MathML in action

Here is a demonstration of MathML, using, as an example, the Taylor series for f at a, where f is a function which has derivatives of all orders on an open interval containing the real numbers a and x.

f ( x ) = ∑ n=0 ∞ f ( n ) ( a ) n! ( x−a ) n f(x) = sum from { n = 0 } to infinity { { f^(n)(a) } over { n! } (x - a)^n }

LibreOffice Math provides a language to enable complicated mathematical formulae to be displayed in LibreOffice documents. To display the equation above in LibreOffice, it is written in this language as 

 
f(x) = sum from { n = 0 } to infinity { { f^(n)(a) } over { n! } (x - a)^n }
To display formulae in a browser, another language, the Mathematical Markup Language or MathML, is used. For full details on the language, see the W3C specification . The MathML for the example equation is shown below; it was generated by LibreOffice and, as you can see, it takes up a bit more space! 

<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block">
  <semantics>
    <mrow>
      <mi>f</mi>
      <mrow>
        <mrow>
          <mo fence="true" stretchy="false">(</mo>
          <mrow><mi>x</mi></mrow>
          <mo fence="true" stretchy="false">)</mo>
        </mrow>
        <mo stretchy="false">=</mo>
        <mrow>
          <munderover>
            <mo stretchy="false">∑</mo>
            <mrow><mi>n</mi><mo stretchy="false">=</mo><mn>0</mn></mrow>
            <mi mathvariant="normal">∞</mi>
          </munderover>
          <mrow>
            <mfrac>
              <mrow>
                <msup>
                  <mi>f</mi>
                  <mrow>
                    <mo fence="true" stretchy="false">(</mo>
                    <mrow><mi>n</mi></mrow>
                    <mo fence="true" stretchy="false">)</mo>
                  </mrow>
                </msup>
                <mrow>
                  <mo fence="true" stretchy="false">(</mo>
                  <mrow><mi>a</mi></mrow>
                  <mo fence="true" stretchy="false">)</mo>
                </mrow>
              </mrow>
              <mrow><mi>n</mi><mi>!</mi></mrow>
            </mfrac>
            <msup>
              <mrow>
                <mo fence="true" stretchy="false">(</mo>
                <mrow>
                  <mrow><mi>x</mi><mo stretchy="false">−</mo><mi>a</mi></mrow>
                </mrow>
                <mo fence="true" stretchy="false">)</mo>
              </mrow>
              <mi>n</mi>
            </msup>
          </mrow>
        </mrow>
      </mrow>
    </mrow>
    <annotation encoding="StarMath 5.0">
      f(x) = sum from { n = 0 } to infinity { { f^(n)(a) } over { n! } (x - a)^n }
    </annotation>
  </semantics>
</math>