>> Works with any delimiter, by the way:
>>
>>   \left[ ... \right]
>>
>>   \left| ... \right|
> 
> another nugget ... thanks

This method makes the brackets just big enough to contain the interior 
text. You can also set the bracket size manually (e.g., if you want the 
outer brackets big and the nested brackets smaller, to aid visibility), 
but we won't worry about that. In this specific case, the brackets come 
out reasonable sizes, so no need to fiddle.

You can also do stuff like this:

             | -1  if x < 0
   sign x = <   0   if x = 0
             |  1   if x > 0

Use "\left\{" to get the stretched symbol (you have to balance it with 
"\right."), and then use an array environment to typeset the multiple rows.

>> It's quite possible the Wiki doesn't support arbitrary TeX markup, but 
>> only supports a specific subset of commands.
> 
> you are probably correct ...

I don't suppose for 13ms that there's any *documentation* for what the 
wiki actually supports though...

>> You could try \text{\emph{distance}} or something. That should typeset it 
>> in text italics, which is subtly different from math italics
> 
> no joy with this markup either ....

Really? That's odd. Well, I guess the difference is quite small.

>> Change "min" to "\min" to have it typeset correctly. (I.e., in Roman type, 
>> like all function names. It might even fix the spacing on the brackets 
>> following...)
> 
> worked ... thanks for the assist!

In general, any function name (sin, cos, tan, min, max, lim, etc.) wants 
to be handled this way (\sin, \cos, etc.)

Now, in LaTeX there's a way to define new function names - but you have 
to write the declaration in the document preamble. Not sure if you can 
access this particular feature from the wiki...

Any further questions? :-D

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