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I have a write up that includes some math formulas. Does this discussion forum support entering math formulas in these text boxes? Simple stuff like a superscript for a square of a number. My guess is it’s simple text only.
Alternatively, if it’s acceptable, I can provide a link to a public Google Doc that has my write up. I’d rather not do that as it will cut down on the number of readers as they will be required to click a link.
Thanks for any guidance.
— Bruce Roberts
Maybe another relevant question is whether people will read a post with formulae….
All I know is F=ma and you can’t push a box with a string. 🙂
A test of posting with markdown (can you tell I was a software developer in a previous life?). All edits made through this editors toolbar controls:
Bold
Italic
Underline
StrikethroughQuoted Text
Code Block (code disappears when editing – let’s see if it shows up after posting)
Code Block 1
Code Block 2
Link to disqus text editor page
Spoiler
Spoiler line 2
Thanks all. Seems that this platform supports “plain text” only. I’ll look at redoing my formulas in plain text format with a legend like:
a^b = “a raised to the b power”
a x b = “a times b”
That should cover all I need.
It appears that Disqus gives the moderator the option of allowing image attachments (rich media) that could be used to insert math formulas. However, this option could be abused with inappropriate content and would require additional moderation.
Bruce, for any long posts or comments I type it in Word and then paste. I’m very excited to see something technical with equations!
Here’s an example of a Word document pasted into the Forum. Not sure if you can do superscripts directly in the comment box.
e = mc2
PV = PMT x [(1 – (1 + r)-n) / r]
Area = Pi x r2
I just noticed that the superscripts don’t show properly in the pasted version. When I did it last night I could have sworn it did? I bow to the other, smarter commenters.
Or you might consider using the sort of inline syntax for math symbols that Excel uses in formulas,
e.g., m*c^2 for what we would read aloud as
“m c squared.”
Area = pi*r^2.
This uses the asterisk * for multiplication and the caret ^ for exponentiation.
This could help a reader who wanted to copy that portion of the formula and paste it into Excel. It also removes ambiguity. You could insert some spaces for readability in the article, but if copied and pasted into Excel, some versions might complain.
If you decide to go this route,
keep in mind the standard order of operations: exponents and radicals (left to right) before multiply and divide (left to right) before add and subtract (left to right), and anything in parentheses evaluated first.
Excel doesn’t use square brackets, so just use layers of embedded parentheses. So the PV formula would look like
PMT*((1-(1+r)^(-n))/r).
Be careful to close all open parentheses by the end. I like to count how many are open as I go left to right,
e.g., in the right side of the PV formula
1 2 3 2 3 2 1 0.
If you’re unsure whether parentheses are needed somewhere for correct order of operations, use them; no harm done, and better safe than sorry.
Some text editors count parentheses for you with color-coding, which can then be copy/pasted into a spreadsheet. I’m happy to say those days are behind me. I don’t do a lot of aggressive computing nowadays.