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
1
vote
2 answers

Is there a point to physically writing down proofs?

I try to go through every exercise in a book when I'm reading it. Of course, there are going to be a range of routine calculations/more trivial results/harder results that are in each book. With the easier exercises there are many times where I read…
beeclu
  • 304
1
vote
0 answers

Relative speed of trains moving in same direction

I came across a formula that "Two trains moving in the same direction at x m/s and y m/s, (x>y) then their relative speed is (x-y) m/s " . But isn't this a speed of faster train compared to slower one? For slower train isn't the speed should be…
ogirkar
  • 2,681
  • 14
  • 27
1
vote
1 answer

What happen if you can't find a reference for teaching

What will happen if someone can't find a reference for teaching when he applies for an academic job? This may happen if someone has left academia but want to return after a couple years. Thanks!
Hao
  • 11
1
vote
0 answers

Is abstraction different than generalization?

I am occasionally asked what is meant by abstract math and what the point is. My usual canned answer is that abstract is the opposite of concrete or specific. Concept X is more abstract than concept Y if Y is an example of X. The point is that…
H_R
  • 431
1
vote
1 answer

Question regarding period, time and so on

I'm reading a paper regarding the workload of air traffic controller. In this paper, P is a mean task recurrence period per aircraft. In this context, 'task' mean 'recurring task' which is a repeated activities of controllers (e.g. checking route…
2eight
  • 41
1
vote
0 answers

is there a formal way to say let "x be the i-th greatest element in a subset of [n]"

I was wondering if there is a formal way to say that "x is the i-th greatest element in a subset of $[n]$" (or maybe is this formal?). For example if i have $M=\{2,3,5,7,11,20\}$, how can I say that if I take 7, this is the 3rd greatest element in…
Mangostino
  • 525
1
vote
1 answer

What should I read first and How to divide time between mathematics and other subjects?

I am a high-schooler who still has not learnt calculus completely. I have good introduction to proofs, propositional logic,all tenth grade math,functions,set theory and introductory combinatorics. I want to learn a large number of topics in math.…
user953078
1
vote
2 answers

Is it mandatory substantiate the existence of some mathematical object firstly in order to define it afterwards?

I was reading elementary set theory and in this book the axiom of union is stated, guaranteeing the existence of some set, say $S$, such that every element of it is in a set $A$ or in a set $B$ where $A$ and $B$ are any sets. Then, the author gives…
user923938
1
vote
0 answers

Is this feedback valid for mid-term Exam problem?

I had recent assessment for course of writing mathematics. And I do not understand the feedback of marker. I wish I could have asked more, but they were not available at the time. The Question in exam: Are any two 3 × 3 diagonal matrices similar? I…
flowian
  • 541
1
vote
1 answer

How to deal with errors/typos in mathematical text?

When we read books, we often see a few errors or gaps in proofs. Some typos are obvious and can be corrected easily. Sometimes there are more significant errors which forces us to "do an exercise" to fill in the gap caused by the error. In the…
Ma Joad
  • 7,420
1
vote
2 answers

Have any notable mathematical constants been found which are known to be rational?

Has anyone else thought about this? I've browsed the Wikipedia for mathematical constants and only things I saw that were definitely rational AFAIK were 0, 1, 2, and 1/2, which don't really count. I think 777480/8288641 counts also. Fermat's/…
Zac Udell
  • 13
1
vote
0 answers

Mathematical terminology

This may be an obvious question, but in a mathematical context, what does "recover" mean? For example, one question on this website asked if it were possible to "recover a group from its homomorphisms," but I haven't been able to find a reference…
JeremyS
  • 1,345
1
vote
2 answers

divergent vs undefined integrals/summations

I have tagged this as a soft questions because it is more a question of language/notation but for certain summations/integrals these terms seem to be used interchangably and I would like some clarity on their actual meanings. As a first example I…
Henry Lee
  • 12,215
1
vote
1 answer

Indian National Olympiad $2005$ Problem $5$ (Not able to understand this problem)

Let $x_1$ be a given positive integer. A sequence $\{x_n\}_ {n\geq 1}$ of positive integers is such that $x_n$, for $n \geq 2$, is obtained from $x_ {n-1}$ by adding some nonzero digit of $x_ {n-1}$. Prove that a) the sequence contains an even…
Ishan
  • 1,725
1
vote
1 answer

What is the difference between advanced math and introductory math?

If I read a book about analysis or set theory or algebra etc I start with an introductory course (obviously) but if math, at the end is just a bunch of theorems and proofs, what is the difference between what I study and what someone who's more…
user813868
1 2 3
…
59 60