what font/style to use to denote matrix and vector in Latex?
walala
I feel my current usage of symbol for matrix and vector may not be a
commonly used one in math literature. I want to check with you experienced
guys:
In text mode, when we say matrix A and vector x, what do we write in latex?
For example, my text goes like: "text text matrix A and vector x",
or "text text matrix $A$ and vector $x$",
which one is correct and accepted way?
In math equation mode, when we use matrix A and vector x, what do we write?
just normal
\begin{equation}
y=Ax
\end{equation}
something like this?
-Walala
William Park
Why don't you print/preview all of the choices, and decide which you want?!
--
William Park, Open Geometry Consulting, <openge...@yahoo.ca>
Linux solution for data management and processing.
walala
"William Park" <openge...@yahoo.ca> wrote in message
news:bva0su$po5lr$1...@ID-99293.news.uni-berlin.de...
> walala <miz...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> > Dear all,
> >
> > I feel my current usage of symbol for matrix and vector may not be a
> > commonly used one in math literature. I want to check with you
> > experienced guys:
> >
> > In text mode, when we say matrix A and vector x, what do we write in
> > latex?
> >
> > For example, my text goes like: "text text matrix A and vector x", or
> > "text text matrix $A$ and vector $x$", which one is correct and
> > accepted way?
> >
> > In math equation mode, when we use matrix A and vector x, what do we
> > write? just normal \begin{equation} y=Ax \end{equation}
> >
> > something like this?
> >
> > -Walala
>
> Why don't you print/preview all of the choices, and decide which you
want?!
>
The problem is that this is determined by the common practice in the math
literature, not decided by me. I want to learn the most formal notation and
then stick with that style...
-Walala
Danie Els
Unfortunately every body has his/her own notation and there is not
realy a well defined standard. It depends very much on the
application. If you are working in multiple reference axis systems
(dynamics, robotics, etc.) you need a rigid notation. If you are
working in higher order spaces, its better to go to index notation
(see tensind package). For normal linear algebra aplication "standard"
is bold symbols for vectors and matrices (lower case for vector and
uppercase for vectors). The Chicago Manual of Style states for
vectors: \boldsymbol{x} is the same as \overrightarrow{x} (not bold).
Look at the mattens package and its sample documentation. It is for
the "engineering" type uses (dynamics, robotics, etc.). I had based on
a well defined and documented notation. Please note that version 1.2
bugfix is comming soon (for \dddot accent in pdftex).
Danie Els
(dnjels at sun dot ac dot za)
Jellby
I use bold-italic for vectors (upper or lowercase, depending on the
magnitude represented), and sans-serif-slanted for matrices and tensors. I
have (re)defined the commands "\vec" and "\ten" to do that. (I've even
defined special commands for matrices with greek letters, sometimes I need
italic, sometimes slanted, hm...).
Vector modules are normal-italic, as are components (but these carry
subindices). These rules cover my needs at the moment.
--
Ignacio __ Fernández Galván
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Maarten Sneep
"walala" <miz...@yahoo.com> wrote:
> Dear all,
>
> I feel my current usage of symbol for matrix and vector may not be a
> commonly used one in math literature. I want to check with you experienced
> guys:
the NIST has a document called: "Typefaces for Symbols in Scientific
Manuscripts"
http://physics.nist.gov/Document/typefaces.pdf
This may be of use. (vectors: boldface italic, tensors are sans-serif
bold italic, matrices are boldface italic). It may be taylored to
physics, but it is written down by an institute with some authority in
the field.
HTMH
Maarten
Brooks Moses
> I feel my current usage of symbol for matrix and vector may not be a
> commonly used one in math literature. I want to check with you experienced
> guys:
>
> In text mode, when we say matrix A and vector x, what do we write in latex?
>
> For example, my text goes like: "text text matrix A and vector x",
> or "text text matrix $A$ and vector $x$",
> which one is correct and accepted way?
It seems that the question of what to do in math mode has been
addressed, but this question hasn't.
The answer is that the representation in text mode should be exactly
identical to the representation in math mode -- thus, the second of your
suggestions is closer to correct, although it should more accurately be
"text text matrix $\mat{A}$ and vector $\vec{x}$", where \mat is
whatever command you use to format a matrix in math mode, and \vec is
whatever command you use to format a vector. Similarly, ordinary
variables should be written as "scalar $q$", not as "scalar q".
There's even some argument for writing it exactly that way with the \mat
and \vec commands as written, and then defining them (or redefining, in
the case of \vec) in the document preamble or style file to the notation
that you are using in that paper. That means that you can change the
notation easily, and that if you copy an equation from a paper using one
notation and paste it in a paper using a different notation, you don't
have to worry about correcting the equation to account for that.
- Brooks
--
The "bmoses-nospam" address is valid; no unmunging needed.
Dr Engelbert Buxbaum
The conventions are apparently a little region specific, American texts
being somewhat plainer than European ones. I use the following
conventions in my texts, which give an output similar to what I am used
from my old school books:
\usepackage{textcomp,amsmath,amssymb}
\usepackage[mathscr]{eucal}
\newcommand{\skalar}[1]{\ensuremath{#1}} % Fonts for math-entities
\newcommand{\vektor}[1]{\ensuremath{\vec{\mathfrak{#1}}}}
\newcommand{\arr}[1]{\ensuremath{\mathscr{#1}}}
\newcommand{\tensor}[1]{\textsf{\bfseries{#1}}}
\newcommand{\set}[1]{\ensuremath{\mathbb{#1}}}
with vectors preferably in lower, matrices in upper-case letters.
Note that in the vektor-definition using caligraphic letters is not by
itself sufficient and the \vec is actually required, as \mathfrac{x} =
|\vektor{x}|.