[OS X TeX] brace spanning equations

[Samuel Lelievre]

You could use the "cases" macro as in the following
(found in Herbert Voss's paper "Farbige Mathematik").

\begin{align}\label{eq:3}
\frac{I(\alpha )}{I_{0}}=%
\begin{cases}
\sqrt{1-\frac{\alpha}{\pi}+\frac{1}{2\pi}\sin 2\
alpha}
& \varphi =0\\[0.4cm]
\sqrt{2\left(1-\frac{\alpha}{\pi}\right)\left(2+%
\cos 2\alpha \right)+\frac{3}{\pi}\sin 2\alpha}
& \varphi =\frac{\pi}{2}
\end{cases}
\end{align}


Another solution is to use an array in between
"\left\{" and "\right." (where "\right." produces
an empty right delimiter).
You need that because each \left delimiter
  must have a matching \right delimiter (although
  the delimiters themselves may be different).
(says Michael Doob's "gentle introduction to latex",
which gives as exercise 5.30 "use a matrix construction
to typeset ...", and comments "this exercise and more
general constructions of this type may also be typeset
with the \cases macro". A margin notes refers to
TeXbook: 175.)


Best wishes
Samuel Lelievre


>I still have not solved this for myself. What is the magic command?
>
>Thanks.
>
>George Dorner
>
>
>On Mar 15, 2006, at 4:48 PM, KL Tah wrote:
>
>>hi all,
>>
>>sorry if this is elementary by i couldn't find an answer to  this on the web.
>>what's the control sequence to have a vertical brace spanning several equations?
>>
>>cheers,
>>kl
>>
>>
>>------------------------- Info --------------------------
>>Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
>>         & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
>>TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
>>List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/
>>
>
>------------------------- Info --------------------------
>Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
>         & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
>TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
>List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/

------------------------- Info --------------------------
Mac-TeX Website: http://www.esm.psu.edu/mac-tex/
          & FAQ: http://latex.yauh.de/faq/
TeX FAQ: http://www.tex.ac.uk/faq
List Archive: http://tug.org/pipermail/macostex-archives/