anonymous 5 years ago How do I enter a matrix in the equation editor?

1. anonymous

I don't even bother with the editor. It's a little tricky, but it's called LaTeX. The first thing you want to do is enclose everything in between \ [ and \ ] (no spaces).

2. anonymous

Next, do you want big parentheses around the matrix ( ) or big square brackets [ ]?

3. anonymous

If you want ( ) you start each matrix with \left( and end it with \right). Alternately, you would use \left[ and \right]

4. anonymous

To get the actual matrix, we use \begin{array}{cccc} where the number of c's we use is the same as the number of columns.

5. anonymous

then in each row, a11&a12&a13\\ and so on the last row doesn't use \\ then at the end we use \end{array}

6. anonymous

So for the matrix $\left[\begin{array}{cccc} a_{11}&a_{12}&\ldots&a_{1n}\\ a_{21}&a_{22}&\ldots&a_{2n}\\ \vdots&\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\ a_{n1}&a_{n2}&\ldots&a_{nn} \end{array}\right]$ I use \ [\left[\ begin{array}{cccc} a_{11}&a_{12}&\ldots&a_{1n}\\ a_{21}&a_{22}&\ldots&a_{2n}\\ \vdots&\vdots&\ddots&\vdots\\ a_{n1}&a_{n2}&\ldots&a_{nn} \end{array}\right]\] Where you take out the the spaces after the first and third \

7. anonymous

testing... $\left[ \begin{array}{cc} a & b \\ c & d \end{array} \right]$ Nice. Thanks!

8. anonymous

You're welcome.

9. anonymous

10. anonymous

wait, why's that "a" not line the others?

11. anonymous

I don't know. It seems to do that on the first one for some reason.

12. anonymous

Huh. and it's not doing it in the preview. weird.