I need to insert an equation featuring a 4x4 matrix whose entries are smallish polynomials. To fit this onto the page, I found out that I could place 

\newcommand\scalemath[2]{\scalebox{#1}{\mbox{\ensuremath{\displaystyle #2}}}} 
in the preamble, and then wrap it around the math environment. It works beautifully, except for one small problem. Wrapping it around \begin{equation}    \end{equation} it also scales the number of the equation. Is there an easy fix?

I have some cubic and quartic equations with complex cofficients. Maple 2015 is able to solve these and returns the roots as labelled sets, so I can do things like "plot S[1]". I want to vary some parameters in the coefficients, and see what happens to the roots.
My problem is when I log out and then rerun the code, the labels 1,2,3,(4) are frequently attached to different roots than they were the first time. This is both unexpected and inconvenient. Is there any way to ensure that the same roots are always given the same labels?

[moderator: see also this Question from 2023]

When using solve or other commands to find solutions to a problem that has more than one solution, they are returned as a list. I have observed that ordering within the list is not consistent from one run to another, and I am starting to suspect, as I try to juggle a complex cubic depending on a parameter, that the labelling can change within a single run. This is inconvenient. Any advice? Am I missing something?