Skip to main content
Search type Search syntax
Tags [tag]
Exact "words here"
Author user:1234
user:me (yours)
Score score:3 (3+)
score:0 (none)
Answers answers:3 (3+)
answers:0 (none)
isaccepted:yes
hasaccepted:no
inquestion:1234
Views views:250
Code code:"if (foo != bar)"
Sections title:apples
body:"apples oranges"
URL url:"*.example.com"
Saves in:saves
Status closed:yes
duplicate:no
migrated:no
wiki:no
Types is:question
is:answer
Exclude -[tag]
-apples
For more details on advanced search visit our help page
Results tagged with
Search options not deleted user 1946

Special functions, orthogonal polynomials, harmonic analysis, ordinary differential equations (ODE's), differential relations, calculus of variations, approximations, expansions, asymptotics.

27 votes
Accepted

Writing a function on $\mathbb{R}$ as a sum of two injections

The answer is yes. Every function on the reals is the sum of two injective functions, and this can be done in a highly effective manner, constructing the two functions $g,h$ from $f$ without any need …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
5 votes

Statements which were given as axioms, which later turned out to be false.

Perhaps one of the earliest examples would be with the Pythagoreans, who held that any two magnitudes were commensurable, measured as integer multiples of a smaller common unit, a belief that was conn …
16 votes

Statements which were given as axioms, which later turned out to be false.

One of the most well-known examples is Frege's axiom of general comprehension, which asserts that for any definite property $P$, one may form the set $$\{x\mid\ P(x)\ \},$$ consisting of all objects $ …
50 votes
Accepted

If d/dx is an operator, on what does it operate?

(From the post on my blog:) To my way of thinking, this is a serious question, and I am not really satisfied by the other answers and comments, which seem to answer a different question than the one …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
11 votes

Variable-centric logical foundation of calculus

All the various computer algebra system approaches to calculus, which are increasingly prevalent and powerful, although imperfect, seem to me to be prime instances of the kind of foundations you menti …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
14 votes
Accepted

Archimedean Property of Real Numbers

One cannot prove the Archimedean property for the reals by appealing only to first-order algebraic truths of the ordered real field and the subring of the integers sitting inside it. The reason is tha …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
10 votes
Accepted

On the uncountability of zero sets

The distance function to a closed set is continuous, even Lipschitz continuous, and is zero exactly on that closed set. A modified version of this function can be made continuously differentiable, by …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
5 votes

Strange real functions

Although you asked about continuous functions, here is an example of a discontinuous function $f:[0,1]\to\mathbb{R}$ which is not monotone on any measurable set with positive measure. Let $V\subset …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
8 votes

Big O notation and the maximal set of comparable functions

Let me assume that you mean the order on functions $f$ and $g$ by which $f\leq g$ if and only if $\exists C\exists x_0\forall x\geq x_0$ $f(x)\leq C\cdot g(x)$. In other words, $f(x)$ is eventually le …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
241 votes
Accepted

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

The concept of definable real number, although seemingly easy to reason with at first, is actually laden with subtle metamathematical dangers to which both your question and the Wikipedia article to w …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
9 votes

Is Conway's base-13 function measurable?

The function is easily seen to be Borel, since the graph of the function can be defined using only natural number quantifiers. In particular, a number is in the support if and only if there is a last …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
3 votes

Is perfect play possible in continuous rock-paper-scissors? game "step size" vs. "acceleration"

I don't know the answer to your question, but perhaps we might gain insight from the following Interview with Jason Simmons, a professional rock/paper/scissors player, which appeared a few years ago o …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
29 votes

How to solve $f(f(x)) = \cos(x)$?

There are a truly enormous number of solutions, if one only wants the solution to work on an interval. Indeed, one can find solutions to $f(f(x)) = g(x)$ for any function $g$ defined on an interval. S …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
56 votes

How helpful is non-standard analysis?

The other answers are excellent, but let me add a few points. First, with a historical perspective, all the early fundamental theorems of calculus were first proved via methods using infinitesimals, r …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar
6 votes

"Interesting" properties of sets of natural numbers

Theorem. Every natural number is interesting. Proof. If not, then there are some uninteresting numbers. Let n be the least number that is not interesting. Now, that is INTERESTING! Contradiction …
Joel David Hamkins's user avatar

15 30 50 per page