aligning math equations in Latex

Question

I am trying to align the following equations around the equal sign. What can I do? Thanks! I am using the AMSMath package

    $$m\ddot{x}_{1}-K(x_{2}+x_{12})+C(\dot{x}_{12}+\dot{x}_{2})+2C\dot{x}_{1} = fx_{1}$$
$$m\ddot{x}_{2}-K(x_{3}+x_{1})+C(\dot{x}_{1}+\dot{x}_{3})+2C\dot{x}_{2} = fx_{2}$$ 
$$m\ddot{x}_{3}-K(x_{4}+x_{2})+C(\dot{x}_{2}+\dot{x}_{4})+2C\dot{x}_{3} = fx_{3}$$ 

Answer 1

\begin{align}
    m\ddot{x}_{1}-K(x_{2}+x_{12})+C(\dot{x}_{12}+\dot{x}_{2})+2C\dot{x}_{1} &= fx_{1} \\
    m\ddot{x}_{2}-K(x_{3}+x_{1})+C(\dot{x}_{1}+\dot{x}_{3})+2C\dot{x}_{2} &= fx_{2} \\
    m\ddot{x}_{3}-K(x_{4}+x_{2})+C(\dot{x}_{2}+\dot{x}_{4})+2C\dot{x}_{3} &= fx_{3}
\end{align}

See the user's guide.

Answer 2

There are several packages to do what you want, one of the most widely used is the AMS' align environment from the amsmath package.

Simplified extract from amsldoc.pdf:

\begin{align} 
x&=y \\ 
x’&=y’ \\ 
x+x’&=y+y’ 
\end{align}

The equations are aligned around the symbols that follow & (the equals signs, in this case).

Answer 3

To make a long story short... the following idea of using eqnarray is kind of obvious, but turns out to be a really bad idea. eqnarray brings lots of issues which are solved in amsmath and related packages. Read Lars Madsen: Avoid eqnarray for the details.

\begin{eqnarray*} %% Do avoid eqnarray if possible.
    x_1 & = & 1 \\
    x_2 & = & 2 \\
    x_3 & = & 3
\end{eqnarray*}

(Answer revised with information from Arthur Reutenauer, Thomas and the Madsen paper linked to by Thomas.)