Typographically, what is the correct way to display a fractional exponent in display math mode? There was a post regarding inline math, but consider this example.
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{equation*}
\left( \frac{1}{t}\right)^{3/2} x
\end{equation*}
\end{document}
The spacing becomes especially pronounced if a partial derivative follows, for example:
\documentclass{article}
\usepackage[utf8]{inputenc}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{equation*}
\left( \frac{1}{t}\right)^{3/2} \frac{\partial}{\partial x}\sqrt{\frac{1}{x}}
\end{equation*}
\end{document}
Should one use the \frac{}{}
function for fractional exponents at all? Or is it better to just use x^2/4t
instead?
\frac{1}{t}^{3/2}
is ambiguous: Does the exponent ("3/2") apply to the entire fraction, or just to the numerator? Either add some parentheses, or writet^{-3/2}
.