All Questions
495 questions
39
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Important open exposition problems?
Timothy Chow, in his article A beginner's guide to forcing, defines an open exposition problem as a certain concept or topic in mathematics that has yet to be explained "in a way that renders it ...
20
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Problems for developing mathematical visualization expertise
Einstein stated that he often explored and reasoned visually and spatially, and only after achieving understanding cast his insights into algebraic form. He could just "see" the answer. There are ...
263
votes
29
answers
89k
views
Mathematical games interesting to both you and a 5+-year-old child
Background: My daughter is 6 years old now, once I wanted to think on some math (about some Young diagrams), but she wanted to play with me...
How to make both of us to do what they want ? I guess ...
13
votes
4
answers
998
views
Source for analysis of identification of structures in learner's mind and mathematical structures?
Concerning the structure of the learner's mind, psychologist Piaget claimed that
There exists, as a function of the development of intelligence as a whole, a spontaneous and gradual construction of ...
- 16.6k
0
votes
3
answers
1k
views
How to be a Great mathematician in prison/without a master? [closed]
Is it possible to be a great mathematician in our home with a laptop+poor internet+electronic books+some books+a little food +a little money or not? without having a constant job
without studying P.H....
-1
votes
1
answer
771
views
Are manifolds typically taught to undergraduates outside mathematics (and possibly theoretical physics) tracks? [closed]
I'm writing my dissertation on symplectic structure-preserving algorithms for Hamiltonian systems simulation, and I'm trying to figure out how much exposition is necessary for it to be readable by ...
- 151
2
votes
3
answers
9k
views
How can I combine my interests for pure mathematics and computer science in college? [closed]
I’m a high school senior who's gone through quite the self-introspection the past few months while applying for college, and I have a bit of a dilemma. All my life, I've loved & excelled at ...
- 169
6
votes
0
answers
622
views
How necessary is the knowledge of Lebesgue integral for non-analysts? [closed]
Recently I have learned that at some math department the introductory course to Lebesgue integration not obligatory. Thus in another course on introduction to Hilbert spaces the $L^2(0,1)$ space is ...
- 21.8k
10
votes
3
answers
1k
views
About the classification of commutative and of cocommutative, fin. dim. Hopf algebras
I want to prove that the cocommutative finite dimensional Hopf algebras over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero are group algebras (for some finite group) and that the commutative f....
- 7,746
6
votes
2
answers
588
views
Applications of isotropic quadratic forms
I will soon be teaching an introductory course on bilinear algebra and quadratic forms. I will likely spend most of the time and effort on positive definite quadratic forms and euclidean spaces. These ...
13
votes
3
answers
1k
views
Teaching polarisation formula
When teaching about Hilbert spaces, one begins with a polarisation formula, which allows us to reconstruct the scalar product from the norm:
$$\langle u,v\rangle=\frac14(\|u+v\|^2-\|u-v\|^2+\imath\|u+\...
- 52.3k
15
votes
2
answers
5k
views
What areas of algebra could be interesting to probability theorists?
I would like to find some topic of algebra (beyond linear algebra; algebraic number theory is fine) that would be interesting both to a student that wants to specialize in probability theory and to me ...
- 16.9k
4
votes
3
answers
507
views
Defining negation
I'm currently coauthoring a book intended to teach first-year students basic proof techniques. One of the chapters, written by my coauthor, is about basic logic. In that chapter the negation of a ...
- 18.7k
7
votes
1
answer
243
views
Five cubes, Hadamard and Shklyarskiy
Here is my(=bad) translation of from the paper about Shklyarskiy by Golovina:
... in 1937/38 Dodik presented to school students a complete proof of Abel's theorem about equations of degree 5. He ...
- 45k
6
votes
1
answer
462
views
How to talk about certain "free" categories?
Given two categories $\mathcal{C}$ and $\mathcal{D}$, we can describe the following category $\mathcal{E}$. It is the initial category whose object set contains $\mathrm{Obj}(\mathcal{C}) \times \...
- 595
5
votes
0
answers
2k
views
A course on modern algebraic geometry from "The Stacks Project"
I hope this question is viable for this site. I'm sincerely sorry, if you think it isn't.
For a lot of time, "EGA" by Alexander Grothendieck and Jean Dieudonne was "the" reference on the basics of ...
- 59
1
vote
1
answer
116
views
Expectation of changing the gift choice [closed]
Suppose we are given two boxes, with one of gift valued $n$ dollars and the other one valued twice as much. We can pick a box, and after open it we have the choice of switching to another box. Shall ...
