Australian Curriculum Mathematics/Style guide

This is a style guide for the Australian Curriculum Mathematics wikibook.

Please feel free to contribute to the style guide. Over time, editors will reach a consistent agreement on the style of the wikibook.

Pictures edit

Any good mathematical textbook has lots of pictures. There are three ways that you can add pictures:

Use an image on Wikimedia Commons

Find a picture on Wikimedia Commons and use it directly in the wikibook. Wikimedia Commons is a repository of Creative Commons media that can be used across the entire wikimedia platrom including wikipedia and wikibooks.

If you go to Wikimedia Commons and search for an image, it will have a unique file name. Simply paste that file name directly into the following code

[[File:Pythag anim.gif|250px|Rollover caption - A proof of the Pythagorean Theorem]]

This displays as:

 

As you can see, there is a possibility of using all kinds of animated gifs and videos.

Find an image and put it on Wikimedia Commons

This requires sign on. The image needs to be able to be licensed under a creative commons licence. The author must have either released it, or the work must be in the public domain.

Once your file is uploaded it can be used with ease by anyone across the wiki platforms.

Create your own image and put it on Wikimedia Commons

Again, this requires registration, but you will need to relinquish copyright over your work to creative commons.

Once your file is uploaded it can be used with ease by anyone across the wiki platforms.

Mathematical text edit

For mathematical text, use LaTeX in grades 7 and beyond. Wikibooks has a LaTeX book that you can use to familiarise yourself with code.

All mathematical text needs to be enclosed in between a math code tags tag.

For example:

<math>2+3=5</math>

Looks like:

 

The following basic operators will be used the vast majority of the time in all but the most senior of courses.

Operation LaTeX Code Result
addition 1+2=3  
subtraction 2-1=1  
multiplication 2\times2=4  
division 2\div2=1  
powers 2^2=4  
logarithms* \log_2(2)=1  
  • The following standard functions can be used in LaTeX:
\arccos \cos \csc \exp \ker \limsup \min \sinh
\arcsin \cosh \deg \gcd \lg \ln \Pr \sup
\arctan \cot \det \hom \lim \log \sec \tan
\arg \coth \dim \inf \liminf \max \ sin \ tanh

Lists edit

When creating lists of problems the list should be 3 columns wide and enumerated using lower case letters. The code to achieve this is as follows. It uses two elements. The first is a borderless three column table. This table aligns the three columns in the list. The second element is the enumerated list. Not that each list has a start value where the previous list left off.

{| |- <! this line starts a borderless table to space the lists>
|| <! this line creates the first column>
<ol type="a" start="1"> <! this line starts an enumerated list at a>
<li> <math>1+1=</math> <br><br></li> <!each of these lines represent an item on the list>
<li> <math>2-1=</math> <br><br></li>
<li><math>3\times1=</math> <br><br></li>
</ol> <! this line finishes the first list>
|| <! this line starts the next column>
<ol type="a" start="4"> <! this line starts an enumerated list at the fourth letter i.e. d>
<li> <math>1\div2=</math> <br><br></li>
<li> <math>2\times2=</math> <br><br></li>
<li> <math>3-2=</math> <br><br></li>
</ol>
|| <! this line starts the third column>
<ol type="a" start="7">
<li> <math>1+3=</math> <br><br></li>
<li> <math>2^3=</math>  <br><br></li>
<li> <math>(3,3)=</math>  <br><br></li>
</ol>
|} <! this line ends the table>

This will display as:

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