Wikipedia:Manu

al of
Style/Mathematic
s
< Wikipedia:Manual of Style

This guideline is a part of the

English Wikipedia's Manual of Style.
It is a generally accepted standard that
editors should attempt to follow, though
it is best treated with common sense,
and occasional exceptions may apply.
Any substantive edit to this page should
reflect consensus. When in doubt,
discuss first on the talk page.
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Overview · Contents · Tips

v · t · e (https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Template:Style&action=edit)

This subpage of the Manual of Style

contains guidelines for writing and
editing clear, encyclopedic,
attractive, and interesting articles on
mathematics and for the use of
mathematical notation in Wikipedia
articles on other subjects. For
matters of style not treated on this
subpage, follow the main Manual of
Style and its other subpages to
achieve consistency of style
throughout Wikipedia.
Structure

Probably the hardest part of writing

a Wikipedia article on a
mathematical topic, and generally
any Wikipedia article, is addressing
a reader's level of knowledge. For
example, when writing about a field
in the context of abstract algebra, is
it best to assume that a reader is
already familiar with group theory?
A general approach to writing an
article is to start simple and then
move towards more abstract and
technical subjects later on in the
article.

Article introduction

Articles should start with a short

introductory section, called the
"lead". The purpose of the lead is to

describe and define the subject,

 provide context regarding the
subject,
and summarize the article's most
important points.

The lead should, as much as

possible, be accessible to a general
reader, so specialized terminology
and symbols should be avoided.
Formulas should appear in the first
paragraph only if necessary, since
they will not be displayed in the
preview that pops up when hovering
over a link. For having formulae
displayed when hovering, they must
be written in raw html (without
template {{var}}) or {{math}}), or in
LaTeX (inside <math>...</math>). In
the latter case the LaTeX source is
displayed without the tags <math>
and </math>.

In general, the lead sentence should

include the article title, or some
variation thereof, in bold along with
any alternate names, also in bold.
The lead sentence should state that
the article is about a topic in
mathematics, unless the title
already does so. It is safe to
assume that a reader is familiar with
the subjects of arithmetic, algebra,
geometry, and that they may have
heard of calculus, but are likely
unfamiliar with it. For articles that
are on these subjects, or on simpler
subjects, it can be assumed that the
reader is not familiar with the
aforementioned subjects. A reader
can be assumed to be ignorant of
any topics outside of that scope or
more advanced topics.

The lead sentence should informally

define or describe the subject. For
example:

In mathematics, topology
(from the Greek τόπος, 'place',
 and λόγος, 'study') is concerned
with the properties of a
geometric object that are
preserved under continuous
deformations, such as
stretching, twisting, crumpling
and bending, but not tearing or
gluing.
In Euclidean plane geometry,
Apollonius's problem is to
construct circles that are
tangent to three given circles in
a plane.

The lead section should include,

when appropriate:

Historical motivation, including

names and dates, especially if the
article does not have a "History"
section. The origin of the subject's
name should be explained if it is not
self-evident.
 An informal introduction to the topic,
without rigor, suitable for a general
audience. The appropriate audience
for the overview will vary by article,
but it should be as basic as
reasonable. The informal
introduction should clearly state
that it is informal, and that it is only
stated to introduce the formal
approach. Include a physical or
geometric analogy or diagram if it
can help introduce the topic.
Motivation or applications, which
can illuminate the use of the topic
and its connections to other areas
of mathematics or other non-
mathematical subjects.

Article body

Readers have differing levels of

experience and knowledge. When in
doubt, articles should define the
notation they use. For example,
some readers will immediately
recognize that Δ(K) means the
discriminant of a number field, but
others will never have encountered
the notation. The latter group will be
helped by an aside like "...where
Δ(K) is the discriminant of the field
K".

Use standard notation when

possible. If an article requires non-
standard or uncommon notation,
they should be defined. For
example, an article that uses x^n or
x**n to denote exponentiation
(instead of xn) should define the
notations. If an article requires
extensive notation, consider
introducing the notation as a
bulleted list or separating it into a
section titled "Notation".

An article about a mathematical

object should provide an exact
definition of the object, perhaps in a
"Definition" section after section(s)
of motivation. For example:

Let S and T be topological

spaces, and let f be a function
from S to T. Then f is called
continuous if, for every open
set O in T, the preimage f −1(O)
is an open set in S.

The phrase "formal definition" may

help to flag the actual definition of a
concept for readers unfamiliar with
academic terminology, in which
"definition" means formal definition,
and a "proof" is always a formal
proof.

When the topic is a theorem, the

article should provide a precise
statement of the theorem.
Sometimes this statement will be in
the lead, for example:
 Lagrange's theorem, in the
mathematics of group theory,
states that for any finite group
G, the order (number of
elements) of every subgroup H
of G divides the order of G.

Other times, it may be better to

separate the statement into its own
section, as for long theorems like
the Poincaré–Birkhoff–Witt
theorem, or to present multiple
equivalent formulations, as for
Nakayama's lemma.

