Math and equations#
Math can be written in the common LaTeX markup. There are several syntaxes to define inline and block math, depending on your preference.
1. Math role and directive#
The math role and directive are used used to define inline and block math respectively.
The directive supports multiple equations, which should be separated by a blank line.
Each single equation can have multiple aligned lines, which should be separated by \\ characters, and each line can have multiple & characters to align the equations.
The label option can also be used to reference the equation later on, with the eq role.
Since Pythagoras, we know that {math}`a^2 + b^2 = c^2`.
```{math}
:label: mymath
(a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2
(a + b)^2 &= (a + b)(a + b) \\
&= a^2 + 2ab + b^2
```
The equation {eq}`mymath` is a quadratic equation.
See also
Sphinx documentation on the role and directive, and math support for HTML outputs in Sphinx.
2. Dollar delimited math#
Enabling the dollarmath extension will allow parsing the following syntax:
Inline math:
$...$Display (block) math:
$$...$$
Additionally if myst_dmath_allow_labels=True is set (the default):
Display (block) math with equation label:
$$...$$ (1)
$$
(a + b)^2 &= (a + b)(a + b) \\
&= a^2 + 2ab + b^2
$$ (mymath2)
The equation {eq}`mymath2` is also a quadratic equation.
Escaping Dollars
Math can be escaped (negated) by adding a \ before the first symbol, e.g. \$a$ renders as $a$.
Escaping can also be used inside math, e.g. $a=\$3$ renders as \(a=\$3\).
Conversely \\ will negate the escaping, so \\$a$ renders as \\(a\).
3. Direct LaTeX Math#
Enabling the amsmath extension will directly parse the following top-level math environments:
equation, multline, gather, align, alignat, flalign, matrix, pmatrix, bmatrix, Bmatrix, vmatrix, Vmatrix, eqnarray.
As expected, environments ending in * will not be numbered, for example:
\begin{gather*}
a_1=b_1+c_1\\
a_2=b_2+c_2-d_2+e_2
\end{gather*}
\begin{align}
a_{11}& =b_{11}&
a_{12}& =b_{12}\\
a_{21}& =b_{21}&
a_{22}& =b_{22}+c_{22}
\end{align}