Question for the Math Teachers out there.

[ShadowTiger]

A question for the math teachers out there, if you would; or anyone who frequently types complex mathematical formulas and/or problems on the computer.


What program do you use to type everything out? Simple integers (And possibly fractions.) are easy enough, certainly, but when it gets to things like complex fractions and exponents, it's all I can muster to just deal with the spaces and tabbings of it all.


Can anyone recommend a -free- ( :p ) word equivalent that is meant for typing out all things math related? Many thanks go to the bearer of such references.

[erm2003]

MS Word actually has something built into it that will let you type out almost anything fairly efficiently. It's called Equation Editor. Since I use it frequently I have it set as an icon in my tools area but you can find it by simply going to Insert -> Object and then selecting Microsoft Equation. If you plan on using it a lot then I would go to Tools -> Customize and look for the icon under the Insert menu. Drag it to your tools area and you can access it easily by just clicking on it. Play around and see what it does. If you have trouble finding something let me know.

[ShadowTiger]

Ahhh, thank you very much! I saw it online, but it actually cost some amount of money. I was actually expecting there to be some sort of external application (Like how Photoshop is different than MSPaint. :p ) I'm also downloading something now related to it, but I'll see about this first. Thanks a bunch! Really!

EDIT: Yeah, I took a look in MSWord, and it turns out that it's not in the list; must be an external application, as I suspected.

[Icey]

Look into TeX. It's a free typesetting program; if you don't know what that is, think of something halfway between computer code and normal text. I think it's easy enough to use and all and it's what everyone who does math for a living uses (all my TAs, professors, every homework handout I get...) I've used it plenty of times and it's awesome. You can also get LaTeX Beamer as a package (among many others) which will let you make powerpoint-esque presentations, with all the formulas and notation you want.

http://www.tug.org/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/TeX

[erm2003]

If Equation Editor isn't installed you may be able to download it for free from the Office Update site. When I install Office on my machine I install all the available options so I didn't even consider that it may not be installed with your program. If you have the CD for it you can always install it at some point to use it.

[AtmaWeapon]

TeX is a really good option but getting it to work is a major pain. I've tried and failed several times to use it for various things, and I have all the stupid LaTeX books that are recommended, but they're all reference manuals written by the source maintainers for engineers with expertise in typography. The math syntax is easy enough, but have fun setting it up on a Windows system.

The equation editor in Word works, but it's always been kind of a hassle to work with as well.

I think the next-best option would be to take a look at MathML (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/MathML); this would let you use familiar HTML for formatting. However, a quick scan of that article makes me wonder if it's not just better to go with a TeX solution. 20+ lines for the quadratic equation is a little telling about why you shouldn't let engineers loose on some things, and even makes a really good example why XML and derivative markup languages are about as good a fit for general tasks as Rush Limbaugh on a Vespa.

MiKTeX (http://miktex.org/) is about your best bet for getting LaTeX on Windows. The other methods involve installing a Cygwin package or having Linux. This is about as good a mathematics (http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/LaTeX/Mathematics) in LaTeX guide as any; be sure to check out the rest of the wikibook to get an idea what a document should look like. I'm thinking this is a crane to crush a fly compared to the Word equation editor, but I swear something traumatic happened when I used word once that made me give up on it.

[Icey]

I agree with AtmaWeapon. MiKTeX is your best bet, and while TeX is relatively easy to use, installing it can be a pain. I didn't have problems myself, but I know two or three highly intelligent people who were swearing at their machines trying to get it up and running (one of whom is a PhD student in physics at Stanford).

So, try getting MikTeX up and running and let me know if you have any issues, I would be more than happy to help in any way possible.

[ShadowTiger]

Thanks very much! I do feel like coding a bit to do all them fancy math things. http://www.purezc.com/forums/style_emoticons/default/icon_deformed.gif I'll take a look at MathML first, and then see if I can get MiKTeX up and running and see what it'll do.

You're all excellent.

For lack of anything else to think about to say.