10 Essential LaTeX Commands Every Student Should Know

Whether you're writing a homework assignment, research paper, or presentation, these 10 LaTeX commands will cover 90% of your mathematical notation needs.

1. Fractions: \frac{}{}

\frac{a}{b} produces a fraction. For continued fractions, use \cfrac. Example: \frac{-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac}}{2a}.

2. Superscripts and Subscripts: ^ and _

x^2 = x², a_n = aₙ. Combine them: x_i^2. For multiple characters, use braces: e^{i\pi}.

3. Square Roots: \sqrt{}

\sqrt{x} for square root, \sqrt[n]{x} for nth root. Example: \sqrt{a^2 + b^2}.

4. Integrals: \int, \iint, \oint

\int_{a}^{b} f(x)\,dx for definite integrals. \iint for double, \oint for contour integrals.

5. Sums and Products

\sum_{i=1}^{n} x_i and \prod_{i=1}^{n} x_i.

6. Greek Letters

Common ones: \alpha, \beta, \gamma, \delta, \epsilon, \theta, \pi, \sigma, \phi, \omega. Capitalize first letter for uppercase.

7. Trigonometric Functions

\sin, \cos, \tan, \arcsin, \arccos, \arctan — LaTeX automatically uses roman type for these functions.

8. Limits

\lim_{x \to a} f(x) or \lim_{x \to \infty} f(x).

9. Brackets and Parentheses

Use \left( and \right) for auto-sizing brackets: \left( \frac{a}{b} \right). Works with [ ], \{ \}, | |.

10. Matrices

\begin{pmatrix} a & b \\ c & d \end{pmatrix} for matrices with parentheses. Use bmatrix for square brackets.