Math support in Sphinx

Since mathematical notation isn’t natively supported by HTML in any way, Sphinx supports math in documentation with several extensions.

The basic math support is contained in sphinx.ext.mathbase. Other math support extensions should, if possible, reuse that support too.

The input language for mathematics is LaTeX markup. This is the de-facto standard for plain-text math notation and has the added advantage that no further translation is necessary when building LaTeX output.

mathbase defines these new markup elements:

:math:

Role for inline math. Use like this:

Since Pythagoras, we know that :math:`a^2 + b^2 = c^2`.

.. math::

Directive for displayed math (math that takes the whole line for itself).

The directive supports multiple equations, which should be separated by a blank line:

.. math::

   (a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2

   (a - b)^2 = a^2 - 2ab + b^2

In addition, each single equation is set within a split environment, which means that you can have multiple aligned lines in an equation, aligned at & and separated by :

.. math::

   (a + b)^2  &=  (a + b)(a + b) 
              &=  a^2 + 2ab + b^2

For more details, look into the documentation of the AmSMath LaTeX package.

When the math is only one line of text, it can also be given as a directive argument:

.. math:: (a + b)^2 = a^2 + 2ab + b^2

Normally, equations are not numbered. If you want your equation to get a number, use the label option. When given, it selects an internal label for the equation, by which it can be cross-referenced, and causes an equation number to be issued. See eqref for an example. The numbering style depends on the output format.

There is also an option nowrap that prevents any wrapping of the given math in a math environment. When you give this option, you must make sure yourself that the math is properly set up. For example:

.. math::
   :nowrap:

   begin{eqnarray}
      y    & = & ax^2 + bx + c 
      f(x) & = & x^2 + 2xy + y^2
   end{eqnarray}

:eq:

Role for cross-referencing equations via their label. This currently works only within the same document. Example:

.. math:: e^{ipi} + 1 = 0
   :label: euler

Euler's identity, equation :eq:`euler`, was elected one of the most
beautiful mathematical formulas.