How to put an \ast footnote in LaTeX

[thuy dm le]

I want to do something like the following in Math Mode:

* <---- (footnote)
a + b = c

[ ... ]

--------------

*
this is the footnote text

But after looking through the LaTeX book, I still can't
figure out how this can be done. Can some LaTeXperts
out there enlighten me on the subject?

Thanks in advance!

- Thuy
(t...@ucrmath.ucr.edu)

[Sanjay Rajopadhye]

One of the standard rules of thumb of writing style is to never put
footnotes in mathematical formulae. The (numerical) superscripts can be
misinterpreted as powers, and if you use \fnsymbol, the \ast \dagger, etc
could be confused with mathematical operators.

= Sanjay