Content MathML

Content MathML is not commonly recognized by browsers, but you can use a ctop.xsl file to render it.

Content MathML represents mathematical objects as expression trees. In each branch, an operator is applied to its sub-objects. For example, the sum 'x+y' can be thought of as an application of the addition operator (+) to two arguments x and y. And the expression 'cos(a)' as the application of the cosine operator to the angle a.

As a general rule, the terminal nodes in the tree represent basic mathematical objects such as numbers, variables, arithmetic operations and so on. The internal nodes in the tree represent function application or other mathematical constructions that build up a compound objects. [Function application provides the most important example; an internal node might represent the application of a function to several arguments, which are themselves represented by the nodes underneath the internal node.]

MathML makes explicit a relatively small number of commonplace mathematical constructs, chosen carefully to be sufficient in a large number of applications. In addition, it provides a mechanism for referring to mathematical concepts outside of the base collection, allowing them to be represented, as well.