New answers tagged discussion
5
I'm not a professional but I've been on this site for a year now and I think my long stay boils down to five points and I can imagine a similar experience would be for someone who is a professional:
There is a minimum standard kept on questions and answers
Once written posts can be referenced many times later on another posts, so you kinda build links ...
4
Some Dos and Don'ts based on a little time in the review queues
Do type each equation inside a single pair of dollar signs $...$, or $$...$$. This is both easier than the alternative, and correct: instead of $x$=$y$+$z$$x$=$y$+$z$, you should write $x=y+z$$x=y+z$.
Do type all mathematics inside Mathjax, even if you don't need a special symbol like $\aleph$ ...
11
7
To add to the already excellent answers here, there are two reasons why I personally have contributed to MSE:
MSE is an endless source of interesting mathematical problems. I find problem solving fun, and after one moves beyond things like math competitions, it can be hard to find random math problems to solve on a daily basis. MSE provides that. I even ...
9
Academics have a lot of unstructured time (I do not mean "free" time), which is definitely a part of it. This does not explain why the math should be different from other subject-specific-and-academia-adjacent SEs.
Mathematicians don't need to know where a problem comes from in order to care about it. That makes math unusually amenable to Internet ...
-4
A bad question or answer is bad. If the poster is a newbie, so be it. You should explain why you think it is bad in a comment, more so for a newbie obviously.
1
Another reason is embarrassment when they realize how "stupid" they were after they received an answer. For example, look at this post Is this step mathematically allowed?
Although the asker did not delete her post, she does mention how embarrassed she felt after having some comments and an answer answer her question clearly and concisely.
4
The problem of "hints" as answers is complex as what constitutes a hint is not even quite clear, or differently not everything that is presented as a hint actually even is a hint (in my opinion at least). What we are actually often talking about in practice is content in answer posts which is preceded by Hint.
I think it would be a step in the ...
1
Info too long-winded for a comment:
I dislike question titles which are all MathJax and no text. I tend to open questions by right-clicking on their titles, and this is not possible with all-MathJax titles.
Firefox browser remedy
(may work with other browsers)
Locate mouse just to the right of the query
right-click and
choose inspect element from the pop-...
10
Similar to a coach of a nationally ranked football team having a recruiting advantage. For a variety of reasons, mathSE attracted high quality queries and high quality answers, perhaps partly as a result of mathSE prioritizing this metaMath article.
Anyway, math professionals start flocking and giving high quality contributions, which attracts more math ...
3
Personally, it is difficult for me to base a downvote on whether the query broaches an interesting mathematical topic. The reason for my difficulty is that in my experience, about 95% of the queries that are posted are seriously defective.
By this I mean that totally ignoring the general interest of the mathematical topic, the query will typically have such ...
12
The goal of Math SE is to create a searchable repository of high quality questions and answers. "Searchability" is important—if the same question is asked over and over again, then it becomes difficult for search engines (or users) to find the best answer to a given question. Duplicates create a lot of noise and clutter which make navigating the ...
3
This answer focuses on calculus notation. I have broken this section off from the beginners tutorial because I'm not convinced that it is essential for new contributors to be aware of the following commands. Personally, I have no issue with a beginner writing "how do I integrate $x^2$" as opposed to "evaluate $\int x^2 \, dx$".
Calculus ...
13
From a rules standpoint, you can vote how you want, with only a few exceptions-- namely, revenge downvoting, targeted voting, upvote rings, etc. The common theme of these exceptions is that they're based on factors other than the merit of the post. In general, the goal is for your vote to be independent of extrinsic information like author and view count.
I ...
24
As long as you don't submit the post, I don't see any harm in using the preview functionality of Stack Exchange to test your LaTeX code. But see Concerns about MathJax in proposed new SE editor – at the moment it's unclear whether that will continue to work. Otherwise, we have the Formatting Sandbox which can be used for this kind of stuff.
Note that the ...
-1
Please reopen:
A Basic Limit From Exponentials
I believe this is not a duplicate of How does one prove that $e$ exists? which was why it was closed.
The question from the first link asks why the limit $\ \displaystyle\lim_{x \to 0} \frac{2^x-1}{x}\ $ exists. Whereas the question from the second link asks to prove that there exists a number $a$ such that $\ \...
19
The goal of this post is to outline the absolute basics of how to typeset mathematics using MathJax, without any prior knowledge assumed. I'll do my best to add to this tutorial throughout today.
Introduction: when asking and answering questions, it makes your writing much more readable if you typeset the mathematics using the markup language MathJax. ...
1
I think I want to highlight the point I made in a comment, hence an answer.
I think it would be a great help if there were MathJax links to useful resources in the various parts of the introduction to the site.
For example, it should be mentioned with a link in the tour - after all it is a key point for new users. And a link to MathJax resources should be ...