Representative examples and

applications help to illustrate
definitions and theorems and to
provide context for why they might
be interesting. Shorter examples
may fit into the main exposition of
the article, such as the discussion at
Algebraic number theory § Failure of
unique factorization, while others
may deserve their own section, as in
Chain rule § First example. Multiple
related examples may also be given
together, as in Adjunction formula
§ Applications to curves.
Occasionally, it is appropriate to
give a large number of
computationally-flavored examples,
as in Lambert W function
§ Applications. It may also be
edifying to list non-examples, which
almost-but-not-quite satisfy the
definition. In keeping with the
purpose and tone of an
encyclopedia, examples should be
informative rather than instructional
(see WP:NOTTEXTBOOK for
details).

A picture can really bring home a

point, and can often precede the
mathematical discussion of a
concept. How to create graphs for
Wikipedia articles contains some
details on how to create graphs and
other pictures as well as how to
include them in articles.

Formulas tend to repel less

mathematical readers, and
mathematics articles should take
pains to explain (or even replace)
them by words if possible. In
particular, the English words "for all",
"exists", and "in" should be preferred
to the corresponding symbols ∀, ∃,
and ∈. Similarly, definitions should
be highlighted with words such as
"is defined by" in the text.

If not included in the introduction, a

history section can provide
additional context and details on the
topic's motivation and connections.

Concluding matters

Most mathematical ideas are

capable of some form of
generalization. If appropriate, such
material can be put under a
"Generalizations" section. As an
example, multiplication of the
rational numbers can be generalized
to other fields.

It is also generally good to have a

"See also" section in an article. The
section should link to related
subjects, or to pages which could
provide more insight into the
contents of the article. More details
on "See also" sections can be found
at Wikipedia:Manual of Style/Layout
§ "See also" section. Lastly, a well-
written and complete article should
have a "References" section. This
topic is discussed in detail in the
section § Including literature and
references.

Writing style in
mathematics
There are several issues of writing
style that are particularly relevant in
mathematical writing.

In the interest of clarity, sentences

should not begin with a symbol. Do
not write:

Suppose that G is a group. G can

be decomposed into cosets, as
follows.
Let H be the corresponding
subgroup of G. H is then finite.

Instead, write something like:

A group G may be decomposed

into cosets, as follows.
Let H be the corresponding
subgroup of G. Then H is finite.

Mathematics articles are often

written in a conversational style
similar to a whiteboard lecture.
However, a narrative pedagogical
style runs counter to Wikipedia's
recommended encyclopedic tone.
While opinions vary on the most
edifying style, authors should
generally strike a balance between
bare lists of facts and formulae, and
relying too much on addressing the
reader directly and referring to "we".
Also avoid contentless clichés as
Note that, It should be noted that,
It must be mentioned that, It must
be emphasized that, Consider
that, and We see that. There is no
use in imploring the reader to take
note of each thing being pointed
out. Rather than drawing the
reader's attention to crucial
information buried in the text, try to
reorganize and rephrase to put the
crucial part first.

Articles should be as accessible as

possible to readers not already
familiar with the subject matter.
Notations not entirely standard
should be properly introduced and
explained. Whenever a variable or
other symbol is defined by a
formula, make sure to say this is a
definition introducing a notation, not
an equation involving a previously
known object. Also identify the
nature of the entity being defined.
Don't write:

Multiplying M by u = v − v0, ...

Instead, write:

Multiplying M by the vector u

defined by u = v − v0, ...

In definitions, the symbol "=" is

preferred over "≡" or ":=".

When defining a term, do not use

the phrase "if and only if". For
example, instead of

A function f is even if and only if

f(−x) = f(x) for all x
write

A function f is even if f(−x) = f(x)

for all x.

If it is reasonable to do so, rephrase

the sentence to avoid the use of the
word "if" entirely. For example,

An even function is a function f

such that f(−x) = f(x) for all x.

Avoid, as far as possible, useless

phrases such as:

It is easily seen that ...

Clearly ...
Obviously ...

The reader might not find what you

write obvious. Instead, try to hint
why something must hold, such as:

It follows directly from this

definition that ...
By a straightforward, if lengthy,
algebraic calculation, ...
Articles should avoid common
blackboard abbreviations such as
wrt (with respect to), wlog (without
loss of generality), and iff (if and
only if), as well as quantifier
symbols ∀ and ∃ instead of for all
and there exists. In addition to
compromising the encyclopedic
tone, these abbreviations are a form
of jargon that may confuse the
reader.

Avoid any when verbalizing

quantifiers since it is ambiguous.
Instead of if any x satisfies F(x) =
0, write if every x satisfies F(x) = 0,
or if some x satisfies F(x) = 0,
depending on what you wish to
express.

The plural of formula is either

formulae or formulas. Both are
acceptable, but an article should be
internally consistent. In an already
consistent article, editors should
refrain from changing one style to
another.

Mathematical
conventions

A number of conventions have been

developed to make Wikipedia's
mathematics articles more
consistent with each other. These
conventions cover choices of
terminology, such as the definitions
of compact and ring, as well as
notation, such as the correct
symbols to use for a subset.

These conventions are suggested in

order to bring some uniformity
between different articles, to aid a
reader who moves from one article
to another. However, each article
may establish its own conventions.
For example, an article on a
specialized subject might be more
clear if written using the
conventions common in that area.
Thus the act of changing an article
from one set of conventions to
another should not be undertaken
lightly.

