# Math and equations

There are several ways to make writing math in your documents as familiar as possible. Math can either be (1) inline or (2) displayed as an equation block. In addition to the usual MyST syntax, you can also use "dollar math", which is derived from $\LaTeX$ and surrounds inline math with single dollar signs ($), and equation blocks with two dollar signs ($$). The details of using inline math and equations are below. For example, here is an example of a cross-product, which we reference in the docs below! $\mathbf{u} \times \mathbf{v}=\left|\begin{array}{ll}u_{2} & u_{3} \\ v_{2} & v_{3}\end{array}\right| \mathbf{i}+\left|\begin{array}{ll}u_{3} & u_{1} \\ v_{3} & v_{1}\end{array}\right| \mathbf{j}+\left|\begin{array}{ll}u_{1} & u_{2} \\ v_{1} & v_{2}\end{array}\right| \mathbf{k}$ ## Inline Math¶ There are two ways to write inline math; (1) with a math role or (2) by wrapping it in single dollar signs. The output of these is the same (which you can see by looking at the AST and $\LaTeX$ outputs in the demo above). Using a math role is much less likely to collide with your writing if it includes dollars (e.g. 2.99). Occasionally, dollar signs that you do not intend to wrap math need to be escaped. These can be preceded by a backslash, that is \2.99, and the \ will not be displayed in your output. If using $\LaTeX$ as an output, these dollar-signs will also be properly escaped again! ## Equations¶ There are three ways to create an equation block: (1) a math directive (rather than a role for inline math); (2) wrap the equation in two dollar-signs, $$; or (3) use a statement directly (i.e. using AMS math). ### Math directives¶ The math directive takes no arguments and the body of the directive is the $\LaTeX$ style math. You can have an optional label parameter, which will label this equation for later cross-referencing, see below for more on that! ### Dollar math equations¶ You can also create equations by wrapping content with two dollar signs ($\$). In this syntax, you can use the \label{label-name} command to add a label. This can be quite convenient if your equations are small, the entire syntax can fit on a single line.

Using AMS Math Environments

In addition to a math directive and dollar-math syntax, you can also use AMS math, which is specifically using AMS Version 2.1.

You can label your equation with the standard \label{my-equation} that you would do in $\LaTeX$. The equation cross-referencing and numbering will work with the rest of your content.

Supported AMS Environments

equation
basic equation environment, similar to a math directive or dollar-math
multiline
variation equation, used for equations that don’t fit on a single line
gather
a group of consecutive equations when there is no alignment desired among them
align
used for two or more equations when vertical alignment is desired
Note that aligned (i.e. with the ed) is not an AMS environment and only works inside of or a math environment.
alignat
allows the horizontal space between equations to be explicitly specified.
flalign
stretches the space between the equation columns to the maximum possible width
matrix, pmatrix, bmatrix, Bmatrix, vmatrix, Vmatrix
The pmatrix, bmatrix, Bmatrix, vmatrix and Vmatrix have (respectively) (),[],{},||,and ‖‖ delimiters built in.
eqnarray
eqnarray is another supported math environment, it is not part of amsmath, and it is better to use align or equation+split instead

## Referencing Equations¶

As you have seen above, any equation can be labelled and cross-referenced in other parts of your document. For example, the start of this document had , which can be referenced here with a link and inline-preview. There are a few different ways to reference equations, with more details in .

### Labelling equations¶

The examples above all show how to label an equation in the interactive demos. With a directive, you can use the label option; with dollar-math and AMS math, you can use the \label{} syntax that is native to $\LaTeX$.

For example, a directive can be labelled as follows:

{math}
:label: my_label
my_math


To reference equations you can use a markdown link with the target, for example:
[](#cross) will create:

Coming from Sphinx? How to use eq and numref roles.

We recommend using markdown links, as the syntax is consistent across all references and citations. You can also have markup inside of the text link and dynamically insert enumeration. However, if you are familiar with roles in Sphinx, you can also use the eq and numref roles to cross-reference equations.

The eq role can be used for referencing math, and by default inserts the number in parenthesis, for example, . The label should be the first and only entry in the body of the role. The numref directive should be used if you want to refer to your equation with text or a non-standard format. As with other references you can use the %s or {number} to fill in the equation number (see ). Note that {name} does not work for equations as there is no text content to fill in.

TODO!

### Customizing Numbering¶

To change the reference format, you can use the frontmatter under the xxx field.

TODO!

## Math Macros¶


The math macros are parsed as yaml in the frontmatter and can easily be shared or inherited through project to page frontmatter. These are also inserted into any $\LaTeX$ outputs for creating professional PDF documents.

The key is the command that you are defining, in the demo above \dobs or \dpred, the command should include the \. The value of the entry should be the macro definition, if the definition contains #1 then there will be one required argument for the macro that should be supplied in braces when you use it (e.g. \dpred{m}). The macros can be nested as in the example where \dobs{\mref} uses two macros.

In the macro in the example above, \mathbf{d}_\text{pred}\left( #1 \right), the #1 is the first and only required argument, and is placed in between left and right brackets. The numbering for arguments starts at one, and other arguments can be added with #2, #3, etc. and then input in a command using \command{arg1}{arg2}.