The quadratic formula is $$-b \pm \sqrt{b^2 - 4ac} \over 2a$$ \bye \makeatletter \newcommand{\be}{% \begingroup % \setlength{\arraycolsep}{2pt} \eqnarray% \@ifstar{\nonumber}{}% } \newcommand{\ee}{\endeqnarray\endgroup} \makeatother \begin{equation} x=\left\{ \begin{array}{cl} 0 & \textrm{if }A=\ldots\\ 1 & \textrm{if }B=\ldots\\ x & \textrm{this runs with as much text as you like, but without an raggeright text .}\end{array}\right. \end{equation}