Each article should explain its own

terminology as if there are no
conventions, in order to minimize
the chance of confusion. Not only
do different articles use different
conventions, but Wikipedia's readers
come to articles with widely
different conventions in mind.
These readers will often not be
familiar with our conventions, which
may differ greatly from the
conventions they see outside
Wikipedia. Moreover, when our
articles are presented in print or on
other websites, there may be no
simple way for readers to check
what conventions have been
employed.

Terminology conventions

Natural numbers

"The set of natural numbers" has

two common meanings:
{0, 1, 2, 3, ...}, which may also be
called non-negative integers, and
{1, 2, 3, ...}, which may also be called
positive integers. Use the sense
appropriate to the field to which the
subject of the article belongs if the
field has a preferred convention. If
the sense is unclear, and if it is
important whether or not zero is
included, consider using one of the
alternative phrases rather than
natural numbers if the context
permits.
Algebra

A ring is assumed to be associative

and unital. A structure satisfying all
the ring axioms except the
existence of a multiplicative identity
is called a rng.[1] There is an
exception for rings of operators,
such as * algebras, B* algebras, C*
algebras, which we do not assume
to be unital.
The ring with one element is called
the zero ring.
A local ring is not assumed
noetherian (contra Zariski).
For Clifford algebras use v2 = +Q(v).
Algebraic geometry

An algebraic variety is assumed to

be an irreducible algebraic set.
A scheme is not assumed to be
separated. The term "prescheme" is
not used.
Topology

A compact space is not assumed to

be Hausdorff (contra Bourbaki, who
uses quasi-compact for our notion
of compactness).
Separation axioms for topological
spaces are as described on the
separation axiom page.

Miscellaneous

Directed sets are preordered sets

with finite joins, not partial orders as
in, e.g., Kelley (General Topology;
ISBN 0-387-90125-6).
A lattice need not be bounded. In a
bounded lattice, 0 and 1 are allowed
to be equal.
Elliptic functions are written in ω = half-period style.
A weight k modular form follows the
Serre convention that f(−1/τ) =
τkf(τ), and q = e2πiτ.
Notational conventions

The abstract cyclic group of order n,

when written additively, has notation
Zn, or in contexts where there may
be confusion with p-adic integers,
Z/nZ; when written multiplicatively,
e.g. as roots of unity, Cn is used (this
does not affect the notation of
isometry groups called Cn).
The standard notation for the
abstract dihedral group of order 2n
is Dn in geometry and D2n in finite
group theory. There is no good way
to reconcile these two conventions,
so articles using them should make
clear which they are using.
Bernoulli numbers are denoted by Bn, and are zero for n odd and
greater than 1.
In category theory, write Hom-sets,
or morphisms from A to B, as
Hom(A,B) rather than Mor(A,B) (and
with the implied convention that the
category is not a small category
unless that is said).
The semidirect product of groups K
and Q should be written K ×φ Q or
Q ×φ K where K is the normal
subgroup and φ : Q → Aut(K) is the
homomorphism defining the
product. The semidirect product
may also be written K ⋊ Q or Q ⋉ K
(with the bar on the side of the non-
normal subgroup) with or without
the φ.
The context should clearly state that
this is a semidirect product and
should state which group is normal.
The bar notation is discouraged
because it is not supported by all
browsers.
If the bar notation is used it should
be entered as
{{unicode|&#x22C9;}} (⋉) or
{{unicode|&#x22CA;}} (⋊)
for maximum portability.
Subset is denoted by , proper
subset by . The symbol may be
used if the meaning is clear from
context, or if it is not important
whether it is interpreted as subset
or as proper subset (for example,
might be given as the
hypothesis of a theorem whose
conclusion is obviously true in the
case that ). All other uses of
the symbol should be explicitly
explained in the text.
For a matrix transpose, use
superscript non-italic capital letter
T: XT, or , and not XT, ,
or .
In a lattice, infima are written as
a ∧ b or as a product ab, suprema
as a ∨ b or as a sum a + b. In a pure
lattice theoretical context the first
notation is used, usually without any
precedence rules. In a pure
engineering or "ideals in a ring"
 context the second notation is used
and multiplication has higher
precedence than addition. In any
other context the confusion of
readers of all backgrounds should
be minimized. In an abstract
bounded lattice, the smallest and
greatest elements are denoted by 0
and 1.
The scalar or dot product of vectors
should be denoted with a centre-dot
a ⋅ b, as an inner product ⟨a,b⟩ or
(a,b), or as a matrix product aTb,
never with juxtaposition ab.

Proofs

This is an encyclopedia, not a

collection of mathematical texts;
but we often want to include proofs
to explain a theorem or definition. A
downside of including proofs is that
they may interrupt the flow of the
article, whose goal is usually
expository. Use your judgment; as a
rule of thumb, include proofs when
they expose or illuminate the
concept or idea; don't include them
when they serve only to establish
the correctness of a result.

Since many readers will want to skip

proofs, it is a good idea to set them
apart in some way, for instance by
giving them a separate section.
Additional discussion and
guidelines can be found at
Wikipedia:WikiProject
Mathematics/Proofs.

Algorithms

An article about an algorithm may

include pseudocode or in some
cases source code in some
programming language. Wikipedia
does not have a standard
programming language or
languages, and not all readers will
understand any particular language
even if the language is well-known
and easy to read, so consider
whether the algorithm could be
expressed in some other way. If
source code is used always choose
a programming language that
expresses the algorithm as clearly
as possible.

