Answer : It's not ugly, but exactly what's expected. If you type $2x-10$ then you expect that there is some space around the minus sign, because it denotes an operation. When you type $1e-10$ , TeX interprets it in exactly the same way, because it can't read your mind: the two expressions are formally the same, only two symbols are different. If you want that an expression that's normally interpreted as a polynomial should be treated in a different way, then you have to properly mark it. One solution might be $1\mathrm{e}{-10}$ because in this case the braces around -10 tell TeX to enter a subformula and so the minus sign is initial, so not interpreted as a binary operation, but as a unary operator. You could make a definition, such as \newcommand{\expnumber}[2]{{#1}\mathrm{e}{#2}} and input the number as $\expnumber{1}{-10}$ but there's a much better alternative, the package siunitx . \documentclass{article} \usepackage{siunitx} \sisetu