# Using LaTeX in problems#

## What is LaTeX?#

LaTeX is a markup language that allows you to format the appearance of a document using specific syntax. In our project you will mostly be using it to typset mathematical formulas. Markdown supports LaTeX, you just need to surround it with $___$.

## Table of Math Symbols#

Here is a table of the main mathematical symbols you will be using.

Image credit for the above table is from Winston Chang.

## Examples#

To capitalize a greek letter, you just need to capitalize the first letter of it in LaTeX.

Ex:

\alpha and \Alpha

To create a fraction of LaTeX symbols, you can simply insert the symbols you need into the fraction function

Ex:

\frac{\alpha}{\theta\pi}

You can add LaTeX anywhere into your markdown code, as long as you surround it with $$...$$

The block travels on an incline of 30$$^{\circ}$$.

For superscripts:

$$3^4$$ should be $3^4$

$$3^{-4}$$ should be $3^{-4}$ since more than one character is being used in the superscript

## Issues with rendering LaTeX#

There are two locations in an .md question file to add LaTeX: in the YAML header, or in the markdown portion. There are separate issues and resolutions depending on where the LaTeX is entered, so this section is split into two.

### LaTeX in the Markdown portion#

LaTeX code might sometimes not render properly on PL. Most of the time, using two back slashes instead of one will solve the issue.

Some examples:

Issue

Fix

\frac{}{}

Use \dfrac{}{} or \\frac{}{}

\theta

\\theta

\vec{}

\\vec{}

Furthermore, if adding the extra back slash does not work, separating the LaTeX elements into different strings and then applying concatenation might fix the problem.

### LaTeX in the YAML header#

#### Storing and displaying answers with LaTeX elements#

Let’s assume that we have two variables t1 and t2 which are used to generate different answers each time a new variant of a question is created. The answers need to look like this eventually : $$\Delta_{v_{ t1 \to t2}}$$.

For example, if t1 = 3 and t2 = 5, the answer option would be $$\Delta_{v_{ 3 \to 5}}$$.

r"$\Delta v_{" + str(t1) + r"\to" + str(t2) + r"}$"

rf"$\Delta v_{{ {t1} \to {t2} }}$"