# [texhax] Multiple column math equations with tags / multicols questions

Steve Schwartz s.j.schwartz at qmul.ac.uk
Thu Aug 12 18:59:59 CEST 2004

The following is really ugly, but does what I think you're after. I'm
sure you could turn this into something prettier by defining a macro so
you only needed to type in each equation once. Also the display maths
doesn't seem to take up quite as much space as the equation environment,
so I had to fiddle with the dummy equation number to get \eqwidth to be
big enough to avoid the equation number ending up on its own line.

Hope this helps. Be sure not to leave any blank lines or you'll get the
minipages as separate paragraphs!

Steve

\documentclass{article}
\newlength{\eqwidth}

\begin{document}
This is a test

\settowidth{\eqwidth}{$$a=b (10.5555)$$}
\begin{minipage}{\eqwidth}
$$a=b$$
\end{minipage} \hfill
%
\settowidth{\eqwidth}{$$a=b (10.5555)$$}
\begin{minipage}{\eqwidth}
$$a=b$$
\end{minipage} \hfill
%
\settowidth{\eqwidth}{$$a=b (10.5555)$$}
\begin{minipage}{\eqwidth}
$$a=b$$
\end{minipage} \hfill
%
\settowidth{\eqwidth}{$$aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa=baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa (10.5555555)$$}
\begin{minipage}{\eqwidth}
$$aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa=baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa$$
\end{minipage} \hfill
%
\settowidth{\eqwidth}{$$a=b (10.5555)$$}
\begin{minipage}{\eqwidth}
$$a=b$$
\end{minipage} \hfill
%
\settowidth{\eqwidth}{$$a=b (10.5555)$$}
\begin{minipage}{\eqwidth}
$$a=b$$
\end{minipage} \hfill

That's it?

\end{document}

On Thu, 2004-08-12 at 16:40, Johan Glimming wrote:
> Hello
>
> I would like to typeset equations of the form
>
>   eqn1   (tag1)        eqn2 (tag2)         eqn3 (tag3)
>
> i.e. would like to have more than one tag per line. Using
> multicols is tempting, but requires a lot of manual work
> because
>
> 1. When I enter math mode in multicols a lot of space is
>     inserted before the first paragraph inside multicols
>     giving me
>
>                           eqn2 (tag2)         eqn4 (tag4)
>      eqn1   (tag1)        eqn3 (tag3)         eqn5 (tag5)
>
> 2. I typically have a bunch of equations of various with,
>     and want them to take as little space as possible by
>     putting them on multiple columns (the equations are
>     inference rules etc). Preferrably, I would like an
>     environment that decides for me when to break the
>     equations to several columns and where to break them,
>     e.g. giving me
>
>           equation_0_is_terribly_terribly_length (tag0)
>       eqn1   (tag1)        eqn2 (tag2)         eqn3 (tag3)
>       equation_4_is_medium (tag4)  equation_5_is_medium (tag4)
>
> Does anyone have a solution or suggestion?
>
> Med vÃ¤nliga hÃ¤lsningar / Yours Sincerely,
> Johan Glimming
>
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| Steve Schwartz               S.J.Schwartz at qmul.ac.uk            |
| Astronomy Unit                                                  |
| Queen Mary, Univ. of London  Tel: +44 (0)20 7882 5449           |
| Mile End Road                Fax: +44 (0)20 8983 3522           |
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