# An ignored vertical space command

In the following code, at least the first command \vspace{3pt plus 1pt minus 0pt} is ignored. I want the statements in I.) and II.) to be typeset below the question.

\documentclass{amsart}
\usepackage{amsmath}

\begin{document}

\noindent \textbf{1.) }$x_{1}$, $x_{2}$, \ldots{} $x_{n}$ are consecutive, positive integers. Is the sum of them odd? \vspace{3pt plus 1pt minus 0pt}
\noindent \hphantom{\textbf{1.) }}\hspace{3em}
\begin{tabular}{r@{}l}
\textbf{I.) }   &   The average of the given integers is odd. \\
\textbf{II.) }  &   \textit{n} is odd.
\end{tabular}
\vspace{3pt plus 1pt minus 0pt}
\begin{tabbing}
\hspace*{2em} \= \kill
\> a.) Statement I.) alone is sufficient, but statement II.) is not sufficient. \\
\> b.) Statement I.) alone is not sufficient, but statement II.) is sufficient. \\
\> c.) Both statements together are sufficient, but neither statement alone is sufficient. \\
\> d.) Each statement alone is sufficient. \\
\> e.) Statements I.) and II.) together are not sufficient.
\end{tabbing}

\end{document}

• why are you not using any latex features for enumerated lists? – David Carlisle Jun 6 '17 at 17:22
• why do you say the first vspace is ignored? If you change it from 3pt to 0pt you will see the next line move (although you should have a blank line before the vspace in the source.) – David Carlisle Jun 6 '17 at 17:24
• The mistake is that I did not have a blank line preceding the \vspace command. (That seems like an odd requirement for a TeX command.) – A gal named Desire Jun 6 '17 at 19:23
• It is not a requirement to have a space before \vspace, it just does not do what you want in that case. – David Carlisle Jun 6 '17 at 19:37

If you use \vspace in horizontal mode (as is the case with both your examples) then the space will be added after the paragraph has been broken into lines after whichever line corresponds to the point where the vspace was added. In your example the line happens to break after odd? so the 3pt is added at that point.

However I would not use any explicit spacing in the document body, I would use a markup more like this:

\documentclass{amsart}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{enumitem}

\begin{document}

\begin{enumerate}[label=\textbf{\arabic*.)}]
\item $x_{1}$, $x_{2}$, \ldots{} $x_{n}$ are consecutive, positive integers. Is the sum of them odd?

\begin{enumerate}[label=\textbf{\Roman*.)}]
\item The average of the given integers is odd.
\item $n$ is odd.
\end{enumerate}

\begin{enumerate}[label=\alph*.),topsep=\baselineskip]
\item Statement I.) alone is sufficient, but statement II.) is not sufficient.
\item Statement I.) alone is not sufficient, but statement II.) is sufficient.
\item Both statements together are sufficient, but neither statement alone is sufficient.
\item Each statement alone is sufficient.
\item Statements I.) and II.) together are not sufficient.
\end{enumerate}
\end{enumerate}

\end{document}

• How would you edit this so that there is 7.5pt after the question and 5pt after choice in II.)? – A gal named Desire Jun 6 '17 at 19:31
• @AgalnamedDesire you could specify topsep for the roman list as I did for the a,b,c list. Of course in the real document you should not have any of these spacing or label keys just use the enumitem package to declare custom lists with whatever spacing and item labels you need, so instead of \begin{enumerate}[label=\alph*.),topsep=\baselineskip] it would be \begin{anwerchoice} or whatever you want to call the lists. – David Carlisle Jun 6 '17 at 19:40