I need some sample web math using ∫, ∏, and √

supabeast

I am a typeface designer working on general-purpose fonts for the web. The character set for these fonts includes all the math characters found in Microsoft and Apple’s basic character sets. For most of them getting the design right is pretty simple. But ∫, ∏, and √ are tough. From what I can tell, ∫, ∏, and √ have odd heights and are typically used in equations that require software capable complex of math typesetting like LaTeX or MS-Word. So on the web I can only find them in images taken from screenshots. But I am assuming that there must be simple uses of these characters that people just type into a line of text. Unfortunately I can’t search for such examples because search engines don’t recognize ∫, ∏, and √. So I need help from people who use these characters—would some math enthusiasts provide me some samples of how you would use ∫, ∏, and √ in text on the web as opposed to an image?

japan

I'm currently studying maths and physics via distance learning, so most of the stuff I do is online.

I've never seen any real usage of the integration or root symbols that wasn't reliant on something like an online latex renderer (like this one: http://www.codecogs.com/latex/eqneditor.php ) or typeset as part of a pdf.

Capital pi you could just use in a line of text, assuming that you can rely on it being rendered correctly by whoever's viewing it (and the same applies to capital sigma for summation), but you wouldn't be able to cleanly indicate the variable being summed or multiplied over and any restrictions on it, so it would be of limited usefulness and I've never seen anyone do it. You'd have the same problem with the integral symbol.

I've seen maths study forums set them as emoticons before, but mostly people will try to explain what they mean in other ways, like using text approximations such as "sum()" or "sqrt()".

hsu

Just a few search terms, to help you find what you are looking for:
∫ = integral / integration (used in calculus)
√ = root / Nth root / square root / sqrt (used in algebra)
∏ = product of a sequence / capital pi notation / infinite product (rare to learn before taking calculus)

In actual usage, with a real equation, all of these symbols are at least 50% larger than the size of the numerals being used.

supabeast

hsu wrote: »

In actual usage, with a real equation, all of these symbols are at least 50% larger than the size of the numerals being used.

That’s why I’m looking for some kind of examples of people using them on the web, in a line of text, with no math fonts. Of course, I’m assuming that there is some odd case for using them outside of a math font, in a line of text, which might be an incorrect assumption.

UrQuanLord88

Wolfram Alpha is probably a good yardstick. For each of the notions you have described, Wolfram provides a plaintext version of the equation and its results.

Of course, there are 2 version to choose from: Copyable plaintext and Mathematica plaintext input

EDIT: Seems like it recognizes the math characters as well

ArbitraryDescriptor

Are you familiar with MathML? It only seems to render well in firefox, but it's "plain text" in the sense that it isn't a raster based image.
Example (again, FF is your best bet for this to render properly)
https://eyeasme.com/Joe/MathML/MathML_browser_test

CptHamilton

You can use the integrand and radical fairly easily in-line:

∫xdx is a valid construction. You could similarly state any relatively simple indefinite integral with it.
√ (3x + 4) or any other straight-forward square root would be similarly clear.

I don't see any obvious way to use ∏ in any meaningful way. There aren't many common indefinite product series and there's no easy way to show the limits in-line. Capital sigma, which you didn't mention, would be more common in-line since there are a fair number of infinite sums starting at i=0.