Timeline for Is there a "mathematical" definition of "simplify"?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
19 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 5, 2013 at 18:26 | comment | added | Lennart Meier | In group theory (and surely also different parts of mathematics), there is the huge topic of normal forms. Normal forms are usually not canonical, there are many choices. To make the notion of simplifying precise, one should decide what it means for a polynomial/function to be in normal form. For a polynomial, there are some obvious choices. | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 17:08 | vote | accept | Craig Feinstein | ||
| Apr 5, 2013 at 11:45 | answer | added | XL _At_Here_There | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 10:52 | answer | added | Ronnie Brown | timeline score: 2 | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 2:44 | answer | added | Ryan Reich | timeline score: 4 | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 1:50 | comment | added | Ryan Budney | Outside of very formal situations, every usage of "simplify" tends to be terminology with a conditioned meaning. You never tell people what it means (because you don't have the vocabulary for it) but you trust there is a built-up expectation for roughly what it means. Some students do not know what it means and would probably benefit from a more formal treatment. | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 0:17 | comment | added | Andrés E. Caicedo | (And this one: math.stackexchange.com/questions/180605/…) | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 0:15 | comment | added | Andrés E. Caicedo | @Gerald: There is this answer on MSE: math.stackexchange.com/questions/74347/… | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 23:43 | answer | added | Rodrigo A. Pérez | timeline score: 11 | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 23:43 | answer | added | François G. Dorais | timeline score: 4 | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 20:54 | answer | added | Rob Ballantyne | timeline score: 0 | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 17:39 | comment | added | Craig Feinstein | If it were up to me, I would define a simplified mathematical expression as an expression that has the least possible Kolmogorov complexity and the least possible computational complexity. | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 16:53 | comment | added | Gerald Edgar | If I write "No", my answer will be rejected as too short. Surely a two-letter answer cannot be simplified any further. | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 15:35 | answer | added | Fernando Pimentel | timeline score: 3 | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 14:59 | comment | added | Mark Grant | Good question. I always get uneasy when I see problems which implore students to "simplify" some expression. Even to declare something to be "simple" seems somewhat subjective. | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 14:55 | history | edited | François G. Dorais |
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| Apr 4, 2013 at 14:19 | answer | added | Henry Cohn | timeline score: 36 | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 14:18 | answer | added | Carlo Beenakker | timeline score: 9 | |
| Apr 4, 2013 at 14:04 | history | asked | Craig Feinstein | CC BY-SA 3.0 |