Our site is dealing with electronics and practical engineering, so we use formulas in questions and answers on occasion, most usually when we have to figure out electronic ratings.
When we talk about the design or function of printers more than "rule of thumb", we need complex math. When we estimate print times formulas could be used to illustrate the calculations. When we want to estimate the length of a spool of filament, we need math. When we discuss movement paths, we also come into need for 3D geometry which can be simplified by using non-carthesian coordinates or functions - which in turn need manual typing of greek letters or proper formulas to be displayed well.
Up to now I have been typing LaTeX formulas in online converters and copy paste the link to the image generated formula. This is quite labor intensive, especially since the SE does support built in MathJax.
A recent answer showed LaTeX/MathJax code in the answer, but that did not render into an actual formula image as it is not enabled.
- Supply voltage $ U_S = 12V \or 24V $
- Logic Voltage $ U_L = 5V $
- Sensor Voltage $ U_sens = U_L$
- Temperature control (Hotend/Bed/Cooling fans) $ U_T = U_S$
Why can't we enter formulas directly in posts?
$
and~
are only used occasionally and then as single characters, so both wouldn't create problems. On the other hand, we could rule out other standard characters as useful: §, %, &, * and # all have legitimate uses in either the 3D printing directly or in borderline cases (e.g. § when we need to talk copyright stuff, * to denote annotions at times, # for "generic number" or weights) $\endgroup$$
is the chosen symbol, in keeping with Robotics et al.. Looking forward to having it turned on. $\endgroup$