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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What are some of the factors that go into ranking a math department?

In terms of research, how do organizations like the US News World report compare math departments from US universities? Do they look at the range of mathematical research and the depth? Do they look at how prestigious a journal professors have…
Matthew T
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A way to describe the following triplet

so first of all the tittle I think is very poor, so I apologize about that. I am working on a homework set for homology, and when I computed the image of a boundary map I got this: $(a-b,2b-c,2c)$ with $a,b,c\in \mathbb{Z}$. I see that the first…
Daniel Montealegre
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Expanding Math Toolbox?

For the professional mathematicians or the students that are getting there, I was wondering specifically what is meant by expanding one's 'mathematical toolbox' in regards to research? So for example, if you are learning one particular subject in…
Mat.S
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Transition from elementary to non-elementary math

I'm a new math student in college and so far I have done terrible in all my math classes besides one which is basically a much easier rendition of high school math competitions. I did decently well in math competitions in high school, and I…
Hiroshi Kobayashi
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The quote of von Neumann

I know that everyone here is familiar with the quote of von Neumann which is:"Young man, in mathematics you don't understand things. You just get used to them". I read his quote and it got me thinking how did he say something like this or what did…
Mans
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Improve at "proof or find counterexample" exercises.

I have been having some trouble when it comes to studying math. Say, I do a proof for an exercise. I end up with something that looks fine. As the book I'm using doesn't have a solution sheet (inside the book or otherwise), I am convinced it was…
Rararat
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How would you define a "solved" or "complete" theory?

I met this phrase a couple of times. I remember the the teacher in my complex analysis course using it in regard to the theory of analytic functions in $f: \mathbb{C} \rightarrow \mathbb{C}$. I also think I heard it in regard to finitly generated…
user2582354
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Why are some methods easier than others, to achieve the same result?

Please see examples of such methods.
user53259
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Is there any reason to prefer one phrasing over the other?

The following two sentences in the language of $\mathbb{N}$ are logically equivalent, in the sense that first-order logic alone is enough to get from one to the other. For all $a,b;$ if there exists $k$ such that $ak=b$, then $a\mid b$. For all…
goblin GONE
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Practice For Intuiting and Manipulating the High- and Low-Level Structures of a Statement?

I am essentially asking whether one could come to intuitively understand how a statement (the use of statement is intentionally vague) fits in with a universe of statements regardless of familiarity. For example, such a person might be able to…
PythonCZX
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Were Spivak's Calculus or Rudin's Real and Complex Analysis translated to French?

The title says it all. I had a lot of fun reading some original papers of Riesz in french (not my native language), and was trying to continue doing so with some books that interest me. However, I haven't been able to locate translations for neither…
Alek Fröhlich
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Opportunity for a good tool/service

is there an opportunity for a good tool (web/win/linux), which would help to construct/display math equations (expression trees), handle table formulas, mixtures of logical & math operands, help to debug and model processes? Sorry for being too…
Dmitry
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I'm bringing a maths project to a science fair. What should I do to make the project accessible?

I'm about to entre a mathematics project into a science fair. Is there any advice people have for a project like this? To impress the judges? To present the project in an easy to understand manner? How best to conduct research? The project is…
Numeral
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getting "pairs" from $3$ digit numbers

I'm in quite the weird position where I have to get "pairs" from three digit numbers For example, the number $123$ gets the "pairs" : $12$ $13$ $21$ $23$ $31$ $32$ - what is this called?
Jacob
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Word for cases of things satisfying a property

I'm not sure if this is the place for this but I don't have anyone nearby and I've been blanking on the word for a while. If you have a property P, and some families of things that exhibit that property, but you also have a few other cases that…
Capacitor
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