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My original code was something like this:

\documentclass{article} \usepackage{amsmath} \begin{document} \noindent Find the number of solutions that satisfy the following system of\\ equations, given that \( x < 0 \): \vspace{-5pt} % Reduce space before cases %\hspace{-10pt} % Shift equation left by 5cm \[ \begin{cases} x^2 - ax + 2014 = 0 \\ x^2 - 2014x + a = 0 \end{cases} \] \vspace{-5pt} % Reduce space after cases \begin{itemize} \setlength{\itemsep}{0pt} % Reduce space between items \item[A.] 0 \item[B.] 1 \item[C.] 2 \item[D.] 3 \item[E.] 4 \end{itemize} \end{document}

when I remove the % before the \hspace, to make it run, the \vspace somehow doesn't work and the \hspace as well. I want to reduce the vertical space of the equation and move it a little bit to the left so it would look symmetrical as possible. T.I.A

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%\hspace{-10pt} % Shift equation left by 5cm

Using \hspace in that position just creates a paragraph with a negative space so it moves the equation down by a line, a dispayed equation always comes after the paragraph so is unaffected by horizontal space.

the cases should have &= not =

You could use \hspace within the math just before \begin{cases} if you really need that.

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  • By the \hspace "in that position" do you mean, becuase the following empty input lines are equivalent to \par ending a non-empty paragraph created by the \hspace ? Commented Jun 12 at 2:35
  • I don't think that the advice about &= is good. Commented Jun 12 at 8:49
  • @egreg hmm probably it was short for "cases isn't designed for brace grouping a set of equations with no conditional terms" Commented Jun 12 at 10:42
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The \vspace commands you seem to want are due to the blank lines. There should never be a blank line before a math display and rarely after.

I'm not sure what the 5cm come from, but possibly you want to left align the display and likely all of them. Adjust \mathindent to suit.

\documentclass{article} \usepackage[fleqn]{amsmath} \usepackage{enumitem} \newenvironment{system}{% \left\{ \renewcommand{\arraystretch}{1.2}% \begin{array}{@{}l@{}}% }{\end{array}\right.\kern-\nulldelimiterspace} \setlength{\mathindent}{0pt} \begin{document} Find the number of solutions that satisfy the following system of equations, given that \( x < 0 \): \[ \begin{system} x^2 - ax + 2014 = 0 \\ x^2 - 2014x + a = 0 \end{system} \] \begin{itemize}[itemsep=0pt] \item[A.] 0 \item[B.] 1 \item[C.] 2 \item[D.] 3 \item[E.] 4 \end{itemize} \end{document}

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