Parentheses in mathematical formulas

If you use \left( and \right) in LaTeX, it will automatically scale the parentheses for you to match the size of whatever you put between them. Sometimes LaTeX doesn't do a good job though, and you'll have to help the program. Here's an overview of the commands you can use for creating parentheses in different sizes:

• (, )
  
• bigl(, bigr)
  
• Bigl(, Bigr)
  
• biggl(, biggr)
  
• Biggl(, Biggr)