6
I think a lot of users take self-answering for granted. What implicitly happens while writing a self-answer, is that we have a certain context which we implicitly place on other users, and then write the answer. This leads to locality of the answer. For example ,avoiding details makes the answer highly self-serving , because the intention of every answer , ...
3
Stack Exchange is earning money by ads on the three largest sites (Stackoverflow, Superuser and Serverfault) as well as their Careers platform.
None of the SE 2.0 sites like Math earn any money at the moment.
1
tl;dr– This answer plays with spacing just for fun.
@PM2Ring's answer suggested \mathstrut, then @GNUSupporter8964民主女神地下教會's answer tried constructing a similar mechanism through \vphantom{\bigcup}.
So, in that spirit and just for fun, trying \vphantom with differing heights, mostly just to see what they look like:
$$
{\def\Spacing#1{\vphantom{\rule{0em}{#...
2
tl;dr– Using \mathstrut or/and \displaystyle might help.
Comparisons:$$
\begin{array}{rcc}
\textbf{Normal:}
& \sqrt{6 + 2\sqrt{7 + 3\sqrt{8+\cdots}}}
& \left(1\right)
\\
\textbf{With}~\texttt{\mathstrut}\textbf{:}
& \sqrt{6 + 2\sqrt{7 + 3\sqrt{\mathstrut 8 + \cdots}}}
& \left(2\right)
\\
\textbf{With}~\texttt{\displaystyle}\textbf{:}
& {...
1
Sending you a copy is likely illegal in many countries.
The situation is indeed weird, but to read articles, I for one have no other choice than pay for various subscribtions - and it's not cheap. My employer also have a few subscrbtions that I can use.
It's also possible to purchase only one article: apparently the one you want is 31.50$.
If you don't want ...
-10
NOTE PLS: as brought to my notice, this question's formal structural construct which relates to " unfair downvotes and what to do" already has answers here: ( Downvoting for no stated reason is abusive)" and here (Why do people think downvotes need explanation? )" . Thanks.
1
tl;dr– Looks like the core problem is MathJax inappropriately applying a size-modifier to the implicit √-character that it uses to render the radical. The trick to avoiding this problem would be ensuring that the implicit √-character doesn't have a non-default size-modifier applied to it, either by avoiding applying one or else by shielding it with \...
-2
Please reopen
Caching in Magma
The magma-cas is 100% mathematical software, and questions about it are not usually answered when posted on Stack Overflow. While the question is about how the software handles caching, MSE is the place to post this where it will most likely get an answer (and it has an answer; there are better answers that could be posted if ...
16
first of all let me give you a warm welcome to MSE.
You seem to have warmed to MSE better than most new users. I am sure you will keep growing as a contributor. There will be bumps along the way, but if you learn to enjoy them you will get nothing but pleasure out of the site.
Let me also take this opportunity to appreciate you for asking this question. That ...
1
If you're on a Mac, text replacement shortcuts are a built-in feature. Its less capable than the other options, but requires no installation and should Just Work in every browser (in fact, system-wide, which might be too much...)
You can find this option by opening System Preferences > Keyboard, and then the Text submenu. You should see this window (or ...
4
While there are Questions posted that place explicit restrictions on techniques allowed (and indeed we ask users to give some indication of their backgrounds, so Answers can be tailored to the right level of study), tags are not generally an effective way of "segregating" posts with such restrictions. Even if there were a specific enough tag to ...
1
Use $\rm\LaTeX$ on GitLab directly, thanks to GitLab's support for KaTeX.
Demo syntax:
This math is inline $`a^2+b^2=c^2`$.
This is on a separate line
```math
a^2+b^2=c^2
```
🔗: https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/blob/master/doc/user/markdown.md#math
❗ I'm using a screenshot here because I'm showing how the code gets interpreted by GitLab, not by SE.
⚠ ...
3
It depends on what you mean by most downvoted - whether you mean the lowest score or the most downvotes.
For the lowest score you can simply choose the votes tab and then go to the end of the list. However, you can also create a SEDE query for questions with the lowest score. Using SEDE has the advantage that the data contains also the deleted questions, so ...
0
Re-opened.
Please reopen Less common probabilities and expected values related to the coupon collector problem. It is falsely closed as a duplicate. Though the question brought in the title is indeed very often it is not asked in the body of OP.
Particularly the question asks about the expected value of collected unique cards after a certain number of trials,...
19
In my opinion, one of the biggest problems facing Math SE right now is the proliferation of nearly identical questions which are essentially the same problem, asked over and over again, but with different numerical values. One way to help alleviate this problem is for folk to write general questions which give "canonical" answers to those ...
-1
There is now:
Quiver - a Commutative Diagram Editor
Exports to TikzCD format.
Exports a URL of diagram data which you can then post here. The URL data gets loaded by the end link viewer's browser.
Developed by coder varkor.
Soon, there will be a database backend to Quiver called Quiver Database (but an independent project):
Quiver Database GitHub ...
