13
$\begingroup$

I use blender to illustrate and demonstrate physics and optics, and it's incredibly useful. Blender + Python is a winning combination for science.

I'd like to ask several questions, and they involve math. Here is a question where I would have used MathJax for example. Instead I posted a screenshot from another Stackexchange site where I could use it.

The natural language for mathematics is not ASCII, it's equations, and MathJax support in many Stackexchange sites is widely used and appreciated. This MathJax in Stackexchange tutorial is helpful, but you can just edit any question or answer with an existing equation to see how it works.

If I understand correctly, if MathJax is turned on in a given Stackexchange site, it doesn't actually affect the user experience unless viewing a question/answer that requires it - it doesn't download until needed. But I am not sure about this. Is this true?

What would be needed to build a consensus that activating MathJax support for this Stackexchange site is a good idea? Are there any down sides?

There was a previous request here that has gone unanswered, and the answer to the question "Can we rethink requesting MathJaX?" seems to be quite positive.

$\endgroup$
21
  • $\begingroup$ I personally have no use for it, and have no real idea about the consequences or possible performance concerns it may raise. My guess is that there never was enough interest or momentum to actually implemented it, but if it does helps some users and there are no downsides, then I'd vote to add. $\endgroup$
    – Duarte Farrajota Ramos Mod
    Oct 7, 2016 at 11:42
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ Right, with the technical shift in our scope I could see this being used more. Will poke someone. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Oct 7, 2016 at 15:33
  • 3
    $\begingroup$ So it seems this is possible but we have to do a bit of investigating first, posts that could get broken, existing posts than will benefit from this and examples of future questions etc. Consider this in progress. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Oct 7, 2016 at 15:41
  • $\begingroup$ @iKlsR OK that's great to hear! If there is anything I can do to help somehow let me know. Thanks for the quick reply! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Oct 7, 2016 at 15:59
  • $\begingroup$ @uhoh The more examples of existing questions/answers that we can compile the better. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Oct 7, 2016 at 16:01
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ Related: meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/2196/… and meta.blender.stackexchange.com/questions/690/…. (BTW I am heavily in favor of this proposal.) $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Oct 9, 2016 at 14:00
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @iKlsR Where should said list be compiled? Should we make a community wiki meta post for it? $\endgroup$
    – PGmath
    Oct 9, 2016 at 14:02
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @uhoh I'll bump this up the chain again thanks for the effort. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Jan 6, 2017 at 8:21
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ I am strongly in favor of MathJax support. As someone who usually write technical answer, not having MathJax resolve me to either compile Latex or screenshot MathJax rendered equation from some online site or a local page which takes some time. $\endgroup$
    – Omar Emara
    Dec 31, 2017 at 15:10
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Yikes, nearly a year. I'll contact a community manager again. @ScottMilner $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Jan 2, 2018 at 22:27
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ Ok the ball has finally started rolling. We can expect an official reply from StackExchange as early as a couple weeks (hopefully this month). Thanks for being patient. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Jan 3, 2018 at 15:41
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @iKlsR that's great news, thank you! If there's any thing I can do to help, let me know! $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Jan 3, 2018 at 17:04
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ @uhoh More examples would help as we find them. Omar's posts are especially helpful. $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Jan 7, 2018 at 18:55
  • 4
    $\begingroup$ It's taking us a bit longer to get to this, but it is on our radar! $\endgroup$
    – JNat StaffMod
    Jan 31, 2018 at 14:03
  • 1
    $\begingroup$ You might find this discussion interesting: languagedesign.meta.stackexchange.com/q/45/34 $\endgroup$
    – user1271772
    Jun 1 at 19:43

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6
$\begingroup$

Thanks for your patience. Yes, we will enable MathJax on Blender.SE!

The one real catch is that enabling MathJax will break the formatting on a few posts. I looked into the situation (query here), and there are only ~20 posts which have in-line $ delimiters. Workable enough, but folks around these parts will still need to be willing to do a little manual editing to update these posts.

All you gotta do is add a \ in front of the $ on any of the broken posts. I included an example screenshot below from Math.SE (where MathJax is enabled) to show what I mean.

enter image description here

Some SE communities have also created their own specialized guides to working with MathJax. You can see examples of those here, in case you want to create one of your own.

Update: MathJax is now on!

