I just wanted to see if I could get some simple mathematics into this blog. Not so much for my own needs, but because my brother (who is a far better mathematician than I am, but rather less adventurous when it comes to using computers) has been wanting to do so for a while, but hasn't been able to find a suitable system.
If you want to
write about mathematics you need some way to describe the formulae, as the “mathematical keyboard” does not yet appear to have been invented. The most commonly-used mathematical typesetting system is probably Donald Knuth's
TEX, which provides a very versatile language for describing mathematical expressions in relatively plain text. I started my search on the assumption that there has to be
some way of integrating T
EX with the popular Blogger platform that I and many others use. There are other languages for describing mathematics, including a markup (HTML-like) language called MathML, and this solution can be adapted (by reading applications documentation) to handle some others.
Ideally the author should just be able to type T
EX-style input and have wonderful formulae appear automatically. In other words when you want to talk about the probability of getting \(k\) heads when flipping \(n\) coins you should be able to write
\[P(E) = {n \choose k} p^k (1-p)^{n-k}\]
and have it appear as
\[P(E) = {n \choose k} p^k (1-p)^{n-k}\]
(EDIT: Formula corrected Nov 25, 2011)
Note that the \(k\) and \(n\) in the paragraph above the formula, as well as those in this one, are properly represented in mathematical notation, and therefore identifiable as mathematical symbols, because they are so flagged in the body of the text—you can write simple or complex formulae inline as well as in separate expressions like the one above. I achieved this result using the
MathJax system, which uses Javascript to render complex mathematics in the browser. The really nice part is that there's nothing to install, because
MathJax is downloaded by the reader's browser. I'd welcome similar instructions for other blogging platforms in the comments if readers want to help users of those other platforms.
I realize that these instructions are detailed and therefore somewhat tedious, but I wanted them to be as useful and as simple as possible. Unfortunately the authors of
MathJax make a very common mistake of software authors - they assume that their readers know enough to already understand how
MathJax is used on the web. The people who
really need to know this stuff are working mathematicians, scientists and engineers. While they are often as smart as all get-up they mostly don't have the time to develop great insight into web technologies, and I am hoping this proves they don't need to.
As usual, however, the assumption is that users will be happy to pick up whatever skills they need to get the job done. The
MathJax site has examples in it, but nothing that really shows you exactly how to get that mathematics into your pages. I hope to provide those missing steps here. Please note, however, that
I know very little about TEX, and cannot help you to find representations for specific formulae. As a working computer scientist I often have to learn enough about a “foreign” system to be able to demonstrate a concept. This blog post is intended to provide no more than a simple proof-of-concept, and I will not be responsible for any limitations of or problems with
MathJax, Blogger or these instructions.
The first thing to do is to make sure your post includes a couple of pieces of information. You have to insert configuration data for
MathJax (there are various options you can explore once you understand its principles). You must also include a request to load the actual code of
MathJax, which is conveniently stored at multiple locations on the internet under a single name—a “content delivery network” determines your closest location and sends the code from there.
There are two different ways to inject this code. The simpler way, which I have used for this post and describe here, inserts these instructions in each individual post. If you want mathematics in every post then you should consider moving the configuration data and code request into your blog template, so you do not need to repeat the insertion for each post. This more advanced method is beyond the scope of this article, but I mention it for those bloggers who know enough to be able to use it.
So, create a new post for your blog, and then switch to the HTML input mode. Copy the text from the area immediately below and paste it in
at the start of your HTML input window:
(You might want to follow the final ">" with an x that you use to set the cursor after the code, which should begin the post). Then go back into standard compose mode and, as an example, enter the following text:
A Cross Product Formula
\[\mathbf{V}_1 \times \mathbf{V}_2 = \begin{vmatrix}
\mathbf{i} & \mathbf{j} & \mathbf{k} \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial u} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial u} & 0 \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial v} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial v} & 0
\end{vmatrix} \]
Hopefully, if all has gone well, you can now see this when you preview your blog page:
A Cross Product Formula
\[\mathbf{V}_1 \times \mathbf{V}_2 = \begin{vmatrix}
\mathbf{i} & \mathbf{j} & \mathbf{k} \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial u} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial u} & 0 \\
\frac{\partial X}{\partial v} & \frac{\partial Y}{\partial v} & 0
\end{vmatrix} \]
As I believe I mentioned, this is largely a proof-of-concept post. I can't imagine why the MathJax guys haven't published this already. It's possible they already have an application note about about this, but if not then they are free to link to this article to help their users (hello, MathJax users).
So there you have it. This could make it much easier to talk about mathematics on the web. Please let me know if anything isn't clear, and I will try to correct it until it is. Otherwise, just have fun blogging mathematics!
