mathml -- line breaks on one side of a long equation

Question

To illustrate my issue, I have the following mathML.

    <math>
        <msup>
            <mrow>
                <mo>(</mo>
                <msup>
                    <mn>2</mn>
                    <mn>3</mn>
                </msup>
                <mo>)</mo>
            </mrow>
            <msup>
                <mn></mn>
                <mn>4</mn>
            </msup>
        </msup>
        <mn>=</mn>
        <mn>(2*2*2)*(2*2*2)*(2*2*2)*(2*2*2)</mn>
    </math>

It renders the text at the bottom of the screen shot below. What I want to happen is for the last (2*2*2) to appear directly below the first one if it won't fit on one line. But if the screen is wide enough to put it all on a single line, I want it to do that.

Answer 1

That final

<mn>(2*2*2)*(2*2*2)*(2*2*2)*(2*2*2)</mn>

has given up on markup and put it all in a number which doesn't really give the MathML renderer a chance. It would be better as

<mrow>    
 <mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow>
 <mo>*</mo>
 <mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow>
 <mo>*</mo>
 <mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow>
 <mo>*</mo>
 <mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo> <mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow>
</mrow>

MathML3 has specific linebreaking and alignment attributes which would in theory allow you to explicitly set an alignment point at the = however your picture looks like a mobile device and I don't think there is a MathML3 implementation yet. It may be that marking up the rhs as above is sufficient, but if not the MathML2 way to specify alignment would be to use a one row table. Something like:

<math><mtable><mtr><mtd>
     <mrow>
        <msup>
            <mrow>
                <mo>(</mo>
                <msup>
                    <mn>2</mn>
                    <mn>3</mn>
                </msup>
                <mo>)</mo>
            </mrow>
            <msup>
                <mn></mn>
                <mn>4</mn>
            </msup>
        </msup>
        <mn>=</mn>
     </mrow>
</mtd><mtd columnalign="left">
<mrow>    
 <mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow>
 <mo>*</mo>
 <mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow>
 <mo>*</mo>
 <mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow>
 <mo>*</mo>
 <mrow><mo>(</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo><mn>2</mn><mo>*</mo> <mn>2</mn><mo>)</mo></mrow>
</mrow>

        </mtd></mtr></mtable>
    </math>