equation and equation* is the same for me

Question

Is it supposed that equation and equation* environments work exactly the same?
For example, for me

\begin{equation}
a=b
\end{equation}

\begin{equation} a=b \end{equation} is the same as

\begin{equation*}
a=b
\end{equation*}

\begin{equation*} a=b \end{equation*}

but i'd like that the equation environment number the equations as in my LaTeX pdf's. I have the same problem with align environment, which is the one i use the most.

Answer 1

In usual $\LaTeX$, the difference between starred environments and regular environments have to do with numbering equations. MathJax does not automatically number equations, so both methods produce the same output. If you want to add tags to equations, you can use the \tag command:

   $$a=b \tag{1} $$

Produces: $$a=b \tag{1}$$

Same with

  $$\begin{equation}
      a=b \tag{2}
      \end{equation}$$

which gives $$\begin{equation} a=b \tag{2} \end{equation}$$

Likewise, environments like align need explicit tags:

$$\begin{align}
    a&= b   \tag{3}\\
    c&= d   \\
    e&=f    \tag{A}
    \end{align}$$

yields $$\begin{align} a&= b \tag{3}\\ c&= d \\ e&= f \tag{A} \end{align}$$