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math mode trouble question

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upro

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May 30, 2004, 5:29:00 PM5/30/04
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Hi there!


I have a small trouble in math mode:

I am witing an essay where I use the Greek letters Phi and phi. I
started that paragraph with \begin{math}, and write \Phi resp. \phi
whgere I ant to use the letter.

The problem is, that after the forst use of it (a) LaTeX ignores all
whitespace, and (b) prints all in italics.

Here's an excerpt:

\begin{math}

Der Zahlenwert des goldenen Schnitts, 1.61803, wird in der Mathematik
\Phi Phi mit großem P genannt, ihre Variante 0.61803 \phi phi
(=\phi-1) mit kleinem p. \Phi hat also einen Namen wie eine Konstante,
wie etwa \pi pi oder die Euler'sche Zahl e. Nun sind \pi und e
Zahlen, die durch die Natur vorgegeben zu sein scheinen. Wie aber
steht es mit \Phi, also dem goldenen Schnitt?

\end{math}


Caon someone please tell me what my mistake is?


Thanks a lot!

--
Michael

r-znvy: zvpunry.wryqra jro.qr (chg gur "@" jurer vg svgf...)
ab fcnz cyrnfr

Lars Madsen

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May 31, 2004, 3:17:31 AM5/31/04
to

That's because LaTeX ignores all white spaces in math mode, and the math
font used for letters is basically italic ;-)

(1) Why do you write the entire text in math mode in the first plase??

(2) If you are a new user why haven't you read any introductions on LaTeX?

Solution: Remove the \begin{math} \end{math} pair and replace the greek
letters by e.g. $\pi$

for upright greekletters you will properly need a special font. Have a
look at the section about greek in the new LaTeX Companion 2. edition


--
/daleif (remove RTFSIGNATURE from email address)

LaTeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
AMSMATH Intro: http://www.ams.org/tex/short-math-guide.html
LaTeX Intro: http://people.ee.ethz.ch/~oetiker/lshort/lshort.pdf
Graphics Intro: http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/info/epslatex.pdf
Superb Class:
http://www.ctan.org/tex-archive/help/Catalogue/entries/memoir.html
Remember to post minimal working examples.

upro

unread,
May 30, 2004, 6:35:49 PM5/30/04
to
"Lars Madsen" <dal...@rtfsignatureimf.au.dk> writes:

> On Sun, 30 May 2004 23:29:00 +0200, upro <up...@gmx.net> wrote:
>
>> Hi there!
>>
>>
>> I have a small trouble in math mode:
>>
>> I am witing an essay where I use the Greek letters Phi and phi. I
>> started that paragraph with \begin{math}, and write \Phi resp. \phi
>> whgere I ant to use the letter.
>>
>> The problem is, that after the forst use of it (a) LaTeX ignores all
>> whitespace, and (b) prints all in italics.
>>
>> Here's an excerpt:
>>
>> \begin{math}
>>
>> Der Zahlenwert des goldenen Schnitts, 1.61803, wird in der Mathematik
>> \Phi Phi mit großem P genannt, ihre Variante 0.61803 \phi phi
>> (=\phi-1) mit kleinem p. \Phi hat also einen Namen wie eine Konstante,
>> wie etwa \pi pi oder die Euler'sche Zahl e. Nun sind \pi und e
>> Zahlen, die durch die Natur vorgegeben zu sein scheinen. Wie aber
>> steht es mit \Phi, also dem goldenen Schnitt?
>>
>> \end{math}
>>
>>
>> Caon someone please tell me what my mistake is?
>>
>>
>> Thanks a lot!
>>
>
> That's because LaTeX ignores all white spaces in math mode, and the
> math font used for letters is basically italic ;-)
>
> (1) Why do you write the entire text in math mode in the first plase??

Because I'm only using the name of the greek letter Phi in a section
of my document.

>
> (2) If you are a new user why haven't you read any introductions on LaTeX?

Well, I'm not really a new user of LaTeX, I've used if for several
years now. Never for any maths stuff though. I just didn't find the
solution in the doc!

>
> Solution: Remove the \begin{math} \end{math} pair and replace the
> greek letters by e.g. $\pi$

That's it! Thanks, this was not mentioned in any doc I have found. Now
I know!

>
> for upright greekletters you will properly need a special font. Have a
> look at the section about greek in the new LaTeX Companion 2. edition

Upright or italics for the greek doesn't matter. I was only wirried
for the rest of the text!

Thanks again!

Saravanan,M.

unread,
May 31, 2004, 1:32:38 AM5/31/04
to
Hi,

Remove the extra enter # between the starting and ending of your "math" environment.

\begin{math}
.....
\end{math}

Best of Luck
Saravanan,M.
India


upro <up...@gmx.net> wrote in message news:<87y8n9w...@lux99.localhost>...

