Timeline for "A gentleman never chooses a basis."
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
26 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Apr 25, 2019 at 0:59 | comment | added | Marcel Besixdouze | The adjective form you're looking for is "genteel". | |
| Dec 2, 2018 at 16:19 | comment | added | LSpice | @BenCrowell, would the failure of surjectivity really be an inconsistency? (Well, yes, because surjectivity doesn't fail in this case; but you know what I mean.) It seems you've replaced the question: is $V \to V^{**}$ surjective? with the equivalent question: do the images of the elements of a basis of $V$ span $V^{**}$?, and I'm not sure what would go wrong notationally if the answer were that, no, there were some extra, say, $y_b$'s floating around. | |
| Jan 18, 2017 at 15:47 | history | edited | Francesco Polizzi | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 15 characters in body
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| S Oct 8, 2016 at 17:30 | history | edited | Dag Oskar Madsen | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
corrected spelling (unambiguously), typo (dimensional) etc.
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| S Oct 8, 2016 at 17:30 | history | suggested | Ivan Izmestiev | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
corrected spelling (unambiguously), typo (dimensional) etc.
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| Oct 8, 2016 at 17:21 | review | Suggested edits | |||
| S Oct 8, 2016 at 17:30 | |||||
| Apr 1, 2015 at 7:17 | history | protected | CommunityBot | ||
| Sep 18, 2012 at 4:12 | comment | added | user21349 | This doesn't constitute a proof, but: Suppose that the result of a certain proof looks obvious in notation A, but deep and mysterious in notation B. This is usually a reason to prefer notation A. In Penrose's abstract index notation, which doesn't require a choice of basis, mapping one-dimensional space V to V* takes element $x_a$ to element $x^a$. If you then continue with V* to V**, you take $x^a$ to (drumroll, plese) $x_a$. If the mapping from V to V** wasn't surjective (and, in fact, an isomorphism) then abstract index notation would be inconsistent. | |
| Sep 17, 2012 at 18:36 | answer | added | Peter May | timeline score: 19 | |
| Jan 22, 2010 at 7:15 | comment | added | Jonas Meyer | @Richard Dore, Your most recent edit included restoring grammar errors. I think the previous version was better. | |
| Nov 23, 2009 at 15:14 | history | rollback | Richard Dore |
Rollback to Revision 2
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| Nov 22, 2009 at 12:33 | answer | added | Gerald Edgar | timeline score: 3 | |
| Nov 22, 2009 at 2:56 | history | edited | S. Carnahan♦ | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
unloaded language
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| Nov 11, 2009 at 2:19 | comment | added | Anton Geraschenko |
@Steve Flammia: sorry, you can't use html tags in comments, but URLs are automatically converted to links. For example, typing http:/``/mathoverflow.net/questions/4648/when-to-pick-a-basis results in mathoverflow.net/questions/4648/when-to-pick-a-basis
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| Nov 10, 2009 at 21:20 | comment | added | Steve Flammia | See the related discussion <a href="mathoverflow.net/questions/4648/…>. | |
| Nov 10, 2009 at 20:55 | history | edited | Richard Dore | CC BY-SA 2.5 |
deleted 2 characters in body
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| Oct 23, 2009 at 4:24 | vote | accept | Richard Dore | ||
| Oct 23, 2009 at 4:07 | answer | added | Konrad Voelkel | timeline score: 0 | |
| Oct 16, 2009 at 6:40 | answer | added | Todd Trimble | timeline score: 39 | |
| Oct 14, 2009 at 14:33 | comment | added | Anton Geraschenko | In my mind, "gentleman" refers to politeness rather than social class, but I can see where the problem comes from. Perhaps a good alternative is "my mommy said it's not polite to choose a basis." My mom didn't tell me that, so as a kid, I chose bases left and right; now I regret it. | |
| Oct 14, 2009 at 1:55 | comment | added | S. Carnahan♦ | My personal preference is to avoid any reference to gender or class (or indeed membership in any group associated to historical persecution - e.g., we don't say that bases are for Jewish or homosexual people). This may make your question seem less colorful, but I think it is worthwhile to make mathematics more welcoming to people of all kinds. If you're still looking for an obnoxious elitist tone, I suggest replacing "gentleman" with "true mathematician" and "gentlemanly" with "mathematically cultured". | |
| Oct 14, 2009 at 0:52 | answer | added | Qiaochu Yuan | timeline score: 23 | |
| Oct 13, 2009 at 18:50 | comment | added | Richard Dore | That's fair. I should have gone for something more gender neutral. Although "gentlemanly/ladylike" is a bit awkward, and something like "classy" doesn't have the same anachronistic feel. Any suggestions? | |
| Oct 13, 2009 at 4:19 | answer | added | Ian Shipman | timeline score: 1 | |
| Oct 13, 2009 at 3:31 | comment | added | S. Carnahan♦ | I'm having trouble coming up with a sufficiently patriarchal argument. Does "these parts" refer to the pre-suffrage era? | |
| Oct 13, 2009 at 2:52 | history | asked | Richard Dore | CC BY-SA 2.5 |