Different symbols for square roots

Why are the square root symbols on this post different? Some of them have vertical bar and other ones have slanted bars.

• I see no vertical bars... – gniourf_gniourf Jun 20 '13 at 19:11
• @gniourf_gniourf, I've just edited to insert a screen shot. – Sigur Jun 20 '13 at 19:18
• I don't have vertical bars where you have. Then MathJax does different stuff on different browsers/OS? – gniourf_gniourf Jun 20 '13 at 20:17
• I'm using Mozilla Firefox for Ubuntu, 18.0.1. – Sigur Jun 20 '13 at 20:29
• Ubuntu 12.04/Mozilla Firefox 21.0. – gniourf_gniourf Jun 20 '13 at 20:32

1 Answer

That is MathJax rendering not TeX so not really on topic for this site however you would see similar from a TeX rendering.

TeX fonts have a small fixed set of square root signs (typically with slanted left bar) but then once the term reaches a certain size, TeX switches to a use a glyph for the lower part and then repeats as many "extension pieces" of a small vertical segment as needed. This last mode necessarily has a vertical left side.

• I think that I understood. Since the first four have fractions with both numerator and denominator containing parenthesis with powers, they have the same height and it was necessary to use vertical expansible bars. On the fifth, it does not contain ()^2 on numerator. Interesting! Thanks. – Sigur Jun 20 '13 at 19:10