Operation Manual

Application to chemical formulas
Math was designed to build mathematical formulas, but it can also be used to write chemical
formulas. In chemistry, formulas look like H
2
O: names are usually non-italic uppercase. To write
chemical formulas with Math, deselect the Italic attribute in the Fonts dialog (see “Changing the
font” on page 273).
Here some examples of chemical formulas:
Construction Example Entry
Molecules
H
2
SO
4
H_2 SO_4 (please note the space!)
Isotopes
U
92
238
U lsub 92 lsup 238
Ions
SO
4
2−
SO_4^{2-{}} or SO_4^{2"-"}
Notes: lsub or lsup are abreviations for left subscript and left superscript. Empty braces after 2-
are necessary to avoid errors as there is no right member after the minus sign.
For reversible reactions, there is no satisfactory double arrow in Math. If you have a font with a
suitable symbol, you may use the method described in “Customizing the catalog” on page 278. For
instance, DejaVu fonts have these double arrows ⇄ ⇆ ⇋ ⇌.
Alternatively, if you find a special character in a document you can copy it, for example here in this
formula:
C+O⇌ CO
"⇌". Other double arrows can be found here:
http://dev.w3.org/html5/html-author/charref from character x021C4, or here:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2190.pdf, which is a subset of this location:
http://www.unicode.org/charts/#symbols
Math commands – Reference
The complete list of commands and reserved words used by Math is available in the Math Guide:
• Unary / binary operators
• Relations
• Set operations
• Functions
• Operators
• Attributes
• Brackets
• Formats
• Others
• Characters – Greek
• Characters – Special
• Reserved words in alphabetic order
Chapter 9 Getting Started with Math | 281