Mathematics Stack Exchange
Mathematics Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [soft-question]

For questions whose answers can't be objectively evaluated as correct or incorrect, but which are still relevant to this site. Please be specific about what you are after.

For questions whose answers cannot be objectively evaluated as correct or incorrect, but which are still relevant to mathematics.se.

12079 questions
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How much do mathematicians know?

How much does a good mathematicians know about math? I mean, do mathematicians know the details of every branch of mathematics or they just specialize on a specific branch/topic? And what are the branches and minimum requirements that every…
user813868
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Is it better way to learn math by doing a lot of normal problems or is it better to be stuck at hard problems?

I'm studying Precalculus Algebra(around factoring quadratics at this point). I want to know if it's worth banging your head for 2-3 days stuck on a hard problem or skipping them and doing all other thing that you seem that you're able to…
Abdul Kalam
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I cannot read a textbook to save my life

I am a 2nd year undergraduate (going into 3rd year) in a CS & math program. I have tried reading multiple textbooks (principles of analysis by rudin, algebra by artin, dummit and foote etc...), however I never seem to get much out of them. I find I…
Ray
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doubts on abstract algebra proofs

I am currently studying abstract algebra. When I study new concepts, I manage to understand what it means. But when it comes to prove something, I lose my direction. It is not the case that I don't know what the statement means, but rather I have no…
Idonknow
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What sort of Mathematical logic knowledge would help gain better understanding of Mathematics?

There is a definition of Mathematical logic here. I have studied Jech introduction to Set theory till chapter 9. I have understood definitions and have done proofs. To be quite frank, I did not feel like I am gaining better understanding of logic…
FreeMind
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Where are Galois's notes?

There are a number of photos of bits of Galois's notes floating around online, such as here and here. But where are the remaining originals, physically? I'm hoping what remained of them wasn't tossed out once photos were taken.
Descartes Before the Horse
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What do these set theoretic markings mean?

This is a very soft question, bordering to mere curiosity; but, I hope there are more people just curious about this than me. Watching the episode "Infinity: The Science of Endless" from the World Science Festival, there is a part with set theorist…
Christopher.L
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Was there a case in history when a theorem was incorrectly proved, but people still used it without realizing that theorem was wrong?

Although I am not mathematician, but I would guess that there are numerous theorems which have very complicated proofs, and I would further assume that a lot of them have real world applications (e.g physics, economics etc) Since even the smartest…
Stokolos Ilya
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Is there an intuitive non-mathematical way to show $\sum_n 1/n=\infty$?

I want to show some school students about the sum of the harmonic series diverging and I need some nice interpretation for this. I'll preferably love to have a figure. Thanks in advance!
Guru
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Is it normal to find half of textbook's exercises extremely challenging?

I'm taking a measure-theoretic probability course next semester and after looking at the exercises in the first section, I have only been able to solve about half of them. My question is: should this be cause for concern? Or is it normal to find…
user443369
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How important is consensus in mathematics, and what is its role?

In fields like physics, consensus seems to, among other things, act as a guide for what to research, for science communication (and for what to include in textbooks), and so on. I imagine much of this holds for maths, but I wonder if any…
Zachary Shifrel
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For homework questions what is the difference between being asked to verify something and being asked to prove something?

I've always been curious if there is a definite difference between the terms or if they just depend on the context of a problem.
simongh
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Why should one study pure math?

I'm an undergraduate math major and I really enjoy pure math. I don't have a specific area of interest yet, but I'm looking. That being said, I often ask myself the question "what's the point of pure math?" and "what is it good for?" and struggle to…
gtoques
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Which of these mathematical English sentences is correct?

I am very poor at English. I want to know which of these sentences is correct. If $f(x, y)$ is a $C^2$ function, then $\frac{\partial^2 f}{\partial x \partial y}$ and $\frac{\partial^2 f}{\partial y \partial x}$ are the same function. If $f(x,…
tchappy ha
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How to prevent doing the same mistakes over and over again?

At the moment I am preparing for the GMAT. However, a phenomenon that occured and has occured in the past is that sometimes I always make the same mistakes at similar problems, especially when doing GMAT problems or collegue homework problems. How…
user2051347
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