- My question is about mathematics.
- My question involves a proof contained in a book (Introduction to Mathematical Thinking--Devlin)
- My question requires I (verbatim) quote portions of a proof presented in this book.
Is this allowed on this forum?
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
7
-
1$\begingroup$ Such questions have been asked on MSE many times before, and they are perfectly OK to ask according to my (and most others') reading of the rules, as long as the question is clearly spelled out, and you back it up with your own work and/or thoughts. $\endgroup$– dxivCommented Nov 9, 2016 at 2:54
-
3$\begingroup$ The question you want to ask is fine (judging by your description). But this question right here (which is a meta question about the question you really want to ask) is not ok for this site. You can delete it and ask your maths question. $\endgroup$– ThanassisCommented Nov 9, 2016 at 3:08
-
1$\begingroup$ How do I Delete OR (preferably) Move this question (May I ask a...) to MathMeta? $\endgroup$– JARCommented Nov 9, 2016 at 4:07
-
2$\begingroup$ It is good to make the title informative so that other users have at least a rough idea what question is about after reading just the title. "May I ask a question of this sort?" does not say much. I have edited this to "May I ask a question which contains longer verbatim quotes from a book?". If this does not describe your question well enough, please do edit the question further. $\endgroup$– Martin SleziakCommented Nov 10, 2016 at 6:31
-
$\begingroup$ There are actually two questions: (1) Would such a question be an acceptable math.SE question, and (2) would it be problematic in regards to copyright of the book. As of (1) I would say it can be a perfectly acceptable question (if it is not, then it's not because of quoting the book). As of (2) I would expect it to be covered by fair use, but I'm not an expert about that. You of course have to properly quote/cite the source. $\endgroup$– celtschkCommented Nov 11, 2016 at 9:19
-
$\begingroup$ Copyright in science texts is extremely ridiculous and offensive. Well, copyright of information of any kind is ridiculous, not only in science. $\endgroup$– user173262Commented Nov 18, 2016 at 19:42
-
$\begingroup$ This kind of question should be asked extremely sparingly - merely copying text and then asking "what does it mean" or "why does it say that" is not, generally, a very high quality question. High quality questions generally focus on the mathematics, rather than on the presentation of the mathematics by some specific person or text. So, instead of asking about Devlin's proof, you could try to prove the result yourself. If you run into problems with that, it will lead to a better question for this site. $\endgroup$– Carl MummertCommented Nov 21, 2016 at 13:58
Add a comment
|
1 Answer
$\begingroup$
$\endgroup$
1
Likely the OP had in mind asking this Question about Devlin's account of Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes.
In pressing the OP to give a more meaningful title, the length of material quoted may have become emphasized more than other concerns. In any event the amount quoted in the above linked problem is suitable for the nature of the Question being asked.
-
1$\begingroup$ I should point out that when I edited the title I left a comment specifically asking the OP to edit it again if it is not a good fit. (And of course, anybody else is free to edit it, if they think it should be edited.) $\endgroup$ Commented Nov 13, 2016 at 6:01