# Left align (to the page) displayed math

How can I left align the display math environment (either  or \[)? I keep running into people asking about the align environment; but I just want to change displayed math from center to left align relative to the page.

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I saw that style in a book and like it, since I did not have to look all over the page width for the formulas, but found them on the left side as well. Is there something I should keep in mind, when I use this style? –  queueoverflow Oct 23 '12 at 13:13

You can use flalign from the amsmath package:

## Note:

• The showframe package was used just to be able to see where the text is relative to the page margins.

## Code:

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{flalign*}
e & = mc ^2 &\\%  Note the trailing & which is required to equations to the left
F & = ma
\end{flalign*}
\end{document}


Alternatively, if you want all equations left aligned, you can use the package option fleqn as in \documentclass[fleqn]{article} which will align them towards the left. The indentation is controlled by \mathindent, so you could use \setlength{\mathindent}{0pt} if you wanted to eliminate that.

## Code:

\documentclass[fleqn]{article}
\usepackage{showframe}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\setlength{\mathindent}{0pt}

\begin{document}
\begin{align*}
e & = mc ^2 \\
F & = ma
\end{align*}
\end{document}

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