Virtual Museum

MathML

Tue, Oct 28, 2003; by Geoffrey Wirth.

Mathematical Markup Language

MathML Definition

MathML 2.0, a W3C Recommendation was released on 21 Feb 2001. A product of the W3C Math working group, MathML is a low-level specification for describing mathematics as a basis for machine to machine communication. It provides a much needed foundation for the inclusion of mathematical expressions in Web pages[more].

MathML Articles

For more information about MathML and the activities of the W3C Math working group, consult the W3C Math Activity Report or the MathML FAQ, by Stephen Buswell et. al. (a wealth of introductory and background information on MathML).

Simple example of MathML

This simple example of MathML gives you an idea of how it works. The equation in question is:

x2 + 4x + 4 =0

and below are two ways that this can be represented, first using presentational tags, then using semantic tags. The presentational tags generally start with "m" and then use "o" for operator "i" for identifier "n" for number, and so on. The "mrow" tags indicate organization into horizontal groups.

<mrow>
  <mrow>
        <msup> <mi>x</mi> <mn>2</mn> </msup> <mo>+</mo>
            <mrow>
              <mn>4</mn>
              <mo>&InvisibleTimes;</mo>
              <mi>x</mi>
            </mrow>
    <mo>+</mo>
    <mn>4</mn>
  </mrow>
    <mo>=</mo>
    <mn>0</mn>
</mrow>

The semantic tags take into account such concepts as "times", "power of" and so on:

    <apply>
        <plus/>
        <apply>
            <power/>
            <ci>x</ci>
            <cn>2</cn>
        </apply>
        <apply>
            <times/>
            <cn>4</cn>
            <ci>x</ci>
        </apply>
       <cn>4</cn>
    </apply>



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