Timeline for How do you mentor undergraduate research?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
9 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apr 8, 2016 at 3:03 | comment | added | Nate Eldredge | @Edi: Yeah, I think you erred in your tacit assumption that the "easier" relation is well-founded. | |
| Apr 8, 2016 at 2:44 | comment | added | Kimball | @Edi I think I can produce an infinite sequence of successively weaker statements, none of which I can solve. | |
| Apr 7, 2016 at 10:08 | history | made wiki | Post Made Community Wiki by Todd Trimble | ||
| Apr 7, 2016 at 1:34 | comment | added | user288447 | @GerryMyerson: By induction the statement in the quote leads to a contradiction. It reminds the Sorites paradox also! | |
| Apr 6, 2016 at 23:21 | comment | added | Joseph O'Rourke | @GerryMyerson: I took your remark to be questioning whether I quoted correctly. Concerning the can't-can't version, it makes kinda ironic sense (to me). | |
| Apr 6, 2016 at 23:13 | comment | added | Gerry Myerson | I'm not sure the quote with "can't" in the second clause makes sense. What's the point of finding an easier problem, if you can't solve it? For that matter, what makes it an easier problem, if you can't solve it? | |
| Apr 6, 2016 at 23:09 | comment | added | Joseph O'Rourke | @GerryMyerson: The quote is on p.114. Both make sense, and make the same point, but I believe he phrased it in the positive rather than the negative. | |
| Apr 6, 2016 at 22:57 | comment | added | Gerry Myerson | I have seen the quote given as, "If you can't solve a problem, then there is an easier problem you can't solve – find it!" E.g., page ix of Murty and Esmonde, Problems in Algebraic Number Theory. | |
| Apr 6, 2016 at 22:02 | history | answered | Joseph O'Rourke | CC BY-SA 3.0 |