General ⇒ Math Mode Question

[kurttodoroff]

I have created a few dozen macros, three of which I show here, for example.

\newcommand{\alphaactual}{$\alpha_\text{actual}$\index{a@$\alpha_\text{actual}$ (Actual Zero Sight Line Angle-Of-Attack)}}
\newcommand{\alphai}{$\alpha_\text{i}$\index{a@$\alpha_\text{i}$ (Zero Sight Line Angle-Of-Attack At Rollout)}}
\newcommand{\alphar}{$\alpha_\text{r}$\index{a@$\alpha_\text{r}$ (Zero Sight Line Angle-Of-Attack At Release)}}

From time to time, I place one of these macros inside of math mode. The following is one example of this:

$frac{\alphar}{17.45}$

Clearly, this causes an error, since it is equivalent to:

$\frac{ $\alpha_\text{r}$ }{17.45}$

I prefer to retain the opening and closing dollar signs, within the macro definition, to eliminate the need to type the dollar signs in paragraph mode.

Is there a method to persuade LaTeX to accept $frac{\alphar}{17.45}$?

Thank you.

[Stefan Kottwitz]

Hi Kurt,

you could use the \ensuremath command for your macros: latex2e.org/_005censuremath.html

Stefan

[kurttodoroff]

Hi, Stefan.

Thank you for the elegant solution.

Regards,

Kurt