# Splitting inside align doesn't work in LyX

I'm trying to write two equations in one line separated by some whitespace. I don't want to add the whitespace manually. Instead I was expecting that & inside an AMS align environment would do the job. However it does not work (and not even \begin{split}). Here's an example:

and here's what I get (exported via ps2pdf):

(In this particular example I didn't use any packages, except for amsmath which, as I understand, is loaded automatically whenever commands like \begin{align} are used)

I fail to understand where is the problem. Any suggestions?

• Welcome to TeX.SE! Please post the code as text instead of as an image. This would allow users here to copy-paste directly into our machines to test. – Troy Mar 6 '18 at 16:28

If you want to use align for this, you need four columns, two for each equation. You can insert columns for example with the button on the toolbar, highlighted in this image:
However, instead of align I'd use a normal displayed math environment, and add some horizontal space between the two equations. The easiest way of doing that is to write \qquad (or \quad) between the two equations:
After typing \qquad, hit the right arrow key, and it looks like this:
• Thank you. That's indeed what I currently use. I was just curious why & doesn't act as a separator even though it should according to this example (see the second code bloc under "Aligning several equations"). – cth Mar 6 '18 at 16:48
• @cth In your example there is just one &, hence two columns, so what I'm describing (four columns, three &) is not the same thing. In the tutorial you refer to there is a & at each alignment point (the equals sign), and another & between each equation. See the answers to tex.stackexchange.com/q/159723 for descriptions on how this works. – Torbjørn T. Mar 6 '18 at 16:57