Small matrices won't appear on the same line in LaTeX

Question

I have a product of two matrices that I would like to appear next to each other on the same line. Even though I have shrunk them down to allow room, LaTeX automatically sends the second matrix to the next line so that they don't appear as a product. What's the word on the street? Thanks.

Answer 1

What you should probably really do is do them in displaymath; big things inline look ugly.

Answer 2

Word on the street is that what you're trying to do should work just fine. I tried both

\begin{equation}
 \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4\end{pmatrix}
 \begin{pmatrix} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4\end{pmatrix}
\end{equation}

and

    $\bigl(\begin{smallmatrix} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4\end{smallmatrix}\bigr) \bigl(\begin{smallmatrix} 1 & 2 \\ 3 & 4\end{smallmatrix}\bigr)$

and in both cases the matrices appeared on the same line. If that doesn't do it for you, post a code sample...

Answer 3

To prevent a line break in MATRICES, use `\hbox{MATRICES}' .