When I run the following code, there's a huge space between the last bit of text and the final table. Why is this? Also, how can I create a blank line between the final paragraph of text and the table above it?
\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[top = 1in, bottom = 1in, right = 1in, left = 1in]{geometry}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\usepackage{siunitx}
\usepackage{booktabs}
\usepackage{multirow}
\usepackage{bigstrut}
\begin{document}
\begin{titlepage}
\newcommand{\HRule}{\rule{\linewidth}{0.5mm}} % Defines a new command for the horizontal lines, change thickness here
\center % Center everything on the page
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% HEADING SECTIONS
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\textsc{\LARGE University College Cork}\\[1.5cm] % Name of your university/college
\textsc{\Large CE 2001: Lab Reports}\\[0.5cm] % Major heading such as course name
\textsc{\large Dr. Virkam Pakrashi}\\[0.5cm] % Minor heading such as course title
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% TITLE SECTION
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\HRule \\[0.4cm]
{ \huge \bfseries \#2: Bending Stress In Beams}\\[0.4cm] % Title of your document
\HRule \\[1.5cm]
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% AUTHOR SECTION
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\begin{minipage}{0.4\textwidth}
\large
\textbf{{\Large{Authors:}}}\\\\
David \textsc{O'Sullivan}\\ Yuriy \textsc{Lishchynskyy}\\ John \textsc{Kearney}\\ Billy \textsc{O'Connor}\\ Eoghan \textsc{Kelleher} % Your name
\end{minipage}
~
%\begin{minipage}{0.4\textwidth}
%\begin{flushright} \large
%\emph{Instructors:}\\ Mr. Paul \textsc{Smith}\\Mr. Ciaran \textsc{Smith}% Supervisor's Name
%\end{flushright}
%\end{minipage}
\\[4cm]
% If you don't want a supervisor, uncomment the two lines below and remove the section above
%\Large \emph{Author:}\\
%John \textsc{Smith}\\[3cm] % Your name
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% DATE SECTION
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
{\large \today}\\[3cm] % Date, change the \today to a set date if you want to be precise
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
% LOGO SECTION
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
%\includegraphics{Logo}\\[1cm] % Include a department/university logo - this will require the graphicx package
%----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
\vfill % Fill the rest of the page with whitespace
\end{titlepage}
\section{Results:}
The dimensions of the beam are as follows:
The following is a table of the various loads applied and and the corresponding values of strain for the gauges 1 $\rightarrow$ 9.
\begin{table}[htbp]
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline
\textbf{Gauge Number} & \multicolumn{6}{|c|}{\textbf{Load (N)}} \\
& \textbf{0} & \textbf{100} & \textbf{200} & \textbf{300} & \textbf{400} & \textbf{500} \\ \hline
1 & -128 & -230 & -332 & -434 & -538 & -649 \\ \hline
2 & 35 & -37 & -108 & -179 & -252 & -329 \\ \hline
3 & 1089 & 1089 & 1089 & 1089 & 1049 & 973 \\ \hline
4 & 5 & -9 & -22 & -36 & -48 & -63 \\ \hline
5 & 1088 & 1088 & 1088 & 1088 & 1088 & 1088 \\ \hline
6 & 77 & 96 & 116 & 134 & 156 & 175 \\ \hline
7 & 731 & 751 & 771 & 792 & 814 & 836 \\ \hline
8 & 129 & 172 & 217 & 261 & 309 & 355 \\ \hline
9 & 58 & 104 & 149 & 195 & 243 & 293 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}\\
The loads in the previous tables can be used to calculate the bending moment about the end points of the beam via the following formula: \begin{equation}\boxed{M = \frac{-W}{2}\times0.305$$} \end{equation}
Where $W$ is the applied load and the value 0.305 is the distance, in metres, of the applied loads line of action from the end points of the beam. Once the various different bending moments due to the applied loads have been calculated, the following table can be formed:
\begin{table}[htbp]
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline
\textbf{Gauge Number} & \multicolumn{6}{|c|}{\textbf{BM (Nm) and Corrected Strain Readings}} \\
& \textbf{0} & \textbf{-15.25} & \textbf{-30.5} & \textbf{-45.75} & \textbf{-61} & \textbf{-76.25} \\ \hline
1 & 0 & -102 & -204 & -306 & -410 & -521 \\ \hline
2 & 0 & -72 & -143 & -214 & -287 & -364 \\ \hline
3 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & -40 & -116 \\ \hline
4 & 0 & -14 & -27 & -41 & -53 & -68 \\ \hline
5 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 & 0 \\ \hline
6 & 0 & 19 & 39 & 57 & 79 & 98 \\ \hline
7 & 0 & 20 & 40 & 61 & 83 & 105 \\ \hline
8 & 0 & 43 & 88 & 132 & 180 & 226 \\ \hline
9 & 0 & 46 & 91 & 137 & 185 & 235 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
A number of the gauges occupy the same vertical position on the T-section and thus can be grouped together depending on their displacement from the top/bottom (the datum is arbitrary). Once this is done, a table of $M$ and the strain values for the corresponding gauge groupings can be created. The table can be structured as such:
\begin{table}[htbp]
\begin{tabular}{|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|c|} \hline
\textbf{Gauge Number} & \textbf{Vertical Position (mm)} & \multicolumn{6}{|c|}{\textbf{Bending Moment (Nm)}} \\
& & \textbf{0} & \textbf{-15.25} & \textbf{-30.5} & \textbf{-45.75} & \textbf{-61} & \textbf{-76.25} \\ \hline
1 & 0 & 0 & -102 & -204 & -306 & -410 & -521 \\ \hline
2,3 & 8 & 0 & -36 & -71.5 & -107 & -163.5 & -240 \\ \hline
4,5 & 23 & 0 & -7 & -13.5 & -20.5 & -26.5 & -34 \\ \hline
6,7 & 31.7 & 0 & 19.5 & 39.5 & 59 & 81 & 101.5 \\ \hline
8,9 & 38.1 & 0 & 44.5 & 89.5 & 134.5 & 182.5 & 230.5 \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table}
\end{document}
Best Answer
The usage of
\\[<dimen>]is mostly wrong; font size changing commands should better be ended by\parYour usage of
\centerintitlepageis wrong, better\centeringBetter a
tabularthan aminipagefor the authorsDon't end a section title with a colon
It should be
$1\rightarrow 9$There should be a blank line before
\begin{table}There should be a blank line after
\end{table};\end{table}\\is surely wrong$$at the end of the\boxedformula is wrongYou should use indirect references to tables and not “the following table”, because you don't know whether the table will end up where you'd ideally place it
Tables should have a caption
The headers in the second table are numbers, so they should be medium series and in a math formula, so that the minus sign is correct
Numeric data should be treated with the
Scolumn type provided bysiunitx.Long headers can be abbreviated so they don't spoil the table