Donald Arseneau

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May 31, 2004, 4:28:00 AM5/31/04
to
upro <up...@gmx.net> writes:

> I have a small trouble in math mode:

> \begin{math}


>
> Der Zahlenwert des goldenen Schnitts, 1.61803, wird in der Mathematik
> \Phi Phi mit großem P genannt, ihre Variante 0.61803 \phi phi
> (=\phi-1) mit kleinem p. \Phi hat also einen Namen wie eine Konstante,

That is VERY silly. Put the math in math mode, not the text!

\begin{math} is much too tedious. Type $ or \( instead:

Der Zahlenwert des goldenen Schnitts, $1.61803$, wird in der Mathematik
$\Phi$ Phi mit großem $P$ genannt, ihre Variante $0.61803\,\phi$ phi
($=\phi-1$) mit kleinem $p$. $\Phi$ hat also einen Namen wie eine Konstante,
wie etwa $\pi$ pi oder die Euler'sche Zahl $e$. Nun sind $\pi$ und $e$.

(My selections of math might be wrong, seeing as how I can't
read the text :-)


Donald Arseneau as...@triumf.ca

Ian Konen

unread,
Jun 1, 2004, 11:31:03 AM6/1/04
to
Donald Arseneau wrote:

>
> Der Zahlenwert des goldenen Schnitts, $1.61803$, wird in der Mathematik

Off-topic for the original question, but I've wondered if I should
always use math mode for normal numbers. It obviously works better for
negative numbers, where the "-" should be a negative sign instead of a
hyphen. I guess perhaps the "." could be being interpreted differently.
Do you just make it a habit to use math mode for all numbers, or is
there a particular reason (like the decimal point) that this number
should be in math mode?

--
---------------------------------
Ian Konen
Postdoctoral Researcher
Department of Chemistry
University of Pennsylvania
215-898-5765
usenet.2...@spamgourmet.com
---------------------------------

Jean-Come Charpentier

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Jun 1, 2004, 3:58:00 PM6/1/04
to
Ian Konen wrote:
> Donald Arseneau wrote:
>
>>
>> Der Zahlenwert des goldenen Schnitts, $1.61803$, wird in der Mathematik
>
>
> Off-topic for the original question, but I've wondered if I should
> always use math mode for normal numbers. It obviously works better for
> negative numbers, where the "-" should be a negative sign instead of a
> hyphen. I guess perhaps the "." could be being interpreted differently.
> Do you just make it a habit to use math mode for all numbers, or is
> there a particular reason (like the decimal point) that this number
> should be in math mode?
>

One reason. By the way, you don't have to think :-)

Rule: I typeset math => I use math delimitors (i.e. I use math modes)

Examples: June, the 6th.
But: This equation have $2$ roots.

More seriously, some (La)TeX features apply to math modes (fonts,
spaces, ...) then it's really better to think in terms of logic (the
rule above).

Jean-C\^ome Charpentier

Donald Arseneau

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Jun 1, 2004, 4:28:19 PM6/1/04
to
Ian Konen <usenet.2...@spamgourmet.com> writes:

> Off-topic for the original question, but I've wondered if I should always use
> math mode for normal numbers.

I, lazily, don't usually put numbers in math mode, and it has bit
me on occasions where the math digits look different from the
text digits. The best advice is to put math in math mode, even
if you could easily type it in text mode. Not all number imply
math though!

Shifting off-off-topic quickly, I find it absurd that the "lowercase"
digits used for text are found in a math font, but the text font
contains the "lining" digits necessary for math.

Did I just say that the character layout of the computer modern fonts
was absurd? Big revelation.

> reason (like the decimal point) that this number should be in math mode?

With the default computer modern, the digits come from the same font
in math and roman text. The decimal point is taken from different fonts
though! I don't see any difference of appearance. Annoyingly, the
math decimal is coded at the ":" character instead of "."! Absurd.


Donald Arseneau as...@triumf.ca

Adrian Burd

unread,
Jun 2, 2004, 8:28:11 AM6/2/04
to
>>>>> "Donald" == Donald Arseneau <as...@triumf.ca> writes:

Donald> Did I just say that the character layout of the computer
Donald> modern fonts was absurd?

Blasphemer! Bring out the comfy chair!

--
Adrian Burd, Department of Marine Sciences,
University of Georgia, Athens, GA 30602-3636
Tel: 706-542-1604 Fax: 706-542-5888
URL: http://halodule.marsci.uga.edu

Dan Luecking

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Jun 2, 2004, 12:00:20 PM6/2/04
to
On 01 Jun 2004 13:28:19 -0700, Donald Arseneau <as...@triumf.ca> wrote:

>Ian Konen <usenet.2...@spamgourmet.com> writes:
>
>> reason (like the decimal point) that this number should be in math mode?
>
>With the default computer modern, the digits come from the same font
>in math and roman text. The decimal point is taken from different fonts
>though! I don't see any difference of appearance. Annoyingly, the
>math decimal is coded at the ":" character instead of "."! Absurd.

There is a (practical) difference in appearence at large sizes: In the
standard setup there are different numbers of optical variants: 12
is the largest point size for cmmi, and 17 is the the largest for cmr.
At sizes larger than 12pt, we have a scaled cmmi12 dot and an unscaled
cmr dot (size <= 17) or scaled cmr17 dot.

They do look different. This is one reason mathdots.sty uses the math
dot for \vdots, etc.: so that these vertically-oriented multiple-dot
commands match the horizontally-oriented ones. However, the multiple
dot math accents \dddot, etc., use the text dots, trying to match the
cm accent \ddot as closely as possible.


Dan

--
Dan Luecking Department of Mathematical Sciences
University of Arkansas Fayetteville, Arkansas 72701
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