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I am trying to get negative exponent expression to work. Say I have 1.3 * 10^-3

I tried putting that between \$$ pair and got the following

$$1.3 * 10^-3$$

I see 10-3 instead of seeing -3 in superscript

Thanks

fahadash
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    You need brackets. 10^{-3} – Mr.Topology Jun 15 '16 at 10:52
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    And you might want to use \times instead of * : $1.3 \times 10^{-3}$. – TonyK Jun 15 '16 at 10:55
  • @MrTopology I searched and couldn't find it online. The MathJax tutorial didn't have it either. Ultimately it would be a good idea to add this to the tutorial, but could you post your comment as answer? – fahadash Jun 15 '16 at 10:55
  • @fahadash: The very first sentence in the MathJax tutorial is: "To see how any formula was written in any question or answer, including this one, right-click on the expression it and choose Show Math As > TeX Commands." So all you have to do is browse these pages looking for a negative exponent, then right-click on it. – TonyK Jun 15 '16 at 10:58
  • Use 1.3\cdot10^{-3} between those two dollars. And BTW, this question belongs in http://tex.stackexchange.com/, not here. – barak manos Jun 15 '16 at 10:58
  • This question is about TeX/MathJax. It is not about mathematics, so I think it is off-topic and should be closed. This is a bit unfortunate given that it surely helps many users making most of MathJax. But them's the breaks. Mind you, TeX systematically uses braces to enclose multicharacter material into a single item. – Jyrki Lahtonen Jun 15 '16 at 10:59
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    Of course it is in the tutorial. Point 5. – quid Jun 15 '16 at 11:00
  • @barakmanos it does not really belong on tex.se – quid Jun 15 '16 at 11:00
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    @quid Thank you. I see it now. I tried positive exponents and they worked just fine to I assumed negative would too hence my question. – fahadash Jun 15 '16 at 11:02
  • Sorry for posting it to the wrong site. I don't want to delete the question and remove the comments you guys spent time writing. Unless you are okay with it? If not, feel free to close my question. – fahadash Jun 15 '16 at 11:03
  • @quid: Dunno, but that's where I would post it. – barak manos Jun 15 '16 at 11:03
  • I added this to the tutorial. Closing. Oops, it was already there but as a separate item. – Jyrki Lahtonen Jun 15 '16 at 11:06
  • @barakmanos the question as written is clearly a meta question. It asks about how to write it here. It does not even mention any particular typesetting software. – quid Jun 15 '16 at 11:07

1 Answers1

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To get more than two "symbols" in the exponent, you need the brackets {...}.

Then you get $10^{-3}$ by 10^{-3}

Keep in mind, that you always need these brackets, when you want to put more symbols in the exponent, or index.

For example $x_{12}$ by x_{12}

Mr.Topology
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