Articles should not include multiple

implementations of the same
algorithm in different programming
languages unless there is
encyclopedic interest in each
implementation.

Source code should always use

syntax highlighting. For example
this markup:[2]

<syntaxhighlight
lang="Haskell">
primes = sieve [2..]
 sieve (p : xs) = p :
sieve [x | x <- xs, x
`mod` p > 0]
</syntaxhighlight>

generates the following:

primes = sieve [2..]

sieve (p : xs) = p :
sieve [x | x <- xs, x
`mod` p > 0]

Including citations and

literature references

Per the Wikipedia policy, WP:VERIFY,

it is essential for article content to
have inline citations, and thus to
have a well-chosen list of references
and pointers to the literature. Some
reasons for this are the following:

Wikipedia articles cannot be a

substitute for a textbook (that is
what Wikibooks is for). Also, often
one might want to find out more
details (like the proof of a theorem
stated in the article).
Some notions are defined differently
depending on context or author.
Articles should contain some
references that support the given
usage.
Important theorems should cite
historical papers as an additional
information (not necessarily for
looking them up).
Today many research papers or
even books are freely available
online and thus virtually just one
click away from Wikipedia.
Newcomers would greatly profit
from having an immediate
connection to further discussions of
a topic.
Providing further reading enables
other editors to verify and to extend
 the given information, as well as to
discuss the quality of a particular
source.

The Wikipedia:Cite sources article

has more information on this and
also several examples for how the
cited literature should look.

Typesetting of
mathematical formulae

One may set formulae using LaTeX

(the <math> tag, described in the
next subsection) or, in certain cases,
using other means of formatting
that render in HTML; both are
acceptable and widely used, except
for section headings, which should
use HTML only, as LaTeX markup
might cause uneven spacing in the
table of contents, as well as the
appearance of illegible anchor links
to sections. Some of the issues
presented by using LaTeX or HTML
are discussed below.

Large-scale formatting changes to

an article or group of articles are
likely to be controversial. One
should not change formatting boldly
from LaTeX to HTML, nor from non-
LaTeX to LaTeX without a clear
improvement. Proposed changes
should generally be discussed on
the talk page of the article before
implementation. If there is no
positive response, or if planned
changes affect more than one
article, consider notifying an
appropriate Wikiproject, such as
WikiProject Mathematics for
mathematical articles.

For inline formulae, such as a2 − b2,

the community of mathematical
editors of English Wikipedia
currently has no consensus about
preferred formatting; see
WP:Rendering math for details.

For a formula on its own line the

preferred formatting is the LaTeX
markup, with a possible exception
for simple strings of Latin letters,
digits, common punctuation marks,
and arithmetical operators. Even for
simple formulae the LaTeX markup
might be preferred if required for
uniformity within an article. For
readability, it is also strongly
preferred not to mix HTML and
LaTeX markup in the same
expression.

Using LaTeX markup

Wikipedia allows editors to typeset

mathematical formulae in (a subset
of) LaTeX markup (see also TeX);
the formulae are, for a default
reader, translated into PNG images.
They may also be rendered as
MathML or HTML (using MathJax),
depending on user preferences. For
more details on this, see
Help:Displaying a formula.

The LaTeX formulae can be

displayed inline (like this: ),
as well as on their own line:

A frequent method for displaying

formulas on their own line has been
to indent the line with one or more
colons (:). Although this produces
the intended visual appearance, it
produces invalid html (see
Wikipedia:Manual of
Style/Accessibility § Indentation).
Instead, formulas may be placed on
their own line using <math
display=block> . For instance,
the formula above was typeset
using <math
display=block>\int_0^\pi
\sin x\,dx.</math> .

If you find an article which indents

lines with spaces in order to achieve
some formula layout effect, you
should convert the formula to LaTeX
markup.

Having LaTeX-based formulae inline

has the following drawbacks:

The font size can be slightly larger

than that of the surrounding text on
some browsers, making text
containing inline formulae harder to
read.
The download speed of a page is
negatively affected if it contains
many formulas.

If an inline formula needs to be

typeset in LaTeX, keep the height
down by using text-style or
horizontal fractions:
<math>\tfrac12 x</math>
produces and <math>x /
2</math> produces , but
<math>\frac{x}{2}</math>
is too tall to fit inline.

Often better formatting can be

achieved with <math
display=inline> tag, which
translates to the \textstyle
LaTeX command. By default, LaTeX
code is rendered as if it were a
displayed equation (not inline), and
this can frequently be too big. For
example, the formula
<math>\sum_{n=1}^\infty
1/n^2 = \pi^2/6</math> ,
which displays as

, is too large to

be used inline. display=inline

generates a smaller summation
sign and moves the limits on the
sum to the right side of the
summation sign. The code for this
is <math
display=inline>\sum_{n=1}^
\infty 1/n^2 =
\pi^2/6</math> , and it renders
as the much more aesthetic
. Adding
display=inline also often
makes square roots render more
compactly: compare
<math>\sqrt{x^2+y^2}
</math> to <math
display=inline>\sqrt{x^2+y
^2}</math> which render as

and ,

respectively.

HTML-generating formatting, as
described below, is adequate for
articles that use only simple inline
formulae and better for text-only
browsers.

