Cross References

One reason for numbering things like figures and equations is to refer the reader to them, as in "See Figure 3 for more details."

Sections, Equations, Tables, etc.

One can generate numbered references to anything for which LaTeX maintains a counter by placing a \label command with some mnemonic name in the appropriate environment. The reference is then generated by use of the \ref command with the same mnemonic.

For example

  \begin{equation}
  \label{eqno1}
    c \geq \sqrt{a^2+b^2+1}
  \end{equation}
  .... intervening text ...
  From Eq.~(\ref{eqno1}) we see ...

Assuming that this is the first equation, the last line will produce "From Eq. (1) we see ..." Note the use of the ~ to ensure that there is no line break between "Eq." and "(1)."

Bibliographic citations

Bibliographic citations work somewhat differently. The following should be consulted:

\cite
\thebibligraphy