User John Stillwell

135 votes

What are the most attractive Turing undecidable problems in mathematics?

answered Feb 18, 2010 at 22:05

104 votes

Your favorite surprising connections in mathematics

answered Feb 8, 2010 at 0:38

98 votes

Nontrivial theorems with trivial proofs

answered Jun 20, 2010 at 1:43

93 votes

When has discrete understanding preceded continuous?

answered May 28, 2017 at 23:58

66 votes

Widely accepted mathematical results that were later shown to be wrong?

answered Aug 14, 2010 at 2:23

59 votes

What is the difference between matrix theory and linear algebra?

answered Mar 31, 2010 at 8:06

57 votes

Major mathematical advances past age fifty

answered May 25, 2010 at 3:11

56 votes

What are some examples of colorful language in serious mathematics papers?

answered May 20, 2010 at 12:07

54 votes

Counterexamples in algebra?

answered Jun 22, 2010 at 2:20

54 votes

Accepted

New proofs to major theorems leading to new insights and results?

answered Feb 10, 2011 at 23:50

45 votes

Major mathematical advances past age fifty

answered May 23, 2010 at 10:32

44 votes

Fundamental groups of noncompact surfaces

answered Mar 17, 2010 at 2:28

42 votes

What is the Cayley projective plane?

answered Nov 7, 2009 at 18:22

41 votes

Which math paper maximizes the ratio (importance)/(length)?

answered Mar 19, 2010 at 1:13

40 votes

Proofs that require fundamentally new ways of thinking

answered Dec 9, 2010 at 17:50

39 votes

What are some famous rejections of correct mathematics?

answered Feb 3, 2010 at 1:21

38 votes

What was Gödel's real achievement?

answered Apr 3, 2010 at 9:36

34 votes

Does anyone know a polynomial whose lack of roots can't be proved?

answered Jul 22, 2010 at 5:06

33 votes

What are some examples of narrowly missed discoveries in the history of mathematics?

answered Mar 25, 2010 at 4:19

33 votes

Papers that debunk common myths in the history of mathematics

answered May 31, 2010 at 23:33

32 votes

What is the oldest open problem in mathematics?

answered Jun 4, 2010 at 22:09

32 votes

What are some examples of "chimeras" in mathematics?

answered Apr 28, 2011 at 23:35

31 votes

Pair of curves joining opposite corners of a square must intersect---proof?

answered Aug 14, 2010 at 3:09

31 votes

Demonstrating that rigour is important

answered Sep 3, 2010 at 18:44

30 votes

Books about history of recent mathematics

answered May 6, 2010 at 0:19

30 votes

Do you read the masters?

answered Jun 16, 2010 at 0:26

28 votes

Most 'unintuitive' application of the Axiom of Choice?

answered Apr 10, 2010 at 2:42

28 votes

Applications of infinite graph theory

answered Sep 22, 2010 at 21:06

27 votes

Theorems that are 'obvious' but hard to prove

answered Jan 9, 2011 at 22:36

27 votes

What are your favorite instructional counterexamples?

answered Mar 2, 2010 at 10:33

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130 Answers

What are the most attractive Turing undecidable problems in mathematics?

Your favorite surprising connections in mathematics

Nontrivial theorems with trivial proofs

When has discrete understanding preceded continuous?

Widely accepted mathematical results that were later shown to be wrong?

What is the difference between matrix theory and linear algebra?

Major mathematical advances past age fifty

What are some examples of colorful language in serious mathematics papers?

Counterexamples in algebra?

New proofs to major theorems leading to new insights and results?

Major mathematical advances past age fifty

Fundamental groups of noncompact surfaces

What is the Cayley projective plane?

Which math paper maximizes the ratio (importance)/(length)?

Proofs that require fundamentally new ways of thinking

What are some famous rejections of correct mathematics?

What was Gödel's real achievement?

Does anyone know a polynomial whose lack of roots can't be proved?

What are some examples of narrowly missed discoveries in the history of mathematics?

Papers that debunk common myths in the history of mathematics

What is the oldest open problem in mathematics?

What are some examples of "chimeras" in mathematics?

Pair of curves joining opposite corners of a square must intersect---proof?

Demonstrating that rigour is important

Books about history of recent mathematics

Do you read the masters?

Most 'unintuitive' application of the Axiom of Choice?

Applications of infinite graph theory

Theorems that are 'obvious' but hard to prove

What are your favorite instructional counterexamples?