Equations show up incorrectly if the nobr element is styled, for example, with: nobr { white-space:normal; }
Yes, this is an illogical rule to set on the nobr element, but it can come, for example, as a part of the Tripoli css-reset (http://devkick.com/lab/tripoli/).
So mathjax should ensure that nobr is rendering normally inside of the MathJax classed div by including the following css in the inserted styles:
.MathJax nobr { white-space: nowrap; }