# Is there a way to put a plus minus sign in an answer?

Sep 22, 2015

Do you mean a minus-plus sign?

#### Explanation:

Since you already know how to write a plus-minus sign, $\pm$, I assume that you're referring to the minus-plus sign, which looks like this

From what I can tell, you can't really write this symbol in the editor.

Classic MathJax has the functions \pm for the plus minus sign which works here as well

• without the hashtags

\pm2

• with the hashtags

$\setminus \pm 2$

and \mp for the minus plus sign, which does not work in the editor

• without the hashtags

\mp2

• with the hashtags

$\setminus m p 2$

However, you can improvise a little by using the stackrel()() function, which allows you to stack symbols or characters (text) on top of each other.

For example, you can write

• without the hashtags

stackrel("---")(+)

• with the hashtags

$\stackrel{\text{---}}{+}$

It's not perfect, but it does the job :D.

I found a better way of writing the minus plus sign

• without the hashtags

stackrel(_)(+)

• with the hashtags

$\stackrel{_}{+}$

I personally think the first option looks better

stackrel("---")(+)2" "color(green)(sqrt()) " " versus $\text{ } \textcolor{red}{\cancel{\textcolor{b l a c k}{\stackrel{_}{+} 2}}}$

Here's another way of writing the minus plus sign--this one is brought to you by Ernest Z.

The plus-minus sign is Unicode character 2213, so you can write in MS Word first by using writing 2213 followed by ALT + X.

Simply copy/paste the sign to the editor. It will look like this

• without the hashtags

∓2

• with the hashtags

∓2

I think we may have found the best version

stackrel("---")(+)2 " " " "color(green)(ul(color(black)(∓2))) " "color(green)(sqrt()

Here's yet another way of writing the minus-plus sign, this time brought to you by NickTheTurtle!

• without hashtags

bar("+")2

• with hashtags

$\overline{\text{+}} 2$

I think that this version gets the job done + it has the added bonus of being easier to add to the answer!

stackrel("---")(+)2 " " $\text{ "∓2 " }$ " "bar("+")2