Math & Science ⇒ What is wrong with the use of \vspace{} here?

[lo2]

Hey I written the following piee of LaTeX code:

Code: Select all

\documentclass[danish]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage[latin1]{inputenc}
\usepackage{geometry}
\usepackage{units}
\usepackage{babel}
\usepackage{ae}
\usepackage{fancyhdr}
\usepackage{lastpage}
\usepackage[pdftex]{graphicx}
\geometry{verbose,letterpaper,bmargin=2cm,tmargin=2cm}
\pagestyle{fancy}
\title{-}
\author{-}
\fancyhead[LE,RO]{side \thepage  $\ $/ \pageref{LastPage} -- \LaTeX}
\chead{}
\lhead{-}
\begin{document}
\section{-}
\tableofcontents{} 
\subsection{Opgave 1}
Jeg har følgende data for løbedistancen i km og løberens tid på distancen, for en kondiløber:
\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{ | p{3cm} | l | l | 1 | 1 |}
\hline
Løbedistance (km) & 5 & 10 & 15 & 20\\ \hline
Løberens tid på distancen (sek.) & 1024 & 2136 & 3282 & 4453\\ 
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}
Jeg får så at vide at kondiløberens tid som funktion af distancen, har følgende sammenhæng:
\[
f(x)=b\cdot x^a
\]
Hvor $x$ er distancen i kilometer (km) og $f(x)$ er kondiløberens tid målt i sek.
\vspace{0.5 cm}
a)
\vspace{0.5 cm}
Bestememr tallene $a$ og $b$ via potentiel regression, og jeg får:
\[
f(x)=185,8974078\cdot  x^{1,060225667}
\]
\vspace{0.5 cm}
b)
\vspace{0.5 cm}
Jeg skal så via $f$ bestemme kondiløberesn tid på en marathon, som jo er 42,195 km. Med andre ord skal jeg bestemme $f(42,195)$. Jeg sætter så ind i min forskrift:
\[
f(42,195)=185,8974078\cdot  (42,195)^{1,060225667}=9826,904882\approx 9826 \unit{sek.}
\]
\end{document}

So when I convert into a pdf, the part around b) does not look the way it should, how come? And how to fix it?

[Stefan Kottwitz]

the part around b) does not look the way it should, how come? And how to fix it?

You could tell us, how it should look.
Perhaps you would like to end the line, before you add vertical space? In that case, this would work:

Code: Select all

b)\\
\vspace{0.5 cm}

Even easier is using the optional argument of the line breaking macro, such as

Code: Select all

b)\\[0.2cm]

Btw. repeated use of \vspace shows that the document design could be improved, repeated manual corrections should rarely be necessary in a structured document.

Stefan

[lo2]

May I ask what you would have done differently, so that you would not have to create these vertical spaces?

[lo2]

Also may I ask what is wrong with this table:

Code: Select all

[url]\begin{center}
\begin{tabular}{ | p{3cm} | l | l | 1 | 1 |}
\hline
Løbedistance (km) & 5 & 10 & 15 & 20\\ \hline
Løberens tid på distancen (sek.) & 1024 & 2136 & 3282 & 4453\\ 
\hline
\end{tabular}
\end{center}[/url]

[Stefan Kottwitz]

May I ask what you would have done differently, so that you would not have to create these vertical spaces?

I would use a LaTeX environment, such as the {enumerate} environment, and customize it, either with LaTeX spacing settings or with the enumitem package.

Or I would define my own environment.

In any way, I would define this just once in the preamble, valid for the whole document. Whenever I would like to adjust that spacing, only a modification of the preamble would be needed.

Stefan

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Also may I ask what is wrong with this table

You accidently wrote 1 (one) instead of l (the letter). With some fonts it's hard to distinguish.

Stefan