[Tex/LaTex] Left-aligned, inline-ish equations

equationshorizontal alignment

I'm attempting to create a template for writing up Physics problems sets. A lot of these problem sets can involve short, simple calculations. For example:

simple calculation

I attempt to typeset this calculation with something like

\documentclass{article}
\usepackage{amsmath}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
\item
\begin{align*}
\omega_{0}&=\sqrt{k_{0}/M}\\
&=\sqrt{5/10}\\
&=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}
\end{align*}
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

But the result ends up looking something like this:

damn

Which looks terrible to me – it's such a short calculation, it looks absurd slapped in the center of the document like that, especially without any text before or after.

Alternatively, I can just use the inline equation form,

\documentclass{article}
\begin{document}
\begin{enumerate}
\item
$\omega_{0}=\sqrt{k_{0}/M}$\\
$=\sqrt{5/10}$\\
$=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}$
\end{enumerate}
\end{document}

But that yields something like this, which loses the nice formatting of an equation array.

damn again

Essentially, what I'm aiming for is a way to typeset the equation as though it were just inline text (i.e. with the $\omega_{0}$ coming directly after the 1., as in the inline form), but preserving the alignment and formatting of an equation array. The closest I've gotten was with the fleqn option and a negative \vspace to put it on the same line, but even that didn't look right, as fleqn just makes the equation more leftward, but doesn't actually align it with the margin of the text.

Best Answer

In-line math mode is the way to go. But you will need the aligned environment from »amsmath«. You can align it to the top with respect to the current line.

\documentclass[11pt]{article}
\usepackage[T1]{fontenc}
\usepackage{mathtools}  % loads »amsmath«

\begin{document}
  \begin{enumerate}
    \item
      \(
        \begin{aligned}[t]
          \omega_{0} &= \sqrt{k_{0}/M}\\
                     &= \sqrt{5/10}\\
                     &= \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}
        \end{aligned}
      \)
  \end{enumerate}
\end{document}

enter image description here

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