Deprecated formatting

Older versions of the MediaWiki

software supported displaying
simple LaTeX formulae as HTML
rather than as an image. Although
this is no longer an option, some
formulae have formatting in them
intended to force them to display as
an image, such as an invisible
quarter space ( \, ) added at the
end of the formula, or
\displaystyle at the
beginning. Such formatting can be
removed if a formula is edited and
need not be added to new formulae.

Alt text

Images generated from LaTeX

markup have alt text, which is
displayed to visually impaired
readers and other readers who
cannot see the images. The default
alt text is the LaTeX markup that
produced the image. You can
override this by explicitly specifying
an alt attribute for the math
element. For example, <math
alt="Square root of
pi">\sqrt{\pi}</math>
generates an image whose alt
text is "Square root of pi". Small and
easily explained formulas used in
less technical articles can benefit
from explicitly specified alt text.
More complicated formulas, or
formulas used in more technical
articles, are often better off with the
default alt text.

Using HTML

The following sections cover the

way of presenting simple inline
formulae in HTML, instead of using
LaTeX.

Templates supporting HTML

formatting are listed in
Category:Mathematical formatting
templates. Not all templates are
recommended for use; in particular,
use of the {{frac}} template to
format fractions is discouraged in
mathematics articles.

Font formatting

By default, regular text is rendered in

a sans serif font.

The relationship is defined as

''x'' = −
(''y''² + 2) .

will result in:

The relationship is defined as x = −

(y2 + 2).
As TeX uses a serif font to display a
formula (both as PNG and HTML),
you may use the {{math}}
template to display your HTML
formula in serif as well. Doing so
will also ensure that the text within a
formula will not line-wrap, and that
the font size will closely match the
surrounding text in any skin. Note
that certain special characters
(equal signs, absolute value bars)
require special attention.

The relationship is defined as

{{math|''x'' {{=}} −
(''y''² + 2)}} .

will result in:

The relationship is defined as

x = −(y2 + 2).
Variables

To start with, we generally use italic

text for variables, but never for
numbers or symbols. You can use
''x'' in the edit box to refer to
the variable x. Some prefer using the
HTML "variable" tag, <var> , since
it provides semantic meaning to the
text contained within. Others use
the {{mvar}} template to show single
variables in a serif typeface, to help
distinguish certain characters such
as I and l. Which method you
choose is entirely up to you, but in
order to keep with convention, we
recommend the wiki markup
method of enclosing the variable
name between repeated apostrophe
marks. Thus we write:

''x'' = −
(''y''² + 2)  ,

which results in:

x = −(y2 + 2) .

While italicizing variables, things like

parentheses, digits, equal and plus
signs should be kept outside of the
double-apostrophed sections. In
particular, do not use double
apostrophes as if they are
<math> tags; they merely denote
italics. Descriptive subscripts
should not be in italics, because
they are not variables. For example,
mfoo is the mass of a foo. SI units
are never italicized: x = 5 cm.

Functions

Names for standard functions, such

as sin and cos, are not in italic font,
but we use italic names such as f
for functions in other cases; for
example when we define the
function as in f(x) = sin(x) cos(x) .

Sets

Sets are usually written in upper

case italics; for example:
 A = {x : x > 0}

would be written:

''A'' = {''x'' : ''x'' >

0}  .

Greek letters

Italicize lower-case Greek letters

when they are variables or
constants (in line with the general
advice to italicize variables): the
example expression λ + y = πr2
would then be typeset as:

''&lambda;'' + ''y'' =
''&pi;r''²

(It is also possible to enter Greek

letters directly.)

For consistency with the LaTeX

style, do not italicize capital Greek
letters; e.g. n! = Γ(n + 1) .
Common sets of numbers

Commonly used sets of numbers

are typeset in boldface, as in the set
of real numbers R. Again, typically
we use wiki markup: three
apostrophes ( ''' ) rather than the
HTML <b> tag for making text
bold. Bold notation has been largely
replaced by blackboard bold, which
may be encoded in LaTeX as
<math>\mathbb{R}</math> ,
which renders as . However, the
special Unicode characters, such as
U+211D (plain text ℝ or math font
ℝ) and its adjacent characters
should be avoided at present, since
these characters are not yet
universally supported and may have
an inconsistent appearance.
Superscripts and subscripts

Superscripts and subscripts should

be wrapped in <sup> and
<sub> tags, respectively, with no
other formatting info. Font sizes
and such should be entrusted to be
handled with stylesheets. For
example, to write c3+5, use

''c''₃₊₅ .

Do not use special characters like

² ( &sup2; ) for squares. This
does not combine well with other
powers, as the following
comparison shows:

1 + x + x² + x3 + x4 (with &sup2; )
versus
1 + x + x2 + x3 + x4 (with
² ).

Moreover, the TeX engine used on

Wikipedia may format simple
superscripts using ^... depending on user
preferences. Thus, instead of the
image , many users see x2.
Formulae formatted without using
TeX should use the same syntax to
maintain the same appearance.

Special symbols

There are list of mathematical

symbols, list of mathematical
symbols by subject and a list at
Wikipedia:Mathematical symbols
that may be useful when editing
mathematics articles. Almost all
mathematical operator symbols
have their specific code points in
Unicode outside both ASCII and
General Punctuation (with notable
exception of "+", "=", "|", as well as ",",
":", and three sorts of brackets). As a
rule of thumb, specific
mathematical symbols shall be
used, not similar-looking ASCII or
punctuation symbols, even if
corresponding glyphs are
indistinguishable. The list of
mathematical symbols by subject
includes markup for LaTeX and
HTML, and Unicode code points.

