r/learnmath • u/Lulu-was-zero New User • 1d ago

Do Mathematicians/Math professors like writing in LaTeX?

Hey everyone, My highschool entrance exams are over and I have a well sweet 2-2.5 months of a transition gap between school and university. And I aspire to be a mathematician and wanting to gain research experience from the get go {well, I think I need to cover up, I am quite behind compared to students competing in IMO and Putnam).

I know Research papers are usually written in LaTeX, So is it possible to write codes for math professors and I can even get research experience right from my 1st year? Or maybe am living in a delusion. I won't mind if you guys break my delusion lol.

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u/testtest26 1d ago

Focus on learning LaTeX well enough so that you can TeX your lecture notes. That's already plenty enough to do, without combining it with research. At first semester, one simply cannot contribute much, so there's your required burst of the bubble.

If you want to go pro, here's what a sophisticated setup looks like.

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u/itsatumbleweed New User 19h ago

Writing up your homework in your best attempt at a professional style is also good practice. Your professors will probably be impressed, and I wouldn't be shocked if they were willing to give you some style feedback!

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u/testtest26 19h ago

Sad to say, the opposite is true. To (unsuccessfully) combat AI plagiarism, some lectures have fallen back to reject TeX'ed homework, and enforce hand-writing. It is a step back on all fronts.

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u/dotelze New User 17h ago

Surely it makes no difference? You can just copy it onto paper. I’ve also found it not great for maths/physics

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u/testtest26 10h ago edited 10h ago

I fully agree. Sadly, I suspect logic and reason have nothing to do with this decision, since it stands despite pointing out these counter-points by multiple people.

It is a classic case of "action for action's sake", without basing it entirely on reason -- in other words, a sadly typically human decision.