0
Actually, the deleted answer gives the unique name once $p$ is assumed to be the minimal polynomial of the algebraic number: The proposed full name is the pair $(p, B)$, where $p$ is a polynomial and $B$ is a box. To determine such a name one starts with the minimal polynomial $p$ (the first name), then determines the box $B$ (the second name), which of ...
6
The answer was flagged as low-quality, and I encountered it in the low-quality review queue. My initial impression of the answer was that (a) it was likely far too terse to completely answer the question and (b) didn't really address the question of uniqueness at all. My reading of the question was that the issue of uniqueness was somewhat central, and ...
16
Its unclear to me what you want this for, but if you only want to adjust MathJax output as it appears on your computer, there is the Right click > Math Settings > Scale All Math... option available in the drop down menu that appears when you right click on some rendered MathJax. This will rescale all MathJax on a page. Here is a picture of the dropdown ...
10
Since it's one way of describing a root of a polynomial with Maple's RootOf (see the documentation, for instance RootOf(x^2-2,1-I..2+I) is $\sqrt2$), I would say the answer is not inherently bad.
However, it's a very late answer (the question was asked more than three years ago), which means it will likely be useless to the OP. To make it useful to the ...
2
Proposal: create qr-decomposition
There are already lu-decomposition, cholesky-decomposition, schur-decompsition and other related tags on eigenvalues or the SVD. But not qr-decomposition, while there seem to be many questions on this.
Alternately, as suggested by Cameron Williams in this (now deleted) question, we might merge all those tags with the tag ...
0
Proposal: Add the meta tag deleted-comments.
This tag is present on meta.SE: https://meta.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/deleted-comments.
The current meta tag deletion includes
deleted questions
deleted answers
deleted comments
posts/comments nominated for deletion.
As a result, to search for meta questions about deleted comments, one has to use the ...
3
Regarding the closed question, which I voted to close, the guy specifically asks about a code problem with R, which has nothing to do here. Maybe the question could be rephrased to be on topic, but as is, it's not. That he asks for another algorithm is only tangential, his main problem, is with code, and his question "Can anyone understand why this is ...
6
One way is to type out specific parts or your working in the input tab of Desmos. Since it is a WYSWYG system, it is tremendously easier and you can just copy and paste it into your question/answer. All you have to do is add '\$ \$'. For example:
This took me about a 2 minutes to write and to put it here I just copy it and paste.
\frac{\sin\left(2n^{2}+\...
10
Another option is to use \mathstrut, eg $\sqrt{ 6+2\sqrt{ 7+3\sqrt{\mathstrut 8+\cdots}}}$, which is produced from $\sqrt{ 6+2\sqrt{ 7+3\sqrt{\mathstrut 8+\cdots}}}$.
8
We have to put \Huge inside the braces {} like {\Huge …}.
We can use \mathstrut to unify the vertical separations above and below the middle square root sign.
$\sqrt{ {\Huge \text{Nested}} \sqrt{ {\Huge \text{root}} \sqrt{ { \Huge \mathstrut \text{problem}} }}}$
gives
$\sqrt{ {\Huge \text{Nested}} \sqrt{ {\Huge \text{root}} \sqrt{ { \Huge \mathstrut \text{...
2
Misused tag problem-solving
Do you need to solve a problem? That's what this site is all about, but please, don't use the tag problem-solving to tell us that. Use that tag only if you have a specific type of problem and you are asking for a way of thinking needed to solve those problems in general.
Do you need to solve a problem? That's what this site is ...
2
One-line solution $\sqrt{\vphantom{\bigcup} 6+2\sqrt{\vphantom{\bigcup} 7+3\sqrt{\vphantom{\bigcup} 8+\cdots}}}$ using \vphantom{\bigcup}:
$\sqrt{\vphantom{\bigcup} 6+2\sqrt{\vphantom{\bigcup} 7+3\sqrt{\vphantom{\bigcup} 8+\cdots}}}$
6
It is definitely a judgement call - so various users might have various views on a specific question.
One issue is whether you consider this a question about the inequality
$$\frac{x}{y^3+2xyz} + \frac{y}{z^3+2xyz} + \frac{z}{x^3+2xyz} \gt \frac{15}{2} \tag{1}$$
or whether you consider this a question whether about the inequality $$xy^2+yz^2+zx^2 < \frac{...
8
Comments require a minimum of 15 characters, and may be no more than 600 characters long.
The intended use for comments is to ask for clarification and/or to suggest changes to a post. Such requests should almost certainly require more than 15 characters to make clear—the average word in English is somewhere around 4–5 letters long, which means that a ...
2
This is a bad situation.
I disagree. This is an incredibly minor thing.
2
Not an answer, but a screen shot of what the moderator tools landing page looks like, depending on the tab selected there. Below is the contents of the current Delete tab. One can check for span of time over which to view posts, up to 30 days, and the downarrows allow one to expand to a larger list of posts in that time frame. One can also access "...
Top 50 recent answers are included
