# We'd like math support enabled

Some Stack Exchange sites, such as Math and Physics, allow LaTeX equations for rendering in questions and answers. For example, writing

$\frac{f_{MHz}}{300} \times \frac{1}{2.54}$


would result in (approximately)

 f
MHz     1
----- * -----
300    2.54


Since it's easy to conceive of amateur radio-related questions which include math in the question as well as in the answers, it seems like having access to this feature would be a really nice thing on ham.SE.

How does the community feel about having that feature enabled?

...and then we end up with question titles like...

• +1 I love to misuse that feature for tables. – Johannes Kuhn Oct 23 '13 at 15:48
• Yup. Our FAQ will be full of those ascii tables if we don't have math support :D – jkj Oct 23 '13 at 19:06
• @JohannesKuhn If you grok LaTeX tables, I'd almost say you deserve the right to do that! :) – a CVn Oct 24 '13 at 8:00
• $\begin{array}{cc}Because&I\\love&tables\end{array}$ -- Will be rendered later. – Johannes Kuhn Oct 24 '13 at 8:02
• Administrative Note — The best way to get MathJax enabled is to demonstrate a need for it by citing questions which would be improved with the feature. See how it was done (for example) on Space Exporation and Astronomy. – Robert Cartaino Oct 24 '13 at 19:03

Yes. There's enough math-based discussion in the ham community that it'd be useful.

• Agreed. The hobby has a very mathematical side to it. – jkj Oct 23 '13 at 19:04
• YES!!! Great proposal.... – Dan Oct 23 '13 at 19:12

There are numerous examples of questions which would or could be better asked, or answered, with math support available. A few that I found just quickly browsing through the site's current questions are:

In addition, as I browsed through my copy of The ARRL Handbook for Radio Amateurs (year 2002 edition, if you must know), I had to flip the book to five pages completely at random before I came upon one with mathematical formulas plainly visible. The next page in that book which I flipped to had a large table spread out over two pages. It took two more random page flips before I came upon some more mathematical formulas. The ARRL Antenna Book had a few tables on the first random page I opened it to, and by the time I'd flipped pages five times I came across a page that had several diagrams and numerous formulas. While these aren't questions asked on the site, these books are common reference works in the amateur radio field and I see no reason to not expect such material to make it into both questions and answers on this site on a regular basis.

• Awesome, thanks! Makes the "argument" easier. – Robert Cartaino Oct 24 '13 at 20:53
• Yes I just copied and pasted screenshots from LaTeX for my answer on that one as well. – Dan Oct 24 '13 at 21:27
• @RobertCartaino I added a few more, and made the answer Community Wiki to encourage others to add even more links. (I hesitate to use the abbreviation CW here because it means something completely different in amateur radio. :)) – a CVn Oct 25 '13 at 17:52

It's here!

$\frac{\pi{}}{16}(\sqrt{1+cos^2(\frac{\pi{}}{32})} + \sqrt{1+cos^2(\frac{3\pi{}}{32})} + ... \sqrt{1+cos^2(\frac{15\pi{}}{32})}) = 1.91009889$

$\Bbb Z[\sqrt 3]\cong \frac{\Bbb Z[x]}{(x^2-3)}$

$$\int_0^e x^{1/x}dx=2e\sum^\infty_{n=0}\sum^n_{k=0}\frac{(-1)^{n-k}}{e^nk!}$$

w00t!

• Great... Now to figure out how to use it xD – Seth Oct 28 '13 at 20:03
• @Seth Never mind how to use it; figure out what Dan is talking about instead! :D – a CVn Oct 29 '13 at 8:24
• And you can even use it in edit comments... check the history on this one! – a CVn Oct 29 '13 at 8:26
• @MichaelKjörling sweet! thanks – Dan Oct 29 '13 at 18:36