# Mathematical notation

Stile supports mathematical notation, from simple super and subscript to full-blown matrices and calculus.

To insert equations into question text, simply click on the little square root icon within the text editor:

This brings up the equation editor. You can use any of the tools available in the equation editor toolbar to create your equation, fraction or other notation.

When you're finished, simply close it and it will be inserted as part of your question text.

Equations in your Multiple Choice Questions

This is where things get a little bit technical. Stile supports a mathematics computer language called LaTeX in most places where you can type, including in MCQ answers and automated feedback bubbles.

Using LaTeX, you can get fractions and other mathematical notation into MCQ answers.

So for example, this MCQ question in Stile...

...actually looks like this when you click the Edit button:

From the above example, if you wanted to display the fraction , you would type:

$$\frac{10}{15}$$

To break down what is going on here, there are three components:

• $$• \frac{10}{15} and •$$

The $$and the$$ tell Stile to make whatever is between those characters mathematical notation, rather than just text.

The \frac{numerator}{denominator} tells Stile to display a fraction.

\frac is a part of the LaTeX language, which allows you to create complex representations.

Subscript and superscript

To get an expression exp to appear as a subscript, you just type _{exp}

To get exp to appear as a superscript, type ^{exp}

LaTeX handles superscripted superscripts and all of that stuff in the natural way. It even does the right thing when something has both a subscript and a superscript.

A few other useful ones are:

• ≈ \approx
•  \approxeq
•  \geq
•  \leq

For more symbols and further reading, this guide is a good introduction.

If you're doing really advanced stuff, this is the complete 300-page list of all symbols.

Too hard?

There is also a nifty little equation editor here that you can use to build your equation, then paste the code it gives you into Stile (this GIF may take while to load properly):

NOTE: However, you still need to put the above code between$$and$$.

So for Pythagoras' theorem, HostMath spits out a^{2}+b^{2} = c^{2}

In Stile, this would have to be $$a^{2}+b^{2} = c^{2$$

You can then copy and paste this into the other boxes and simply change the variables etc in the LaTeX:

Still too hard? Use Unicode!

Unicode is an international standard for encoding common characters. This Wikipedia article has a lot of handy superscript and subscript characters which you can just copy and paste into any place in Stile - or just grab them here:

Superscript

x⁰  x¹  x²  x³  x⁴  x⁴  x⁵  x⁶  x⁷  x⁸  x⁹  xⁿ

Subscript

x₀  x₁  x₂  x₃  x₄  x₅  x₆  x₇  x₈  x₉  xₒ  xₓ

You can even do some common fractions with Unicode:

¼  ½  ¾ ⅔ ⅙ etc

However, if you want something more complex, you'd have to use LaTeX.

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