# Are mathematical translations on-topic?

Translating an Italian exercise precisely

It seems a little off-topic, but I wanted to ask here. The problem is it seems rather specialized, and requires a good deal of non-mathematical knowledge.

• Related – user99914 Feb 21 '16 at 3:50
• Conversely, it does require some mathematical knowledge. I just grabbed some of the words and asked Google Translate, and got back "and $f: \Bbb C \to \Bbb C$ linear transformation and suppose that $f$ matrix associated to the base $\mathcal{B} = \{\ldots\}$ of domain and range ($e_i$ are carriers of the canonical base)" and for part d), "it is a basic calculations space zero linear application $f$." Probably any human would do a bit better than Google Translate, but that last part is absolutely worthless, when it should be talking about finding a basis for the null space. – pjs36 Feb 21 '16 at 3:56
• This has been asked in the past and the consensus was that translation requests are on-topic. – Git Gud Feb 21 '16 at 11:05

## 1 Answer

I would say yes on the basis that this sort of question is helpful to future readers who are trying to interpret the odd untranslated foreign-language mathematical text.

Good answers to these types of questions might help you fill in the blanks for what your foreign-language-speaking friend or Google Translate could not illuminate.

• A related question I asked a while ago: Am I missing out by not knowing another language? – enthdegree Feb 21 '16 at 6:55
• Giving your reasoning it seems especially important though to insist the to be translated text is typed in and not only presented as a scan (though a scan can be a useful backup). – quid Feb 21 '16 at 12:51