## 2012-06-21

### mathjax

Behold, a magic trick! Watch the foundations of mathematics disappear!

Set our variable $x$ equal to one.
$x=1$
Multiply both sides by $x$.
${x}^{2}=x$
Subtract $1$ from both sides.
${x}^{2}-1=x-1$
Factor the left-hand expression.
$\left(x+1\right)\left(x-1\right)=x-1$
Divide both sides by $x-1$.
$x+1=1$
Subtract $1$ from both sides.
$x=0$
Substitute our original value of $x$.
$1=0$

Man, I love math.

If you love math and the internet, you'll know that the state of math on the web has been dire for a long time. MathML was the W3C's attempt to create a comprehensive language to display mathematical equations properly on the web, but unfortunately adoption has been less than universal.

One of the main problems seems to be that it is a little too verbose and complex to code by hand. I mean, it is fairly easy to do once you've got the hang of it, but it is still much simpler to just generate an image for the task. Also, the pain in the backend that is IE still doesn't support it, and given the fact that IE's SVG support isn't even going to be complete in IE10, I doubt we can cross our fingers for something as marginal as MathML.

Luckily we have Mathjax, a cross-browser library in the same vein as jQuery. You can use MathML or LaTeX and it will display correctly in any browser, even IE7!