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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Ethical problems in mathematics

For a project about ethics and societal awareness in the exact sciences we have to write an essay about how ethics and society play a role in certain sciences. I wanted to do my essay about mathematics as I am a mathematics student and I love math.…
Slugger
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Who are the most inspiring WOMEN communicators of math for a general audience?

This is a follow up to my earlier question. I'd like to improve the gender balance of my podcast series. (I interview people who are inspired by math and are inspiring others.) Through no conscious intention I've interviewed mostly men. I'm looking…
Sol
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Example of a conjecture/theorem which required an entirely new idea to prove

When Andrew Wiles proved Fermat's Last Theorem, he built upon ideas from elliptic curves which already existed. Is there an example of a conjecture/theorem which was proved using an unexpected argument?
preferred_anon
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formulating theories in math

One of my profs mentioned that sometimes people formulate theories about some type of object, but then later realize that those objects do not exist. Can someone given me an example of such a theory? I know this is vague, but I hope it makes sense.
nigel
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How can I explain the seven Millennium Prize Problems to a layman?

I'm writing an email to a friend, who asked me to explain what higher level mathematics is like. Since I'm still an undergraduate student, I referred him to this Wikipedia page, saying that I assume a large part of mathematics investigates the…
rnmartingale
  • 427
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Maximum amount of time to solve a problem and persistence

I seem to find it takes me a lot of time and work compared to my classmates to solve problems or "get" certain proofs. To add insult to injury, often I find a question not asked in the textbook or homeworks, but feel the need to answer it, and…
T. Webster
  • 3,052
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Finding math research problems

What is an efficient strategy to find fruitful research problems. So far the best advice I have heard about choosing a problem is to "talk to as many people as possible and go to as many talks as possible and when you find yourself engaged in…
Joe
  • 628
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The Purpose of Master Thesis

I am posting this question in the aftermath of the earlier posting in this link. Here are what I would like to know more about master and PhD thesis: (1) I understand that schools' math departments have different policies and guidelines, but what is…
A.Magnus
  • 3,527
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What can I do with what I know?

This might be difficult for me to put into words, but bear with me because I think it's an important question. Among the many people who study math, I am one of them. I'm not particularly advanced but I enjoy it. I'm working through calculus 2 in…
Korgan Rivera
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Question about loss of generality in proofs

My concern is with choosing specific conditions within a proof to arrive at a general result. As an example, I'll use the proof that $\mathbb{Q}$ is dense in $\mathbb{R}$. The proof I know goes as follows: Claim: Let $x,y \in \mathbb{R}$ such that…
mr eyeglasses
  • 5,539
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Should I be afraid of using known identities that I can't prove?

Recently I've noticed a pattern in all of my "researches" (if you can call them that), and that is I will not allow myself to use known identities if I can't prove them (or at least understand a given proof of them). For example, I was recently…
user3002473
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How much time per day to mathematicians usually spend working?

I was reading Poincare's wikipedia page and I noticed that Poincare only did 4 hours of hard mathematical research a day, preferring to let his subconscious have the rest of the time to attack the problems. Is this true for other mathematicians and…
user1299784
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Examples of the Mathematical Red Herring principle

I read the Mathematical Red Herring principle the other day on SE and wondered what some other good examples of this are? Also anyone know who came up with this term? The mathematical red herring principle is the principle that in mathematics, a…
Michaela Light
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Interesting Math Facts for Layman

I am often asked why I chose to study mathematics. Especially from strangers and new acquaintances. Of course, I don't have the time to sit them down and tell them why mathematics is so marvelous and why their view of it is likely skewed by the way…
user123641
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2 answers

Mental processes while doing math

This is a soft question concerning the mental processes at work when doing maths. I hope this question is not too vague, and I believe I haven't found a similar one previously posted on MathSE. In some of the answers I received on previous posts,…
AlexPof
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