most recent 30 from http://mathoverflow.net 2013-05-20T08:53:10Z http://mathoverflow.net/feeds/user/572 http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.5/rdf http://mathoverflow.net/questions/22299/what-are-some-examples-of-colorful-language-in-serious-mathematics-papers/22471#22471 John 2010-04-25T01:07:08Z 2011-06-14T20:20:15Z

<p>This is a little off the mark (from a textbook), but Exercise VIII.8.3 of Sarason's <em>[Notes on] Complex Function Theory</em> is:</p> <blockquote> <p>Stand straight with feet about one meter apart, hands on hips. Bend at the waist, knees straight, and touch left foot with right hand. Straighten. Bend again and touch right foot with left hand. Straighten. Repeat 15 times.</p> </blockquote>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/21543/what-is-the-definition-of-the-uplus-symbol/21644#21644 John 2010-04-17T05:00:49Z 2010-04-17T05:00:49Z

<p>For the sake of giving a response to tag as an answer:</p> <p>Some authors use this to denote a disjoint union of sets, i.e., "$A \cup B$ and $A \cap B = \emptyset$."</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/2147/most-helpful-math-resources-on-the-web/2161#2161 John 2009-10-23T19:31:26Z 2009-10-23T19:31:26Z

<p><a href="http://www.physicsforums.com/" rel="nofollow">http://www.physicsforums.com/</a> </p> <p>Hosts high-level maths discussions, forums have inline LaTeX rendering.</p>

http://mathoverflow.net/questions/879/most-interesting-mathematics-mistake/932#932 John 2009-10-17T19:49:06Z 2009-10-17T19:49:06Z

<p>I find this one (it is not in the same vein as the ones that have been posted here so far, this is not a pure math mistake) to be interesting and instructive to students: <a href="http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&amp;safe=off&amp;client=safari&amp;rls=en&amp;q=patriot+missile+failure+binary" rel="nofollow">patriot missile failure due to poor understanding of binary decimals</a></p>