# Beamer Block: White Space When Using Math

I want to reduce the white space (above and below) when I insert an equation environment in a beamer block.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Antibes}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}

\begin{block}{Separation of variables}
\setlength\abovedisplayskip{0pt}
$$1 + 2 = 3$$
\end{block}

\end{frame}

\end{document}


I searched the web of course but the solutions I found do not seem to work (like \setlength\abovedisplayskip{0pt}).

What I found and should have worked:

-
Do you mean the whitespace around the equation nside the block, or the whitespace around the whole block? – Johannes_B Apr 21 '14 at 11:16
I updated the picture :) – Dr. Manuel Kuehner Apr 21 '14 at 11:41
Thanks Steven. egreg's answer explained the paragraph problem. I was just wondering why the abovedisplayskip parameter had no effect. – Dr. Manuel Kuehner Apr 21 '14 at 12:30

A displayed equation should never be at the top of anything. The problem is that a paragraph is started and then the equation is typeset.

\documentclass{beamer}
\usetheme{Antibes}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\begin{frame}

\begin{block}{Separation of variables}
\vspace*{-\baselineskip}\setlength\belowdisplayshortskip{0pt}
$$1 + 2 = 3$$
\end{block}

\begin{block}{Separation of variables}
Some text
\end{block}

\end{frame}

\end{document}


-
@jotagah A block like the second one would be printed incorrectly. – egreg Apr 21 '14 at 12:37
We can also to use \addtobeamertemplate{block begin}{\vspace*{-\baselineskip}\setlength\belowdisplayshortskip{0pt}} ? – jotagah Apr 21 '14 at 13:01
Egreg, l understand now the picture. – jotagah Apr 21 '14 at 13:08
@TroyWoo \vspace* inserts a vertical space that's not removed at page breaks. In this case probably \vspace would be good as well. – egreg May 28 '15 at 9:42
@TroyWoo There are many possible roads; a well written LaTeX guide is a good starting point. Look at dickimaw-books.com/latexresources.html – egreg May 28 '15 at 10:30