There are two caveats to keep in

mind, however.

1. Not all of the symbols in these lists

are displayed correctly on all
browsers (see Help:Special
characters). Although the symbols
that correspond to named entities
are very likely to be displayed
correctly, a significant number of
viewers will have problems seeing
all the characters listed at
Mathematical operators and
symbols in Unicode. One way to
guarantee that an uncommon
symbol is rendered correctly for all
readers is to force the symbol to
 display as an image, using the
<math> environment.
2. Not all readers will be familiar with
mathematical notation. Thus, to
maximize the size of the audience
who can read an article, it is better
to be conservative in using symbols.
For example, writing "a divides b"
rather than "a | b" in an elementary
article may make it more
accessible.

For Roman numerals, Basic Latin

(ASCII) letters should be used
instead of the equivalent Unicode
characters in the U+21XX range. For
example, L and VI, not Ⅼ, and not
precomposed characters like Ⅵ.
(The only exception is when
discussing the Unicode characters
themselves.)
Less-than sign

Although the MediaWiki markup

engine is fairly smart about
differentiating between unescaped "
<" characters that are used to
denote the start of an embedded
HTML or HTML-like tag and those
that are just being used as literal
less-than symbols, it is ideal to use
&lt; when writing the less-than
sign, just like in HTML and XML. For
example, to write x < 3, use

''x'' &lt; 3 ,

not

''x'' < 3 .
Multiplication sign

Standard algebraic notation is best

for formulae, so two variables q and
d being multiplied are best written
as qd when presented in a formula.
That is, when citing a formula, don't
use × .

However, when explaining the

formula for a general audience (not
just mathematicians), or giving
examples of its application, it is
prudent to use the multiplication
sign: "×", coded as &times; in
HTML. Do not use the letter "x" to
indicate multiplication. For example:

When dividing 26 by 4, 6 is the

quotient and 2 is the remainder,
because 26 = 6 × 4 + 2.
−42 = 9 × (−5) + 3

An alternative to × is the dot

operator &sdot; (also encoded
<math>\cdot</math> and
reachable in the "Math and logic"
drop-down list below the edit box),
which produces a symmetrically
spaced centered dot: "a ⋅ b".
Do not use the ASCII asterisk (*) as
a multiplication sign outside of
source code. It is not used for this
purpose in professionally published
mathematics, and most fonts render
it in an inappropriate vertical
position (above the midline of the
text rather than centered on it). For
the dot operator, do not use
punctuation symbols, such as a
simple interpunct &middot; (the
choice offered in the "Wiki markup"
drop-down list below the edit box),
as in many fonts it does not kern
properly. The use of U+2022 •
BULLET as an operator symbol is
also discouraged except in abstract
contexts (e.g. to denote an
unspecified operator).

Metric units often embed the notion

of multiplication and division. NIST
endorses the half-high dot (⋅) or a
bare space for this purpose.
Minus sign

The correct encoding of the minus

sign "−" is different from all varieties
of hyphen "-‐‑",[3] as well as from en-
dash "–". To really get a minus sign,
use the "minus" character "−"
(reachable via selecting "Math and
logic" in the drop-down list below
the edit box or using
{{subst:minus}} ) or use the
" &minus; " entity.

Square brackets

Square brackets have two problems;

they can occasionally cause
problems with wiki markup, and
editors sometimes 'fix' the brackets
in asymmetrical intervals to make
them symmetrical. The nowiki tag
can be used as a general solution to
problems like this, as in
<nowiki>]</nowiki> to have
the ] treated as literal text.
The use of intervals for the range or
domain of a function is very
common. A solution which makes
the reason for the different brackets
around an interval more plain is to
use one of the templates {{open-
closed}}, {{closed-open}}, {{open-
open}}, {{closed-closed}}. For
instance:

{{open-closed|−π, π}}

produces

(−π, π].

These templates use the {{math}}

template to avoid line breaks and
use the TeX font.

Function symbol

There is a special Unicode symbol,

U+0192 ƒ LATIN SMALL LETTER F WITH
HOOK (&fnof;), sometimes used as
the Florin currency symbol.[4] As of
December 2010, this character is
not interpreted correctly by screen
readers such as JAWS and
NonVisual Desktop Access[5]. An
italicized letter f should be used
instead.

Radical symbol

The radical symbol √ can be used

when written on its own, but when
part of a larger expression, can be
problematic. {{radic}} (often seen as
{{sqrt}}) is the best way to write
such expressions in HTML, but the
result is unattractive due to the hole
between the overline and the radical
symbol in many web browsers:

3
√9, √27

This method should be avoided

whenever technically possible to do
so. Instead, use
 <math>...</math> tags and
\sqrt{}, even if inline. For example:

Because of Mediawiki bug T263572,

<math>...</math> markup is
incompatible with the Media Viewer
(used for full-screen image viewing
on mobile devices), so until that is
fixed, the {{radic}} method or √ with
no overline should be used in image
captions.

