Q:

Align Environment and Spacing

Possible Duplicate:
Blank lines in align environment 

When I put a blank line between a line of text and the align environment, it will add two blank lines instead.  It seems that the align environment automatically adds a set of blank lines.  I don't want two sets of blank lines, but this makes my code very hard to read.  Compare (the 'correct way')
\begin{align*}
L\frac{di}{dt} + Ri = EU(t) \\
i(0) = 0
\end{align*}
In Heaviside's operator notation, this is 
\begin{align*}
pLi + Ri &= EU(t)\\
i &= \frac{E}{pL + R}U(t)
\end{align*}

and 
\begin{align*}
L\frac{di}{dt} + Ri = EU(t) \\
i(0) = 0
\end{align*}

In Heaviside's operator notation, this is 

\begin{align*}
pLi + Ri &= EU(t)\\
i &= \frac{E}{pL + R}U(t)
\end{align*}

This may seem trivial but in a large document it's really hard to read the first example and relatively easy to read the second.  
Is there a way to change this, e.g. with a \renewcommand? 
By the way, is there an easier way of putting code on this site besides hitting space bar 4 times for each line?  I tried HTML tags but they don't work. 

A:

Use the comment sign % instead of a blank line. 
\begin{align*}
L\frac{di}{dt} + Ri = EU(t) \\
i(0) = 0
\end{align*}
%
In Heaviside's operator notation, this is 
%
\begin{align*}
pLi + Ri &= EU(t)\\
i &= \frac{E}{pL + R}U(t)
\end{align*}

