Mathematics/Mathematical glyphs

Binary Operators Relations

Basic binary symbols can be produced by typing the correspoding keyboard character. These include

 + - = < >

A general expressions can be input in the natural manner. For example $x+y$ gives

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Notice that TeX took care of the spacing around +. Mathematicians use a lot of symbols that are not avialable on the keyboard.

TeX (and ConTeXt) provide macros to input them. For example $x \times y$ gives

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The following is a partial list of frequently used binary operators and relations.

Commonly Used Binary Operators		Commonly used relation symbols		Set Relations
\pm		\leq		\subset
\mp		\ll		\subseteq
\times		\geq		\supset
\div		\gg		\supseteq
\ast		\equiv		\cap
\star		\sim		\cup
\bullet		\simeq		\in
\circ		\approx
\cdot		\neq

Sums, products, integrals

Sums with \sum

• \setupbodyfont[14pt]
  \framed[frame=off,align=normal]{%
   \m{\sum_{k = 0}^{j + n} a_k = e^{a + b - c}}  \blank[small]
  \dm{\sum_{k = 0}^{j + n} a_k = e^{a + b - c}}}
  

• 

Products with \prod

• \setupbodyfont[14pt]
  \framed[frame=off,align=normal]{%
   \m{\prod_{i=a}^{b} f(i)}  \blank[small]
  \dm{\prod_{i=a}^{b} f(i)}}
  

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Integrals with \int

• \setupbodyfont[14pt]
  \framed[frame=off,align=normal]{%
   \m{\int_a^b f(x) \dd x }  \blank[small]      
  \dm{\int_a^b f(x) \dd x }  \blank[small]
  
  \setupmathematics[differentiald=upright]
  \dm{\int_a^b f(x) \dd x }  \blank[small]               
  }
  

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Greek Letters

To type the greek character α you can say $\alpha$ which gives

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. If you have a utf enabled keyboard, you can also type the α directly and ConTeXt will correctly interpret it. For example,

\enableregime[utf]

Here is some Greek math $α^2 + β^2 = γ^2$

Here is a complete list of greek letters

lowercase greek letters		variation		uppercase greek letters
\alpha
\beta
\gamma				\Gamma
\delta				\Delta
\epsilon		\varepsilon
\zeta
\eta
\theta		\vartheta		\Theta
\iota
\kappa
\lambda				\Lambda
\mu
\nu
\xi				\Xi
\omicron
\pi		\varpi		\Pi
\rho		\varrho
\sigma		\varsigma		\Sigma
\tau
\upsilon				\Upsilon
\phi				\Phi
\chi
\psi				\Psi
\omega				\Omega

Subscript and superscript

TeX uses ^ and _ to denote superscripts and subscripts. It is perhaps easiest to explain this by means of some examples.

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is written as $x_{10}^{15}$ or $x^{15}_{10}$. The order in which _ and ^ are given does not matter. One can also type complicated expressions like

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as $a_{b_{c_{d_{e}}}}$.

To align superscripts and subscripts one after the other (not above/below each other), you can either add empty sub- and superscripts or use the command \noscript between indices. (See Section 2.7 in the Mathematics in ConTeXt manual (https://www.pragma-ade.com/general/manuals/mathincontext-screen.pdf).) $T^a_{}_b^{}^c = T^a \noscript _b \noscript^c$ gives:

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List of All Math macros

With \usemodule[fnt-25], \showmathfontcharacters produces a lengthy annotated catalogue. Here is the first page:

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In ConTeXt MkII, you can see the list of all math macros by \showmathcharacters.

Spacing

TeX handles math spacing by breaking a formula into parts, and assigning each of those parts a role such as 'Ord' (a variable or number) or 'Rel' (equality, larger than, et cetera). For each combination of roles, it then looks up the spacing appropriate between them in a table. These are the roles:

Ord	e.g. 4 or a or x2
Op	Unary operators such as sin or ln.
Bin	Binary operators such as '+'
Rel	Relationships such as '=' or '>' or '\implies'
Open	open brackets of any kind
Close	closing brackets of any kind
Punct	Punctuation: digit separators like '.' or ','.
Inner	Fractions are inner. What else is inner?

To set up e.g. the spacing between ordinal items, do as follows (since dec 2012):

 \startsetups math:morespacing
     \ordordspacing\textstyle 1mu plus .5mu minus .25mu\relax
 \stopsetups

 \setupmathematics
   [setups=math:morespacing]