.. _LaTeX notation:

LaTeX notation
==============

LaTeX is the de facto standard mark-up language for mathematical notation. 
It's syntactically very simple, but there's a fairly steep learning curve in learning the names of commands.

In Numbas, **inline maths** (maths notation that sits on the same line as the surrounding text) is delimited either by dollar signs, e.g.::

    Calculate the expansion up to the $x^4$ term.

produces

    Calculate the expansion up to the :math:`x^4` term.

**Display-mode** maths, which is displayed on its own line and rendered less compactly, is delimited by ``\[`` and ``\]``. 
For example::

    The quadratic formula is \[ x = \frac{ -b \pm \sqrt{ b^2-4ac } }{ 2a } \]

produces

    The quadratic formula is 
    
    .. math::

        x = \frac{ -b \pm \sqrt{ b^2-4ac } }{ 2a }
    
If you've never used LaTeX before, a couple of good places to start are the `LaTeX maths Wikibook <https://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Mathematics>`_ and the `Art of Problem Solving LaTeX Guide <https://artofproblemsolving.com/wiki/index.php/LaTeX:Commands>`_. 
Bear in mind that LaTeX is only used for maths-mode, so the text-mode LaTeX commands don't apply.

To find the command for a symbol you want to use, draw it in `Detexify <https://detexify.kirelabs.org/classify.html>`_ and it will show you the commands for the most similar-looking symbols.

MathJax
-------

Numbas uses `MathJax <https://www.mathjax.org>`_ to render LaTeX notation. 
The default Numbas theme loads MathJax from `cdnjs.org <https://www.cdnjs.org>`_, a free service provided by a combination of sponsors. 

If you'd like your exams to load MathJax from a different location, you can set your preferred URL in your account settings page: click on the account dropdown at the top-right of the page, then :guilabel:`Settings`.
Any exams or questions you download from the editor will load MathJax from your preferred URL.