Timeline for A question concerning how mathematicians feel about theorems and their proofs. [closed]
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
7 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| May 26, 2013 at 16:16 | history | closed |
Todd Trimble Noah Schweber Anthony Quas Lee Mosher Felipe Voloch |
not a real question | |
| May 26, 2013 at 16:02 | comment | added | Todd Trimble | The only question I saw was the first sentence, which ends in a question mark. Viz., must we regard one of Garabed's favorite geometrical theorems as trivial? | |
| May 26, 2013 at 15:55 | comment | added | Amir Asghari | What IS the question?! | |
| May 26, 2013 at 15:50 | answer | added | fedja | timeline score: 10 | |
| May 26, 2013 at 15:27 | comment | added | Todd Trimble | Many if not all such elementary proofs may look obvious once discovered. But so what? One can still take pleasure in them. This question seems more suitable for a bull session over beers than a good question for MO. Voted to close. | |
| May 26, 2013 at 15:26 | comment | added | Noah Schweber | I don't think this question is appropriate for MO, but: in defense of triviality, I'd point to the fact that part of the continuing goal of mathematics is to develop the right intuitions for its results -- so results should become easier over time. In some sense, I think the hope tends to be that theorems will become "trivial" in some sense, because that means mathematical intuition will have evolved to the point that those theorems will now seem inescapably true. | |
| May 26, 2013 at 14:53 | history | asked | Garabed Gulbenkian | CC BY-SA 3.0 |