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## latex and ampersands => formula does not parse

1. help! when i try to use latex code to display matrices, the ampersands required by the syntax interfere with how WP treats ampersands, and i invariably get "Formula does not parse" in any combination of having and not having code tags; wysiwig-editor/plain-editor; and ampersand-alone/html-ampersand/ascii-html-ampersand. some bloggers have found a solution by amending the php files on their WP installation on their servers, but i'm just using WP's setup, not my own.

2. I know nothing about this subject other than where to find the topic in the FAQs. WordPress.com uses standard \LaTeX with the following packages:
* amsmath
* amsfonts
* amssymb
I'm assuming you have already found that FAQs link and that it didn't help but just in case http://faq.wordpress.com/2007/02/18/can-i-put-math-or-equations-in-my-posts/ Hopefully that someone else will come along who can help you soon. :)

3. I have the same problem.

4. Have you tried to ascii code for the amersand?

&# 38 ; (without the spaces)

&

(edit, works in the forums)

5. I think WP org needs a plugin for latex. Not sure what the situation here is.

6. Doh.

Somehow I didn't read the entire question. So ignore my suggestion.

Sorry.

7. If anyone's still having this problem, then they may be interested to learn that I got it to work. The key is that it's highly temperamental about spaces; don't put any spaces between the ampersands (1&1&1 is ok, 1 & 1 & 1 causes an error). It also will go weird if you put a zero in the first column without a space- \ gets turned into just \ when you save the page (causing another error), so you have to put \\ 0

In case that makes no sense, this is the 4x4 matrix I finally got to work
$latex \left[ \begin{array}{ cccc} \gamma&-\beta\gamma&0&0 \\-\beta\gamma&\gamma&0&0 \\ 0&0&1&0 \\ 0&0&0&1 \end{array} \right]$