User Qiaochu Yuan

278 votes

Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics

answered May 4, 2010 at 21:22

195 votes

Most harmful heuristic?

answered Oct 24, 2009 at 21:19

174 votes

What are the most misleading alternate definitions in taught mathematics?

answered Dec 4, 2009 at 18:34

138 votes

Accepted

What is entropy, really?

answered Nov 1, 2013 at 0:38

121 votes

What are the most misleading alternate definitions in taught mathematics?

answered Dec 2, 2009 at 17:13

115 votes

What are your favorite instructional counterexamples?

answered Mar 2, 2010 at 6:12

99 votes

Your favorite surprising connections in mathematics

answered Feb 8, 2010 at 5:13

95 votes

Famous mathematical quotes

answered Nov 29, 2009 at 21:18

87 votes

What non-categorical applications are there of homotopical algebra?

answered Jun 6, 2014 at 14:52

86 votes

Sophisticated treatments of topics in school mathematics

answered Dec 7, 2015 at 9:27

76 votes

Why do so many textbooks have so much technical detail and so little enlightenment?

answered Jan 27, 2010 at 2:16

76 votes

Accepted

Why aren't representations of monoids studied so much?

answered Aug 30, 2010 at 4:50

73 votes

Sophisticated treatments of topics in school mathematics

answered Dec 7, 2015 at 10:01

70 votes

What are the most attractive Turing undecidable problems in mathematics?

answered Jan 12, 2010 at 17:04

63 votes

Favorite popular math book

answered Dec 11, 2009 at 22:32

61 votes

Accepted

What practical applications does set theory have?

answered Jan 1, 2010 at 0:41

61 votes

What do named "tricks" share?

answered Dec 4, 2010 at 17:20

60 votes

Mathematical "urban legends"

answered Jan 24, 2011 at 21:17

59 votes

Accepted

Are there any "homotopical spaces"?

answered Apr 17, 2010 at 15:30

59 votes

What are the most overloaded words in mathematics?

answered Dec 1, 2009 at 7:51

55 votes

Accepted

What is the difference between matrix theory and linear algebra?

answered Jan 13, 2010 at 18:29

55 votes

Cool problems to impress students with group theory

answered Jan 29, 2010 at 2:57

52 votes

Theorems with unexpected conclusions

answered Mar 13, 2010 at 23:49

50 votes

Accepted

Given a polynomial f, can there be more than one constant c such that every root of f(x)-c is repeated?

answered Nov 23, 2011 at 19:00

48 votes

Accepted

Bijection between irreducible representations and conjugacy classes of finite groups

answered Jul 22, 2012 at 19:35

47 votes

Accepted

Grothendieck says: points are not mere points, but carry Galois group actions

answered Mar 17, 2016 at 21:11

47 votes

Accepted

What did Ramanujan get wrong?

answered Dec 13, 2017 at 19:39

46 votes

What does it mean to suspect that two conjectures are logically equivalent?

answered Oct 23, 2017 at 22:17

45 votes

Category theory and arithmetical identities

answered Nov 11, 2020 at 20:23

45 votes

Should the formula for the inverse of a 2x2 matrix be obvious?

answered Feb 21, 2012 at 4:02

Stack Exchange Network

951 Answers

Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics

Most harmful heuristic?

What are the most misleading alternate definitions in taught mathematics?

What is entropy, really?

What are the most misleading alternate definitions in taught mathematics?

What are your favorite instructional counterexamples?

Your favorite surprising connections in mathematics

Famous mathematical quotes

What non-categorical applications are there of homotopical algebra?

Sophisticated treatments of topics in school mathematics

Why do so many textbooks have so much technical detail and so little enlightenment?

Why aren't representations of monoids studied so much?

Sophisticated treatments of topics in school mathematics

What are the most attractive Turing undecidable problems in mathematics?

Favorite popular math book

What practical applications does set theory have?

What do named "tricks" share?

Mathematical "urban legends"

Are there any "homotopical spaces"?

What are the most overloaded words in mathematics?

What is the difference between matrix theory and linear algebra?

Cool problems to impress students with group theory

Theorems with unexpected conclusions

Given a polynomial f, can there be more than one constant c such that every root of f(x)-c is repeated?

Bijection between irreducible representations and conjugacy classes of finite groups

Grothendieck says: points are not mere points, but carry Galois group actions

What did Ramanujan get wrong?

What does it mean to suspect that two conjectures are logically equivalent?

Category theory and arithmetical identities

Should the formula for the inverse of a 2x2 matrix be obvious?