produces $x^2$

[ math ] x^2\sqrt{x}[ /math ] produces $x^2\sqrt{x}$

[ math ] \frac{\pi^2}{6} [ /math ] produces $\frac{\pi^2}{6}$

[ imath ] \sqrt{a^2+b^2} [ /imath ] produces $\sqrt{a^2+b^2}$

For more complicated formulas, check out the following formulas. Remember to click the formula to see the LaTeX code used to create them.

$\displaystyle\int_{0}^{1}\frac{x^{4}\left(1-x\right)^{4}}{1+x^{2}}dx= \frac{22}{7}-\pi$

$\begin{displaymath} \sum_{\substack{0<i<n \\ 1<j<m}} P(i,j) = \sum_{\begin{subarray}{l} i\in I\\ 1<j<m \end{subarray}} Q(i,j) \end{displaymath}$

$\begin{tabular}{c r @{.} l} Pi expression & \multicolumn{2}{c}{Value} \\ \hline $\pi$ & 3&1416 \\ $\pi^{\pi}$ & 36&46 \\ $(\pi^{\pi})^{\pi}$ & 80662&7 \\ \end{tabular}$

$\begin{displaymath} y = \left\{ \begin{array}{ll} a & \textrm{if $d>c$}\\ b+x & \textrm{in the morning}\\ l & \textrm{all day long} \end{array} \right. \end{displaymath}$

$\begin{displaymath} x^{2} \geq 0\qquad \textrm{for all }x\in\mathbb{R} \end{displaymath}$

$\begin{tabular}{|r|l|} \hline 7C0 & hexadecimal \\ 3700 & octal \\ \cline{2-2} 11111000000 & binary \\ \hline \hline 1984 & decimal \\ \hline \end{tabular}$

$\lim_{n \to \infty} \sum_{k=1}^n \frac{1}{k^2} = \frac{\pi^2}{6}$

$\begin{displaymath} \mathop{\mathrm{corr}}(X,Y)= \frac{\displaystyle \sum_{i=1}^n(x_i-\overline x) (y_i-\overline y)} {\displaystyle\biggl[ \sum_{i=1}^n(x_i-\overline x)^2 \sum_{i=1}^n(y_i-\overline y)^2 \biggr]^{1/2}} \end{displaymath}$

$\begin{displaymath} \mathbf{X} = \left( \begin{array}{ccc} x_{11} & x_{12} & \ldots \\ x_{21} & x_{22} & \ldots \\ \vdots & \vdots & \ddots \end{array} \right) \end{displaymath}$

$\setlength{\unitlength}{1mm} \begin{picture}(60,40) \put(30,20){\vector(1,0){30}} \put(30,20){\vector(4,1){20}} \put(30,20){\vector(3,1){25}} \put(30,20){\vector(2,1){30}} \put(30,20){\vector(1,2){10}} \thicklines \put(30,20){\vector(-4,1){30}} \put(30,20){\vector(-1,4){5}} \thinlines \put(30,20){\vector(-1,-1){5}} \put(30,20){\vector(-1,-4){5}} \end{picture}$

For Additional Information on LaTeX, check out the following references:

The Not So Short Introduction to LaTeX
LaTeX Symbol Reference

Feel free to post comments, problems, and questions regarding LaTeX to this thread. Ok, lets go check it out! Enjoy! --Robert