davidbau.com A Mathematical Notation Question

A Mathematical Notation Question

Quickly simplify the following expression: $\sqrt{\frac{1.68\times10^9}{4.2\times10^{-4}}}$ and show your work.

Solution:

$\sqrt{\frac{1.68\times10^9}{4.2\times10^{-4}}}=\sqrt{\frac{168\times10^7}{42\times10^{-5}}}=\sqrt{\frac{2\times2\times2\times3\times7}{2\times3\times7}\cdot\frac{10^7}{10^{-5}}}$

$=\sqrt{\frac{2\times2\times\strike{2\times3\times7}}{\strike{2\times3\times7}}\times10^{7-(-5)}}=\sqrt{4\times10^{12}}=2\times10^6$

Real solution:

The real question is, how the heck do you write all that notation in HTML? This problem is the bane of math teachers everywhere. But I did it here in about 5 minutes using a wonderful new tool that was released yesterday. Here is how.

The solution is to use mimeTeX notation via the brand-new version of the Google Chart Server. You can use the mathematical notation editor I have posted here - it will interpolate formulas within $dollar signs$ into HTML, generate the right <img> tags, and help insert css styles based on the image heights to get your vertical-alignment approximately right.

It helps if you know TeX syntax ahead of time, but even if you don't, it's not hard to learn what you need. When you go to davidbau.com/formula, it starts you off with a simple example.

Copy and paste your HTML. QED. Posted by David at February 12, 2010 02:36 PM