# [OS X TeX] A little help needed (math formula problem)

Alain Matthes alain.matthes at mac.com
Fri Dec 18 11:47:02 EST 2009

Le 18 déc. 2009 à 00:51, Ross Moore a écrit :
>
> Hi Pete and Joe,
>
> On 18/12/2009, at 8:17 AM, Peter Dyballa wrote:
>
>> --
>> Greetings
>>
>>  Pete
>>
>> There's something the technicians need to learn from the artists. If it isn't aesthetically pleasing, it's probably wrong.
>
>
> You couldn't have said it better.
> It especially applies to examples like on Joe's page,
> which people may refer to and copy.
> So let's get them right, both technically and aesthetically.
>
> A glaring example is:   sphere_volume.tex
> where there are aesthetic errors (to my mind) on every line.
>
> line 1. the variable name  Volume  should be  \mathrm{Volume} .
>
>

Hi

In mathematics, Volume is not a variable name, single-symbol names for variables are the norm !
I prefer \mathrm{v} or \mathrm{V} in this context but \text{V} if V is the volume of the earth.

> line 2. the 'differential d' at the end of the integrals could be
>         made upright (e.g. \,\phi\mathrm{d}\phi )
>         The MathML rendering does it this way.
>         BTW, it's good to see that preceding thinspace.
>

yes, H Voss in the mathmode.pdf (very good document) uses \,\mathrm{d}x

>
> line 3.
>
>
>     B.  \frac{\rho^3}{3}  would look better as  (\tfrac13 \rho^3)
>         which also reduces the size needed for the evaluation-bar.
>

yes I agree because displaystyle is not inline mode, \frac is better because
$\frac{}{}$ and $\frac{}{}$ are different ,  $\frac{}{}$ respects (does not hurt
soory my english is deficient) the line height.

Best regards

Alain Matthes