- 19
10
votes
1
answer
1k
views
A proof without derivatives that a real polynomial of degree $n$ has at most $n-1$ local extrema
This question is about math education and is not research level, so do not hesitate to delete it if it feels inappropriate.
I already asked it here a year ago:
https://math.stackexchange.com/...
- 1,855
55
votes
16
answers
16k
views
Why do we need random variables?
In this MathStackExchange post the question in the title was asked without much outcome, I feel.
Edit: As Douglas Zare kindly observes, there is one more answer in MathStackExchange now.
I am not ...
- 5,670
49
votes
14
answers
6k
views
Interactive model of the hyperbolic plane for a general public lecture
The following is not quite a research level question, but I still find this site appropriate for asking it. I hope I get it right here.
I am preparing a talk for a general public and I want to ...
- 11.6k
96
votes
5
answers
8k
views
Is there a database for tracking the dependencies of mathematical theorems?
Given a proof for a result, one could denote the proof as a node on a graph, and then draw arrows to the node from axioms and previous results that the proof uses, and then draw arrows from the node ...
- 2,680
12
votes
1
answer
3k
views
Is there a way to embed Clifford algebras into the corresponding tensor algebra?
$\newcommand{\talg}{\mathcal{T}(V)}$$\newcommand{\clalg}{\mathcal{Cl}_q(V)}$$\newcommand{\qalg}{\mathcal{I}_q(V)}$Is there a way to embed Clifford algebras into the corresponding tensor algebra?
There ...
- 2,680
3
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Cambridge Mathematical Tripos papers from late 19th century
Are the scanned images of Cambridge Mathematical Tripos papers from late 19th century available anywhere on Internet?
- 33
14
votes
2
answers
5k
views
A certain mathematical competition in the UK
There is a foreword, written by professor Snow, to the book A mathematician's apology.
In the foreword, it is written some thing like the following:
"Hardy was opposed to a certain mathematical ...
- 366
3
votes
2
answers
598
views
Math and social commitment [closed]
I am a master's student and am looking for ways that link a certain social commitment with serious math. Since I have not found such an overview yet and in order to raise public awareness of such ...
- 129
1
vote
1
answer
387
views
proof without words for logarithms [closed]
Does anyone know of any PROOF WITHOUT WORDS for logarithmic functions?
The only one I've seen in calculus based and I need one for high school math kids in MATH 1,2,3.
Any suggestions would be ...
17
votes
4
answers
3k
views
Languages beyond enumerable
A language is a set of finite-length strings from some finite alphabet $\Sigma$.
It is no loss of generality (for my purposes) to take $\Sigma=\{0,1\}$; so a language is a set of bit-strings.
...
- 151k
49
votes
5
answers
4k
views
How do you mentor undergraduate research?
Lets say you had an undergraduate who wanted to do some advanced work and some research, possibly for a thesis, or things like that.
There are two slightly more specific groups of questions I have ...
49
votes
14
answers
21k
views
Applications of the Cayley-Hamilton theorem
The Cayley-Hamilton theorem is usually presented in standard undergraduate courses in linear algebra as an important result. Recall that it says that any square matrix is a "root" of its own ...
12
votes
12
answers
2k
views
What are fun elementary subjects in probability?
I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement....
27
votes
10
answers
4k
views
What (fun) results in graph theory should undergraduates learn?
I have the task of creating a 3rd year undergraduate course in graph theory (in the UK). Essentially the students will have seen minimal discrete math/combinatorics before this course. Since graph ...
22
votes
4
answers
2k
views
Technical issue in the approach to Lie groups taken in a book
I'm teaching Lie groups and Lie Algebras out of Brian C. Hall's book (Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, and Representations: An Elementary Introduction, Springer), which I've enjoyed using. I'm confused about ...
- 28.1k
0
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Everyday, real-life applications of mathematical concepts, and human intuition vs mathematical analysis [closed]
I'm working on an educational project about the applications of reasonably 'lofty', high-ish-level mathematical concepts in the real world. I've already scoured these links (1) (2) (3) after ...
9
votes
1
answer
617
views
Problems which use S₄ → S₃
I need examples of problems which use, directly or indirectly, the homomorphism $S_4\to S_3$ in the solution (its kernel is $\mathbb{Z}_2\oplus\mathbb{Z}_2$).
Obvious candidates:
Lagrange resolvent (...
