# Math Help - Extra Characters?

1. ## Extra Characters?

Hi! This bit of LaTeX gives me two curly brackets and a dollar sign that I didn't intend to put in. I don't know how to get rid of them. Can anybody help?

$\{\tau _1}{\text{ consists of }}\{\mathbb{R}}{\text{, }}\emptyset {\text{ and every interval }}\left( {a,b} \right){\text{ for }}a{\text{ and }}b{\text{ any real numbers with }}a < b{\text{;}}\$

Thanks!

2. ## Re: Extra Characters?

Originally Posted by zhandele
Hi! This bit of LaTeX gives me two curly brackets and a dollar sign that I didn't intend to put in. I don't know how to get rid of them. Can anybody help?

$\{\tau _1}{\text{ consists of }}\{\mathbb{R}}{\text{, }}\emptyset {\text{ and every interval }}\left( {a,b} \right){\text{ for }}a{\text{ and }}b{\text{ any real numbers with }}a < b{\text{;}}\$

Thanks!
You've got a lot of curly brackets in there. Did you possibly mean:
$$\{ \tau _1 \} \text{ consists of } \{ \mathbb{R} \text{, } \emptyset \} \text{ and every interval }$$ $$(a, b) \text{ for } a \text{ and } b \text{ any real numbers with } a < b$$

$\{ \tau _1 \} \text{ consists of } \{ \mathbb{R} \text{, } \emptyset \} \text{ and every interval }$ $(a, b) \text{ for } a \text{ and } b \text{ any real numbers with } a < b$

(I had to break this into two pieces to get the whole thing on one line.)

You don't have to wrap { } around every statement. Also, I've noted more problems with the coding come up when there are no spaces between the commands.

-Dan

3. ## Re: Extra Characters?

What I mean to write, very informal, was

$\ \tau _1 \ \text{ consists of } \ \mathbb{R} \text{, } \emptyset \ \text{ and every interval }$ $(a, b) \text{ for } a \text{ and } b \text{ any real numbers with } a < b$

with no curly brackets at all. Why you had to put in those two extra tex fields, I'm not sure, but you're right, without them, this line will wrap.