LaTeX Help for Newbies - Solve Equation Rendering Issue

[Rhapsody83]

I'm new here and have never used LaTeX before, so excuse my ignorance. I looked up how to include equations in a post and found this link. I cannot get equations to render when clicking preview. I tried copying and pasting this: $$x = \frac {-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 -4ac}} {2a},$$ but it stays as raw code when I click preview. Can somebody please tell me what I'm doing wrong?

 

[Rhapsody83]

As you can see it rendered correctly when I posted. Not sure why it did not when I clicked preview as the link I gave said it would?

 

[berkeman]

PF uses "lazy rendering" to speed up the initial post. You need to refresh once to get it to render. Welcome to PF!

 

[Rhapsody83]

Thanks for replying. Now time to go and do some research on how to use LaTeX and to make my first actual post.

 

[Wrichik Basu]

PF uses "lazy rendering" to speed up the initial post. You need to refresh once to get it to render.

This needs to be mentioned somewhere in the help section. Or a banner can be shown when creating threads stating whether the MathJax resource has been loaded. Any new user (or the unaware) will be fooled otherwise.

The following are threads that have been posted on this issue in this year:

• Trying to write in LaTex and MathJax not picking up. (October 2023)
• Some help with LaTeX on this forum please (posted March 2023)
• Why Preview sometimes won't work till after a post is posted? (posted Jan. 2023)
• Has LaTeX stopped working? (posted Jan. 2023)
• Preview does not compile Latex (posted Sep. 2022)
• How to preview latex formulas? (posted Sep. 2022)
• Latex not working under preview (posted March 2022)
• Problem posting latex (posted June 2022)
• LaTeX works on math Forums but not others. Does it work for you here? (posted Aug. 2021)
• First report of the error (by me) (June 2021)

Not many, but I believe new users can face some trouble. Regular users, who seldom post new threads compared to replying to threads, may also forget and be bewildered. Not complaining or ranting, but I believe a banner stating whether the MathJax resource has been loaded will be helpful when creating new threads.

Edit: Further updated to add more threads to the list.

 

[Old Person]

This still seems to be ongoing issue and as stated it did affect new users. Add another new users post to Wrichick's list (see post #5).

https://www.physicsforums.com/threa...ew-on-this-forum-please.1050518/#post-6862199