- 45k
3
votes
2
answers
432
views
A logarithmic cotangent inequality
I must be a terrible googling searcher but I cannot find a reference to the following inequality:
$$ \forall_{\phi\in(0;\frac \pi 4)}\ \ln(\cot(\phi)))\, <\, \cot(2\!\cdot\!\phi) $$
I have just ...
- 7,500
13
votes
2
answers
2k
views
teaching higher algebra
Has anyone ever (successfully or unsuccessfully) taught a course in higher algebra (in the $\infty$-categorical sense)?
I'm asking out of curiosity (and also hoping for more resources).
The kind of ...
- 534
79
votes
15
answers
9k
views
Sophisticated treatments of topics in school mathematics
Sophisticated mathematical concepts typically shed light on sophisticated mathematics. But in a few cases they also apply to elementary mathematics in an interesting way. I find such examples ...
8
votes
0
answers
416
views
Pedagogical question on Lie groups vs. matrix Lie groups
There are two common approaches taken in introductory texts on Lie groups: studying all Lie groups, or focusing only on matrix Lie groups. The main advantage of the latter approach is that one can ...
- 28.1k
58
votes
4
answers
5k
views
Advice for PhD Supervisors
My first PhD student is having his viva tomorrow. Hence, I began contemplating a bit about the whole process of supervising. One thing I realized is that while there seems to be plenty of advice for ...
4
votes
1
answer
173
views
Numerical equality testing
I am working on developing an online homework system.
One thing I would like to have is something which compares a student's answer (like $2\sin(x)\cos(x)$) with the intended answer (maybe $\sin(2x)$)...
- 12.1k
4
votes
1
answer
441
views
How to teach generalizing the induction hypothesis? [closed]
I just finished teaching a class on using proof assistants (in this case, Agda) to write provably correct programs. Reflecting on how it went, the biggest difficulty I noticed the students having was ...
- 9,201
33
votes
15
answers
3k
views
Historical (personal) examples of teaching-based research
The phrase "teaching-based research" brings to mind research about teaching, though important, it is not what I mean. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a better phrase, thus please bear with me ...
87
votes
33
answers
24k
views
Parodies of abstruse mathematical writing
Perhaps under the influence of a recent question
on perverse sheaves,
in conjunction with the impending $\pi$-day (3/14/15 at 9:26:53),
I recalled a long-ago parody of abstruse mathematical language
...
4
votes
0
answers
238
views
Applications of Freiman's theorem?
What are some interesting applications of Freiman's theorem or, better-yet, its recent generalizations (eg Green-Ruzsa) that could be included in a graduate course in additive combinatorics?
I'm ...
87
votes
2
answers
4k
views
History of $\frac d{dt}\tan^{-1}(t)=\frac 1{1+t^2}$
Let $\theta = \tan^{-1}(t)$. Nowadays it is taught:
1º that
$$
\frac{d\theta}{dt} = \frac 1{dt\,/\,d\theta} = \frac 1{1+t^2},
\tag1
$$
2º that, via the fundamental theorem of calculus, this is ...
- 31.5k
11
votes
3
answers
729
views
Why does inconstructibility of $\sqrt[3]{2}$ imply impossibility of cube doubling? [closed]
In this question "constructing" and "doubling" is meant in the compass-and-straightedge sense.
On my desk I have five Basic Algebra texts treating constructability in the plane $\mathbb{C}$ or $\...
- 802
2
votes
1
answer
2k
views
Finding permutation matrix $P$ that minimizes the trace of $P C P^T D$
I have a problem that is really important for my thesis and i am not studding math so i will be very glad if you help me in this case...
thanks for your help in advance
I want to find permutation ...
- 59
8
votes
2
answers
2k
views
Which universities teach true infinitesimal calculus? [closed]
My colleague and I are currently teaching "true infinitesimal calculus" (TIC), in the sense of calculus with infinitesimals, to a class of about 120 freshmen at our university, based on the book by ...
20
votes
2
answers
4k
views
Teaching stochastic calculus to students who know no measure theory (or PDE, or...)
I've got quite a challenge as my teaching assignment for the next Fall (not that I want to get rid of it, quite the contrary, but I still feel like asking for advice won't hurt :-)).
I'm to teach the ...
- 61.9k
13
votes
1
answer
605
views
A funny factorization of the Jacobian coming from the lines on the Fermat cubic
Here is something which came up in my algebraic geometry class, and I'm wondering if it has a deeper explanation. Let $F(w,x,y,z) = w^3+x^3+y^3+z^3$ and let $X$ be the cubic surface in $\mathbb{P}^3$ ...
- 156k