Discussion about math, puzzles, games and fun.   Useful symbols: ÷ × ½ √ ∞ ≠ ≤ ≥ ≈ ⇒ ± ∈ Δ θ ∴ ∑ ∫ • π ƒ -¹ ² ³ °

You are not logged in.

## #1 2005-09-15 19:28:28

MathsIsFun

Offline

### The math tag

I have now got LaTeX working for those who know what it is!

Example:

I did this using:

#### Code:

$f(x)=\int_{-\infty}^x e^{-t^2}dt$

The server creates a ".gif" file each time, so to avoid slowing things down, only use it when plain old "x=y+2" won't do!

Another example:

#### Code:

$x=\frac{-b\pm\sqrt{b^2-4ac}}{2a}$

Another example (definition of derivative):

#### Code:

$f^\prime(x)\ = \lim_{\Delta x\to0}\frac{f(x+\Delta x)-f(x)}{\Delta x}$

Another example:

#### Code:

$e^x=\sum_{n=0}^\infty\frac{x^n}{n!}$

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #2 2005-09-15 20:13:14

ganesh
Moderator

Offline

### Re: The math tag

Great....
It would take some time to be familiar with the codes

Character is who you are when no one is looking.

## #3 2005-09-16 05:57:17

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

good work! thanks a lot!

## #4 2005-09-16 07:38:26

Zach
Super Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

Boy let me tell you what:
I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too.
And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.

## #5 2005-09-16 07:53:36

MathsIsFun

Offline

### Re: The math tag

Great! This can be the place to test stuff (the "sandbox") - if it loads really slowly we will know it is the math tag doing it. (Well, we may not know because our browsers will cache the results, but a new visitor may see it load slowly)

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #6 2005-09-16 08:01:58

Zach
Super Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

The problem is; that your image writing CGI is really shoddy and the GIFs look bad.

Boy let me tell you what:
I bet you didn't know it, but I'm a fiddle player too.
And if you'd care to take a dare, I'll make a bet with you.

## #7 2005-09-16 16:49:48

justlookingforthemoment
Moderator

Offline

### Re: The math tag

But you have to admit...it's better than nothing Zach. Well done MathsIsFun!

## #8 2005-09-16 18:23:37

MathsIsFun

Offline

### Re: The math tag

The renderer isn't mine, it is "mimetex".

It is supposed to make formulas easier to present - so long as you can understand it and it doesn't take too long to render, then that are the first two criteria done. Fast is good, and mimetex seem to be reasonably fast.

Mimetex is fully self-contained, whilst other LaTeX renderers rely on 3 or 4 processes to complete the task (for example, arranging the letters and symbols, then outputting them to postscript using another package, then converting that to a gif using yet another package)

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #9 2005-09-17 23:16:24

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

normal

large

Last edited by kylekatarn (2007-02-03 00:18:32)

## #10 2005-09-17 23:22:10

MathsIsFun

Offline

### Re: The math tag

normal

large

I tried with a capital "L"

Apparently I can recompile the tag and "upsize" it so that large is normal - would that be better?

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #11 2005-09-17 23:29:56

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

latex tutorial @ here

## #12 2005-09-17 23:31:18

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

#### MathsIsFun wrote:

normal

large

I tried with a capital "L"

Apparently I can recompile the tag and "upsize" it so that large is normal - would that be better?

"normal" is a bit small. Large seems a nice size

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

normal

large

Large

LARGE

## #14 2005-09-18 05:06:39

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

what's the minitex version the forum is running?

## #15 2005-09-18 05:08:02

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

what's wrong with the following syntax:

It's valid latex. why is the forum's parser rejecting it?

Last edited by kylekatarn (2005-09-18 05:57:07)

## #16 2005-09-18 08:04:05

MathsIsFun

Offline

### Re: The math tag

This is the homepage for mimetex: http://www.forkosh.com/mimetex.html

If you have any suggestions about other renderers, I can have a look at them.

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #17 2005-09-18 10:48:01

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

mimtex is nice, but somehow the MATH tag only alows single-line commands

## #18 2005-09-18 17:47:40

MathsIsFun

Offline

### Re: The math tag

I will happily try other renderers - I could have a "mathtest" tag to try them out, I just don't want slow ones. Slow is no fun for anyone.

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #19 2005-09-19 01:22:28

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

why don't you talk with other admins?
for example, Valentin Vornicu from http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/

in that forum the latex support is very good. the main difference is that they use PHPBB instead of PUNBB(I really don't know what this means in terms of latex support)

Last edited by kylekatarn (2005-09-19 01:24:38)

## #20 2005-09-19 07:29:48

MathsIsFun

Offline

### Re: The math tag

Well, I have been researching, and have found a utility that can help. It takes "dvi" output and turns it into "png" in one step. This means that I may be able to use the standard "latex" program, (which creates "dvi"s). If I can crack this nut then we might have a better solution.

It could be CPU-intensive, so I would need to cache the answers (so it is only run once not every time someone looks at the page), maybe use the first 50 characters as an identifier, or something.

I will continue to investigate.

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #21 2005-09-19 09:29:52

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

you can produce MD5 hashes to identify each file

## #22 2005-09-19 19:03:59

MathsIsFun

Offline

### Re: The math tag

You may have noticed I am playing with the tag at the moment.

Don't worry, I can revert back easily.

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #23 2005-09-19 22:33:33

MathsIsFun

Offline

### Re: The math tag

A completely different method is now used for the math tag. They take longer to create using this method, but I cache the results, so it should be slow only once.

Are they pretty now?

(For those who know LaTeX, "\displaystyle" is the default format)

"The physicists defer only to mathematicians, and the mathematicians defer only to God ..."  - Leon M. Lederman

## #24 2005-09-19 23:34:50

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

yes! very pretty!

*claps*

## #25 2005-09-25 11:02:07

kylekatarn
Power Member

Offline

### Re: The math tag

Last edited by kylekatarn (2005-11-06 23:52:34)