Timeline for Is there a "mathematical" definition of "simplify"?
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| Apr 5, 2013 at 18:38 | comment | added | Todd Trimble | @Ronnie: fair enough! I agree with your disagreement, in the sense that a formal notion of simplicity might not accord too well with a human's idea of it, which can be embedded in much larger surrounding neighborhoods of mathematics. Cf. Rota's remarks in Indiscrete Thoughts on the 'phenomenology of mathematical enlightenment'. | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 17:48 | comment | added | Ronnie Brown | @Todd: I agree. My whole mathematical life seems to be devoted to asking, or answering, different questions, or looking for a wider context! But my answer is in disagreement that there is a clear intuitive notion of simplification. On the other hand, the technical answers with regard to some standard expressions are clearly important, and computer algebra systems which do this can be very useful. | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 11:30 | comment | added | Todd Trimble | While I agree in spirit, this does not seem to be an answer to the actual question, which is about formal rigorous senses of "simplify". | |
| Apr 5, 2013 at 10:52 | history | answered | Ronnie Brown | CC BY-SA 3.0 |