Timeline for What is the theoretical interest of finding closed-form solutions of infinite series?
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25 events
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| Jul 29, 2019 at 0:14 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | (continued) So, depending on what you mean by "practical interest," the identity in Gourevitch's conjecture may not be of "practical interest." I suspect that by "practical interest" you mean that the identity itself is directly used in the proof of (or calculation of) something that is interesting for some other reason. This is possible, but it seems unlikely to me. OTOH, if proving the conjecture yields a new mathematical insight, then that new insight could have all kinds of practical ramifications (but it's hard to say what those might be until we actually obtain the new insight). | |
| Jul 29, 2019 at 0:02 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | To paraphrase something that I said in another MO answer, Gourevitch's conjecture (and conjectures like it) are really implicit challenges to find the hidden structure, and finding hidden structure is a large part of what mathematics is all about. If Gourevitch's conjecture is true (which it surely is) then mathematicians have faith that it is true "for a reason" and not true by accident. The hope is that figuring out the reason will give us new mathematical insights that we previously did not suspect. | |
| Jul 28, 2019 at 19:52 | answer | added | Joe Silverman | timeline score: 3 | |
| Jul 28, 2019 at 15:27 | history | edited | Andrej Bauer | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:57 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://mathoverflow.net/ with https://mathoverflow.net/
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| Aug 26, 2012 at 1:17 | comment | added | user9072 | @timur: I am fairly certain that Mariano makes reference to a fairly well-known quote of some jusdge related to the difficulty of precisely definining it, which in a condensed form says something like: hard to define but I know it when I see it, see en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_know_it_when_I_see_it for details. | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 23:44 | comment | added | timur | @Mariano, @Steven: I don't understand in what sense it is like porn? | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 18:26 | comment | added | CHM | @HW It's the justification that irritated me, not the vote to close. I would accept my question being closed for reasons such as the one you mention. | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 12:37 | answer | added | Gerald Edgar | timeline score: 4 | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 11:19 | comment | added | André Henriques | @CHM: I find that the question you ask is interesting. But the only way of giving a satisfactory answer is in comparison with other mathematics. For every mathematical result, one can ask "what is the interest?". The answers will vary... they will vary per question, and per mathematician who tries to answer. What mathematicians try to do every day is to "wrap their mind" around difficult concepts: anything you can say about something is progress. Back to your question: I'd say that finding a closed form is interesting, but only to the extent that the infinite series you study is interesting. | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 11:00 | answer | added | Wadim Zudilin | timeline score: 14 | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 7:47 | comment | added | HJRW | CHM - Please don't be offended by the votes to close. This is not personal! Mathoverflow is specifically for questions that arise in mathematical research, as the FAQ makes clear. Your question is a great one, but as you admit is not a question that arose out of mathematical research. You might find that math.stackexchange.com would be a better venue. | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 2:04 | answer | added | Marc Chamberland | timeline score: 3 | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 1:09 | comment | added | CHM | @IgorRivin thanks for the suggestions. | |
| Aug 25, 2012 at 1:09 | comment | added | CHM | @WillJagy How absurd, pejorative and close minded. Please tell me you're not serious. | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 21:54 | comment | added | Igor Rivin | @Carl: $\zeta(100) = 1, $ to machine precision. | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 21:51 | comment | added | user25199 | Not sure that exactly is necessarily more practical than numerical - try $\zeta(100)$? | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 21:49 | comment | added | Will Jagy | Voted to close. As you seem to be an undergraduate in chemistry or related, it is unlikely we can convince you of the value of this, and I don't think anyone should try. If you find further questions, try math.stackexchange.com/questions | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 21:27 | comment | added | Igor Rivin | @CHM: It is usually difficult to predict in advance what one will learn. If you want to see a baby example, check out the many proofs that $\sum_{i=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^2} = \frac{\pi^2}6.$ Every one of them has many interesting ideas. | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 21:22 | answer | added | user9072 | timeline score: 14 | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 20:54 | comment | added | Steven Landsburg | Mariano: Yes, in so many ways! | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 20:44 | comment | added | Mariano Suárez-Álvarez | Isn't this like porn? | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 20:05 | comment | added | Igor Rivin | The theoretical implication is that this is really cool, and understanding why it is true is likely to require understanding something deep. | |
| Aug 24, 2012 at 20:00 | history | edited | CHM |
Added relevant tags.
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| Aug 24, 2012 at 19:47 | history | asked | CHM | CC BY-SA 3.0 |