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Please seed the main site with applied math and contest-math type questions! We've been talking a lot about what counts as math related, and these types have come up in theory, but until we have some examples it's difficult to discuss what we do and don't want on math.SE.

(Okay, this isn't a question yet. Let's use this for discussion of what is encompassed by mathematics-related and what isn't, for those who see fit not to include everything. And maybe, in general, how to deal with the varieties of language and background that questions will inevitably be couched in).

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  • $\begingroup$ I am trying to speak like an actuarial student in my finance question. Feedback on understandability (or if I'm even doing it right) is welcome. $\endgroup$ – Larry Wang Jul 24 '10 at 2:16
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I want to see more theoretical computer science problems.

Mostly theory of computation problems.

Are algorithms questions allowed in math.SE? If it involves implementation, it's obviously better asked in SO. I found the following kind of algorithm problem in the gray zone:

  • Solving this problem with O(n) time, O(1) space?

  • Is this problem NP-Complete?

  • If I preprocess the data using O(n^2) space, are there any algorithm allows O(log n) query time?

I will seed a few questions in the above fields in next few days.

How about signal processing and theoretical physics questions?

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  • $\begingroup$ Depends on how you ask it, of course, but those all sound like potentially good questions. $\endgroup$ – Larry Wang Jul 24 '10 at 3:44
  • $\begingroup$ I have asked one, which I was recently curious about: math.stackexchange.com/questions/631/is-the-24-game-np-complete $\endgroup$ – Akhil Mathew Jul 24 '10 at 4:47
  • $\begingroup$ Why is "Is this problem NP-Complete?" in the gray zone? Definitely inside the bound of TCS. $\endgroup$ – Edan Maor Jul 24 '10 at 12:55
  • $\begingroup$ @Edan: Your right, it's ToC problem instead of an algorithm problem. $\endgroup$ – Chao Xu Jul 24 '10 at 13:28
  • $\begingroup$ Oh. I can help with this. I need to study CS Theory for my CSDA exam. I can probably come up with some good questions based on ones in my book that I can't solve or are difficult in some way. Of course, I won't copy them right from the book (don't want to make it easy for people to find homework answers), but it might be a start. $\endgroup$ – Thomas Owens Aug 13 '10 at 22:09
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Other topics I would like to see more of:
Middle-school/High-school algebra
Game theory
Differential equations
Cryptography
Chemistry
Numerical analysis
Topology

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  • $\begingroup$ I've seed a chemistry one. Maybe not exactly what you wished(this is high school chem). Pretend I don't know anything feels so awesome :) $\endgroup$ – Chao Xu Jul 24 '10 at 3:02

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