The use of √ with no overline is

acceptable for simple expressions,
as long as the operand is
unambiguous.[6]

Explanation of symbols in
formulae

A list as in
 Example 1: The foocity is given
by

where

is the barness vector,

is the bazness coefficient,
is the quuxance vector.

should be written as prose, to avoid

using more vertical space than
necessary:

Example 2: The foocity is given

by

where is the barness vector,

is the bazness coefficient, and
is the quuxance vector.

An exception would be if some of

the definitions are very long (as in
Heat equation, for example). In any
case, each definition should end
with a comma or semicolon, and the
last one should end with a period if
it terminates a sentence.

Punctuation after formulae

Just as in mathematics
publications, a sentence which ends
with a formula must have a period
at the end of the formula.[7] This
equally applies to displayed
formulae (that is, formulae that take
up a line by themselves). Similarly, if
the conventional punctuation rules
would require a question mark,
comma, semicolon, or other
punctuation at that place, the
formula must have that punctuation
at the end.

If the formula is written in LaTeX,

that is, surrounded by the <math>
and </math> tags, then the
punctuation should also be inside
the tags, because otherwise the
punctuation could wrap to a new
line if the formula is at the edge of
the browser window. Alternatively—
since the previous result can be
unaesthetic, especially for inlined
formulae presented as an image
whose baseline does not line up
with that of the running text—the
punctuation can be placed after the
</math> tag and then the whole
formula (including the punctuation)
can be enclosed with the {{nowrap}}
template, as in This shows
that {{nowrap|
<math>\tfrac{1}{2} =
0.5</math>.}} .[8]
Font usage

Multi-letter names

Functions that have multi-letter

names should always be in an
upright font. The most well-known
functions—trigonometric functions,
logarithms, etc.—can be written
without parentheses for as long as
the result does not become
ambiguous. For example:

  (parentheses may be
omitted here, as the argument
consists of a single term only;
typeset from <math>2\sin
x</math> )
(parentheses are
required to clarify the intended
argument)

but not

  (incorrect—typeset from
<math>2sin x</math> ).
 Note: For potential pitfalls of forms
not understood consistently across
the board, see order of operations
and implied multiplication; if there is
any risk that a term could become
ambiguous for our readership, use
parentheses.

When operator (function) names do

not have a pre-defined abbreviation,
we may use \operatorname :

  (typeset from
<math>2\operatorname{csch
}x</math> ).
  (typeset from
<math>a\operatorname{tr}
(A)</math> ).

\operatorname includes
correct spacing that would not be
present with other means such as
\rm :

  (incorrect—typeset from
<math>2{\rm sin}
 x</math> ).

Special care is needed with

subscripted labels to distinguish the
purpose of the subscript (as this is
a common error): variables and
constants in subscripts should be
italic, while textual labels should be
in normal text font (Roman, upright).
For example:

  (correct—
typeset from <math>
x_\text{this one} =
y_\text{that one}</math> ),

and

  (correct—typeset from

<math>\sum_{i=1}^n {
y_i^2 }</math> ),

but not
  
(incorrect—typeset from <math>r
= x_{predicted} -
x_{observed}</math> ).

For several years this manual

recommended \mbox as a
workaround for lack of \text ,
but this is now considered
undesirable. See An opinion: Why
you should never use \mbox within
Wikipedia.

Roman versus italic

For single-letter variables,

constants, and operators such as
the differential, imaginary unit, and
Euler's number, Wikipedia articles
usually use an italic font. One writes

  (typeset from

<math>\int_0^\pi \sin x
 \, dx ,</math> —note the thin
space ( \, ) before dx ),

  (typeset from

<math>\frac{dz}{dx} =
\frac{dz}{dy} \cdot
\frac{dy}{dx} ,</math> ),
  (typeset from
<math>x+iy,</math> ), and
  (typeset from
<math>e^{i\theta} .
</math> ).

Some authors prefer to use an

upright (Roman) font for operators,
as in d, for the differential operator,
as opposed to d for a variable.
Upright fonts are sometimes used
for standard, nearly universal
constants, as in i, e, and π; other
authors use Roman boldface, as in
i. Changes from one style to
another should be done only to
make an article consistent with
itself. Formatting changes should
not be made solely to make articles
consistent with each other, nor to
make articles conform to a
particular style guide or standards
body. It is inappropriate for an editor
to go through articles doing mass
changes from one style to another.
When there is dispute over the
correct style to use, follow the same
principles as MOS:STYLERET.

Generally, one way to determine

which usage is appropriate on
Wikipedia is to look at prevalence in
reliable sources in addition to
relevant style guides, per
WP:WEIGHT. For example, the
ISO 80000-2 recommends that the
mathematical constant e should be
typeset in an upright Roman font: e.
But this guide is rarely followed in
reliable mathematical sources, and
it is contradicted by other style
guides, like Donald Knuth's TeXbook.
This makes the more common
practice to use an italic face for the
constant e.

Blackboard bold

Blackboard bold typeface was never

used in traditional typography. It
was introduced for easier
distinguishing boldface from
ordinary face on a blackboard. It is
presently used in mathematical
printing for denoting some constant
objects in a way that cannot be
confused with other uses of
boldface.

Nowadays, both blackboard bold

and usual boldface are commonly
used for standard number systems (
)
and for certain other mathematical
objects, including affine space ,
projective space , adele rings
 , the additive and multiplicative
group schemes ( and ), and
hypercohomology (e.g.,
).