$\endgroup$
7
  • $\begingroup$ Yay! For a general guide to MathJax in SE I use this: math.meta.stackexchange.com/q/5020/284619 $\endgroup$
    – uhoh
    Feb 21, 2018 at 22:47
  • $\begingroup$ I have gone through all of the posts on the query. Everything should be fixed. The remaining posts that come up have $'s in code blocks, so they aren't an issue. $\endgroup$
    – Scott Milner
    Feb 22, 2018 at 0:16
  • $\begingroup$ Are we encouraged to edit in MathJax to posts of other users? $\endgroup$
    – Scott Milner
    Feb 22, 2018 at 0:19
  • $\begingroup$ @ScottMilner Yikes! Thank you. I was just prepared to do some late night edits. Definitely, as a holder of the edit posts privilege we trust your judgement when to use it! :) $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Feb 22, 2018 at 5:03
  • $\begingroup$ I'd also recommend anyone with the time to create our own fancy mathjax guide. Could be a copy-paste from an existing one with credits. Would be great to feature and point new users to here! $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Feb 22, 2018 at 5:05
  • $\begingroup$ Congrats to all those who lobbied for this. $\endgroup$
    – batFINGER
    Feb 22, 2018 at 16:26
  • $\begingroup$ I just tried MathJax here, updated most of my answers. There is a certain behavior that I would like to change, empty lines causes Mathjax to stop rendering, this seems to be similar to math.SE, is there a way around this? Also, upon editing a post with MathJax equations, it stops rendering until page is reloaded. $\endgroup$
    – Omar Emara
    Feb 22, 2018 at 19:39
14
$\begingroup$

In accordance with iKlsR's comment, here is a list of posts which would benefit from MathJaX. Anyone and everyone is encouraged to add to it as you like.

Update: Now that MathJax is turned on, please update this list to show which posts have been successfully converted.

Question How to understand the math behind Andrew Price's embedding his beer within his glass
Question Physical iridescence in Cycles?
Question Plotting 3D Regions
Question Plotting 3D Surfaces
Question Math logic between camera angle and lens
Question How to create a 3D object from a specific equation
Question how to change a mesh given by mathematical function with time i.e. how to include the time parameter in the mathematical equation?
Question (and answers of) How to: Exponential Fall Off for Volume Density?
Question How can I generate an object from a mathematical function?
Question Creating mesh on a surface with two variables
Question (and answers of) Blender Cycle's z-coordinate vs. camera-centered z-coordinate (orthogonal distance)
Question How to calculate Specular value for Principled BSDF node from IOR?
Question creating mesh on an isosurface
Question particle simulation
Question Write the Rotation Matrix Values of an Object by XYZ individually?
Question blender camera from 3x4 matrix
Question Animation nodes: rotate around axis
Question 3x4 camera matrix from blender camera

Answer to Detect light amount on surface?
Answer to How can I create a staggered, repeating procedural pattern?
Answer to Modeling a Klein bottle
Answer to Affecting a material based on another object's relation to camera
Answer to Possible to control a Driver from a Group Node input slider?
Answer to Is it possible to render a panorama in perspectives other than full 360°x180°?
Answer to How does the Turbulence Force Field work?
Answer to Liquid / glass interface IOR and normals in Cycles
Answers to What is Dot Product?
Answer to Matcaps and Normal Stretching
Answer to In BGE is there a way to apply gravity to the inside of a sphere
Answer to Trace visualisation in 3D - how to wrap curves onto a 3D mesh
Answer to Build color ramp out of math nodes?
Answer to What does the “unused” output on the Vector Math node do?
Answer to What does the “Absolute” setting in the Math node do?
Answer to How to construct a pyramid in blender but the edges of the triangles to be equal?
Answer to Possible to use object speed/acceleration as driver variable?
Answer to How to make a node group to calculate fresnel via F0 values
Answer to How to achieve this spline and particle effect
Answer to Creating Normal maps from a Texture?
Answer to Understanding 3D transforms and rotations
Answer to What do glossy distribution models do?
Answer to Camera angle for 50% height hex grid
Answer to Acces unmodified Normals on object with Custom/Transferred normals

Possible Benefit†:

Question How do you create a Math Formula for a Model Object?
Question (and answers of) functioning of the geometry node- what does it do with the vector math
Question How to simply find the code/script behind the volume scatter node so I can see the math?
Question How to make variable transparency hole in a plane with a math function using nodes?
Question Clarifying Blender skeleton animation and OpenGL
Question How to set a given Island margin for UV?

Answer to how are the math node operations in cycles calculated?

† The math in these posts might fit better remaining as pseudocode than being converted to MathJaX.

Note that there are currently 129 questions tagged with , a huge portion of these would probably benefit from MathJaX. Keep in mind though that these are not the only posts which would, as there are many math-based answers.

$\endgroup$
1
  • 2
    $\begingroup$ Super thanks to Scott Milner for taking the initiative to update these posts! $\endgroup$
    – iKlsR
    Mar 1, 2018 at 4:19

You must log in to answer this question.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged .