Timeline for Mathematical "urban legends"
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
6 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 28, 2013 at 18:41 | comment | added | Lennart Meier | @algori: Spending a lot of time in Bonn, I always heard this only as a joke, not an urban legend. | |
| Apr 27, 2011 at 15:34 | comment | added | Thierry Zell | @Pete: Engineers are smart, but you can't expect them to know all the math out there. In polynomial system solving, I've heard stories of engineers adding extra variables to lower the degrees of their equations. Anyone who is familiar with the complexity of Grobner bases will realize that this is not the way to go. But I'm sure it seemed to make sense at the time. | |
| Apr 17, 2011 at 9:21 | comment | added | algori | Pete -- I should have been more explicit: I've heard this story several years ago during a late night conversation in Bonn and I can not really vouch for the details. It may have been biology or chemistry or something else. The moral however is, if I may say so, that one should be careful when speaking to someone who is about to apply mathematics. That is, if this person says they need to be able to solve a particular (difficult or hopeless) problem, it may be worthwhile to ask again. | |
| Apr 17, 2011 at 8:45 | comment | added | Pete L. Clark | Ouch. Most of (the few) engineers I've met are much smarter than this. | |
| Apr 17, 2011 at 1:06 | history | edited | algori | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
grammatical correction
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| Apr 16, 2011 at 23:55 | history | answered | algori | CC BY-SA 3.0 |