# Left align problems

I have no idea how to ask a question in here as I tried pasting my latex document in (it is only short) to demonstrate my issue but it does not look like anything else here and I don't want to piss anyone off.

Either way, I have a series of equations that need to be aligned. The first one is too long to fit on a single line so I want to put it as far to the left as possible. I have tried {flalign*} but it has no effect.

There is one question here ( How to move the whole block of {align*} to the left? ) that I have pasted into a new document and it works.

However when I paste my equations into this document in place of what is between \begin{flalign*} and \end{flalign*} and nothing changes.

I have inserted & at he end of the line both with and without \\[1.5ex]

Nothing seems to work.

Once I get the align issue sorted I'll also need to think about splitting right aligning the latter part of the first equation.

Any ideas?

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{amssymb}
\usepackage{amsfonts}
\usepackage{setspace}
\usepackage{graphicx}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{textcomp}
\usepackage{mathtools}
\usepackage{leftidx}
\usepackage[none]{hyphenat}
\usepackage{float}
\usepackage{nicefrac}
\raggedright
\doublespacing
\markright{Jesmond Jester\hfill MST124 TMA 04\hfill}
\author{JesmondJester}
\title{TMA 04}
\begin{document}
\setlength{\abovedisplayskip}{0pt}
\setlength{\belowdisplayskip}{0pt}
\Large
\maketitle
\newcommand{\degrees}{\ensuremath{^\circ}}

\begin{align*}% this is centered
a &=b
\end{align*}
%
\begin{flalign*}
a&=b&\\% Need this tailing alignment char to get all the way left
\end{flalign*}

\begin{flalign*}
&=1+\left(-\tfrac{3}{5}\right)x+\frac{\left(-\frac{3}{5}\right)\left(-\frac{8}{5}\right)}{2!}x^2+\frac{\left(-\frac{3}{5}\right)\left(-\frac{8}{5}\right)\left(-\frac{13}{5}\right)}{3!}x^3+\\ \frac{\left(-\frac{3}{5}\right)\left(-\frac{8}{5}\right)\left(-\frac{13}{5}\right)\left(-\frac{18}{5}\right)}{4!}x^4+...&\\[1.5ex]
&=1-\frac{3}{5}x+\frac{3\times8}{5^2\times2!}x^2-\frac{3\times8\times13}{5^3\times3!}x^3+\frac{3\times8\times13\times18}{5^4\times4!}x^4-&\\[1.5ex]
&=1-\frac{3}{5}x+\frac{12}{25}x^2-\frac{52}{125}x^3+\frac{234}{625}x^4-...&\\
\end{flalign*}

\end{document}

• Welcome to TeX.SX! There's nothing wrong in adding your code, so long as it is just enough to show the issue. – egreg Apr 2 '16 at 15:40
• It would be at lot easier if you posted some example code – daleif Apr 2 '16 at 15:41
• I can;t seem to paste it in a way that it appears in other answers - (i.e. with a blue background and not just a lump of text) - should I be putting it inside ? – JesmondJester Apr 2 '16 at 16:01
• @JesmondJester: to mark your codes, select them and click the {} button at the top panel of the text entry box – Herr K. Apr 2 '16 at 16:15
• If you can't get the formatting to work, just paste it and someone will clean it up. Then you can see how they did and next time you'll know. We don't really expect perfection, especially from new users. – Mark Apr 2 '16 at 20:54

Tough, as many big formulas. Shoving everything to the left doesn't seem to be the best solution, but you can do it, just remembering to add some &.

I also propose a centered solution with a dirty trick for getting the trailing dots aligned to each other in the longer lines.

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath,mathtools}

% this is just for the last example; the name can be changed, of course
\makeatletter
\newcommand\jester{%
\ifmeasuring@
0pt
\else
\dimexpr\ifcase\expandafter 2\maxcolumn@widths\fi-1.5\multlinegap\relax
\fi
}
\makeatother

\begin{document}

This is overfull by 31pt
\begin{flalign*}
&=
1+
(-\tfrac{3}{5})x+
\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})}{2!}x^2+
\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})(-\frac{13}{5})}{3!}x^3+
\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})(-\frac{13}{5})(-\frac{18}{5})}{4!}x^4+
\dotsb&\\[1.5ex]
&=
1-
\frac{3}{5}x+
\frac{3\times8}{5^2\times2!}x^2-
\frac{3\times8\times13}{5^3\times3!}x^3+
\frac{3\times8\times13\times18}{5^4\times4!}x^4-\dotsb&\\[1.5ex]
&=
1-
\frac{3}{5}x+
\frac{12}{25}x^2-
\frac{52}{125}x^3+
\frac{234}{625}x^4-\dotsb&
\end{flalign*}

This one isn't, but the result is really bad
\begin{flalign*}
&=
1+
(-\tfrac{3}{5})x+
\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})}{2!}x^2+
\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})(-\frac{13}{5})}{3!}x^3\\
+\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})(-\frac{13}{5})(-\frac{18}{5})}{4!}x^4+
\dotsb&\\[1.5ex]
&=
1-
\frac{3}{5}x+
\frac{3\times8}{5^2\times2!}x^2-
\frac{3\times8\times13}{5^3\times3!}x^3+
\frac{3\times8\times13\times18}{5^4\times4!}x^4-\dotsb&\\[1.5ex]
&=
1-
\frac{3}{5}x+
\frac{12}{25}x^2-
\frac{52}{125}x^3+
\frac{234}{625}x^4-\dotsb&
\end{flalign*}

Here's a different implementation
\begin{align*}
f(x)
&=\begin{multlined}[t][\jester]
1+
(-\tfrac{3}{5})x+
\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})}{2!}x^2+
\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})(-\frac{13}{5})}{3!}x^3\\
+\frac{(-\frac{3}{5})(-\frac{8}{5})(-\frac{13}{5})(-\frac{18}{5})}{4!}x^4+
\dotsb
\end{multlined}\\[1.5ex]
&=
1-
\frac{3}{5}x+
\frac{3\times8}{5^2\times2!}x^2-
\frac{3\times8\times13}{5^3\times3!}x^3+
\frac{3\times8\times13\times18}{5^4\times4!}x^4-\dotsb\\[1.5ex]
&=
1-
\frac{3}{5}x+
\frac{12}{25}x^2-
\frac{52}{125}x^3+
\frac{234}{625}x^4-\dotsb
\end{align*}

\end{document}


• Sorry for the delay - been away with work. What I can say is though - that works perfectly. Thank you! I really appreciate it. I even managed to implement later in my document with the same success. Thanks for your help again! – JesmondJester Apr 22 '16 at 7:22