A particular concern for the use of

blackboard bold on Wikipedia is that
the Unicode symbols for blackboard
bold characters are not supported
by all systems, or that font
substitution on browsers often
render these symbols in discordant
fonts. The use of Unicode
characters for blackboard bold is
discouraged in English Wikipedia.
Instead, the LaTeX rendering (for
example <math>\mathbb{Z}
</math> or
<math>\Z</math> ) or the
standard boldface must be used. As
with all such choices, each article
should be consistent with itself, and
editors should not change articles
from one choice of typeface to
another, except for consistency.
Again, when there is dispute, follow
MOS:STYLERET.

Due to a rendering bug (https://phab

ricator.wikimedia.org/T279805) ,
LaTeX blackboard bold currently
does not work with numerals. Use
bold instead (e.g. {{math|'''1'''}} or
<math>\bold{1}</math>), which is
more common anyway. If absolutely
necessary (e.g. when discussing the
notation itself), use the Unicode
character (e.g. 𝟙).

Fractions

In mathematics articles, fractions

should always be written either with
a horizontal fraction bar (as in ), or
with a forward slash and with the
baseline of the numbers aligned
with the baseline of the surrounding
text (as in 1/2). The use of
 {{frac}} (such as 1⁄2) is
discouraged in mathematics
articles. The use of Unicode
precomposed fractions (such as ½)
is discouraged entirely, for
accessibility reasons[9] among
others.[10] Metric units are given in
decimal fractions (e.g., 5.2 cm); non-
metric units can be either type of
fraction, but the fraction style
should be consistent throughout the
article.

Only "/" is used for quotient objects

in abstract algebra: R / A or  –
markup: {{math|''R'' /
''A''}} or <math>R / A</math>

Graphs and diagrams

The angle CAB is α.

The length of CA is b.
There is no general agreement on
what fonts to use in graphs and
diagrams. In geometrical diagrams
points are normally labelled using
upper case letters, sides with lower
case and angles with lower case
Greek letters.

Recent geometry books tend to use

an italic serif font in diagrams as in
for a point. This allows easy use
in LaTeX markup. However, older
books tend to use upright letters as
in and many diagrams in
Wikipedia use sans-serif upright A
instead. Graphs in books tend to
use LaTeX conventions, but yet
again there are wide variations.

For ease of reference diagrams and

graphs should use the same
conventions as the text that refers
to them. If there is a better
illustration with a different
convention, though, the better
illustration should normally be used.

See also

Help for those writing a formula

Help:Displaying a formula
Wikipedia:Mathematical symbols
Wikipedia:Rendering math

General information

Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics
Wikipedia:Scientific citation
guidelines—advice on providing
references for mathematical and
scientific articles

Notes
1. Currently, ring (mathematics) and related
articles attempt to cover both unital rings
and non-unital rings: they do not
consistently implement this
interpretation. This attempt to cover
multiple meanings violates
 WP:DICT#Major differences
(homographs).
2. This example, from here [1] (https://en.wi
kipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Sieve_of_E
ratosthenes&oldid=347438933) , is in
Haskell, not a well-known language so
generally not a good choice when
showing an algorithm.
3. Note that, aside of <math>, many
templates and parser functions accept
the hyphen-minus "-" as a valid
representation of the minus sign. Except
situations where "-" has to represent the
minus sign in a source code (including
wiki code), it should not be seen in a
rendered page, though.
4. Latin Extended-B, [2] (http://www.unicod
e.org/charts/PDF/U0180.pdf)
5. Wikipedia talk:WikiProject
Mathematics/Archive 68#ƒ or f?
6. October 2020 RfC.
7. This style, adopted by Wikipedia, is
shared by Higham (1998), Halmos
(1970), the Chicago Manual of Style, and
many mathematics journals.
 8. It is technically possible to use a word
joiner before the punctuation instead, but
it's seldom respected by browsers (http://
jkorpela.fi/html/nobr.html#prevent) .
9. Characters in ISO/IEC 8859-1 (¼, ½, and
¾) work with screen readers, but others,
like ⅐, might not.
10. Not all fractions are available
precomposed.

Further reading

A style guide specifically written for

mathematics:

Higham, Nicholas J. (1998),

Handbook of Writing for the
Mathematical Sciences (http://epub
s.siam.org/doi/book/10.1137/1.978
0898719550) (second ed.), SIAM
(Society for Industrial and Applied
Mathematics),
doi:10.1137/1.9780898719550 (http
s://doi.org/10.1137%2F1.97808987
19550) , ISBN 0-89871-420-6.
More style guidance:

Halmos, P.R. (1970), "How to Write

Mathematics", Enseignements
Mathématiques, 16: 123–152,
doi:10.5169/seals-43857 (https://do
i.org/10.5169%2Fseals-43857) .
Reprinted in ISBN 0821800558

Some finer points of typography are

discussed in:

Knuth, Donald E. (1984), The

TeXbook, Reading, Massachusetts:
Addison-Wesley, ISBN 0-201-13448-
9.

General style manuals often include

advice on mathematics, including

University of Chicago Press Staff,

ed. (2010), The Chicago Manual of
Style (http://www.chicagomanualofs
tyle.org/home.html) (16th ed.),
University of Chicago Press,
ISBN 9780226104201
Retrieved from
"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?
title=Wikipedia:Manual_of_Style/Mathemati
cs&oldid=1165057333"

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