How to write mathematical notation in Obsidian

Obsidian is a powerful note-taking application that allows you to organize and structure your notes. But what if you need to take notes on a topic related to mathematical formulas?

Mathematical symbols are essential in many fields. Fortunately, Obsidian has built-in support for mathematical notation.

How to write mathematical notation in Obsidian

Despite the extensive UI, even text editors like Microsoft Word can make it difficult to enter mathematical symbols. Because Obsidian lacks a user interface, it is often said that it is impossible to write math in it. However, this is completely wrong.

In fact, writing math in Obsidian is simpler than in Word, thanks to native support for MathJax, a JavaScript library that allows users to enter math symbols.

Thanks to MathJax, you can write mathematical symbols in Obsidian easily without moving the mouse. All the necessary tools are available on your keyboard. To start writing a math symbol, all you have to do is put the formula in the dollar sign ( $ ). Use double dollar signs ($$ ) for one-line sets.

MathJax uses specific codes to enter symbols. To enter special characters, you can enter the code for the symbol after the backslash (). When writing mathematical notation, the caret ( ^ ) represents the superscript and the underscore ( _ ) represents the subscript.

You can enter math formulas in Obsidian efficiently by understanding the fundamentals of math syntax and MathJax-specific code. For example, to enter the formula to calculate the area of ​​a circle, you can use the following syntax:

$$A = pi r^2$$

In this syntax, pi calls the symbol for the number pi, and r^2 displays r as a power of two. You can enter other Greek characters in a similar way: the backslash and the name of the symbol.

Another use of MathJax is to type fractions in Obsidian:

$$frac{numerator}{denominator}$$ 

After entering frac into the syntax, you must include two closing & opening curly braces. The contents of the first set will be the numerator, the other will be the denominator.

With knowledge of MathJax in Obsidian and code for a specific notation, you can also enter more complex math symbols like sum, limit, integral, etc.

As you can see, writing mathematical notation in Obsidian is possible and simple on any platform. Thanks to native support for MathJax, you can simply put the formula in the dollar sign.

Hope the article is useful to you.

Marvin Fry

Update 01 August 2023