32k views

### Most harmful heuristic?

What's the most harmful heuristic (towards proper mathematics education), you've seen taught/accidentally taught/were taught? When did handwaving inhibit proper learning?
64k views

### Why do we teach calculus students the derivative as a limit?

I'm not teaching calculus right now, but I talk to someone who does, and the question that came up is why emphasize the $h \to 0$ definition of a derivative to calculus students? Something a teacher ...
23k views

### Examples of math hoaxes/interesting jokes published on April Fool's day?

What are examples of math hoaxes/interesting jokes published on April Fool's day? For a start P=NP. Added 2017-04-01 Anything new in 2017?
13k views

### Elementary / Interesting proofs of the Nullstellensatz

Is there an easy proof of the Nullstellensatz that avoids the standard Noether-normalization techniques? One proof I know proves first the 'weak' Nullstellensatz which ensures that maximal ideals ...
21k views

### Is the analysis as taught in universities in fact the analysis of definable numbers?

Ten years ago, when I studied in university, I had no idea about definable numbers, but I came to this concept myself. My thoughts were as follows: All numbers are divided into two classes: those ...
6k views

### When does Cantor-Bernstein hold?

The Cantor-Bernstein theorem in the category of sets (A injects in B, B injects in A => A, B equivalent) holds in other categories such as vector spaces, compact metric spaces, Noetherian topological ...
4k views

### When is a singular point of a variety ($\mathcal{C}^\infty$-) smooth?

If $X$ is a nonsingular algebraic (or analytic) variety over $\mathbb C$ or $\mathbb R$ then it is certainly $C^\infty$ over the reals. The converse is false for a silly reason : in the real or ...
6k views

### Cohomology and fundamental classes

Let X be a real orientable compact differentiable manifold. Is the (co)homology of X generated by the fundamental classes of oriented subvarieties? And if not, what is known about the subgroup ...
11k views

### When is $L^2(X)$ separable?

I have never studied any measure theory, so apologise in advance, if my question is easy: Let $X$ be a measure space. How can I decide whether $L^2(X)$ is separable? In reality, I am interested in ...