False Positives for "Imaginary Part"

[NV-Codes]

Version

MathCAT 0.7.5

Issue

MathCAT seems to treat any instance of "im" as "the imaginary part of" whatever it precedes, even when it simply refers to the product of i ($\sqrt{-1}$) and m (mass), as in the following:

$$ \hat{A} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2m}} (\hat{p} - im\omega_0 \hat{x}) $$

I believe that the LaTeX command \Im (which is rendered as $\Im$) is typically used to indicate "the imaginary part of," so the inference may be unnecessary.

[NSoiffer]

This is little subtle/tricky. MathCAT tries to clean up bad input by looking at a sequence of variables and seeing if any match a known function. For example, and common error is that someone writes sin x in TeX, leaving off the backslash. MathCAT cleans that up. Some WYSIWYG editors don't define "max", "Re", etc. For imaginary, MathCAT's list of known functions is "im", "Im", and "ℑ" and that is why "im" sometimes MathCAT will get that. It rules out some cases that don't make sense though.

When I take your example and run it through MathJax, I get the MathML:

<math xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" display="block">
  <mrow data-mjx-texclass="ORD">
    <mover>
      <mi>A</mi>
      <mo stretchy="false">^</mo>
    </mover>
  </mrow>
  <mo>=</mo>
  <mrow>
    <mfrac>
      <mn>1</mn>
      <msqrt>
        <mrow>
          <mn>2</mn>
          <mo>&#x2062;</mo>
          <mi>m</mi>
        </mrow>
      </msqrt>
    </mfrac>
    <mo>&#x2062;</mo>
    <mrow>
      <mo stretchy="false">(</mo>
      <mrow>
        <mrow data-mjx-texclass="ORD">
          <mover>
            <mi>p</mi>
            <mo stretchy="false">^</mo>
          </mover>
        </mrow>
        <mo>&#x2212;</mo>
        <mrow>
          <mi>i</mi>
          <mo>&#x2062;</mo>
          <mi>m</mi>
          <mo>&#x2062;</mo>
          <msub>
            <mi>&#x3C9;</mi>
            <mn>0</mn>
          </msub>
          <mo>&#x2062;</mo>
          <mrow data-mjx-texclass="ORD">
            <mover>
              <mi>x</mi>
              <mo stretchy="false">^</mo>
            </mover>
          </mrow>
        </mrow>
      </mrow>
      <mo stretchy="false">)</mo>
    </mrow>
  </mrow>
</math>

And that gives the speech

cap a hat, is equal to; the fraction with numerator 1; and denominator the square root of 2 m, end root; end fraction; times; open paren; p hat, minus, i m omega sub 0; x hat; close paren

"im" is not merged in that result. Since you are getting a different result, can paste the MathML for the expression that is not working for you?

[NV-Codes]

I used the following Markdown and let GitHub render it as MathML:

$$
\hat{A} = \frac{1}{\sqrt{2m}} (\hat{p} - im\omega_0 \hat{x})
$$

When I copy the MathML via MathCAT, I get

<math xmlns='http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML'>
 <mrow>
  <mover>
    <mi>A</mi>
    <mo stretchy='false'>^</mo>
  </mover>
  <mo>=</mo>
  <mrow>
    <mfrac>
      <mn>1</mn>
      <msqrt>
        <mrow>
          <mn>2</mn>
          <mo>&#x2062;</mo>
          <mi>m</mi>
        </mrow>
      </msqrt>
    </mfrac>
    <mo>&#x2062;</mo>
    <mrow>
      <mo stretchy='false'>(</mo>
      <mrow>
        <mover>
          <mi>p</mi>
          <mo stretchy='false'>^</mo>
        </mover>
        <mo>-</mo>
        <mrow>
          <mrow>
            <mi>im</mi>
            <mo>&#x2061;</mo>
            <msub>
              <mi>ω</mi>
              <mn>0</mn>
            </msub>
          </mrow>
          <mo>&#x2062;</mo>
          <mover>
            <mi>x</mi>
            <mo stretchy='false'>^</mo>
          </mover>
        </mrow>
      </mrow>
      <mo stretchy='false'>)</mo>
    </mrow>
  </mrow>
 </mrow>
</math>

I also get the same speech when I generate the MathML for that expression with Pandoc.

Please let me know if that helps.