88
votes
How to ask a good question.
Avoid "no clue" questions
Too many questions begin or end with "I don't even know how to begin with this problem". While this may be true (you may genuinely have no idea how to ...
66
votes
Accepted
Can we ask about code in math.stackexchange?
My view has always been that programming questions are very much borderline. Here is the border, as I see it.
Your question is about the mathematics of the algorithm. This could be about a specific ...
- 390k
63
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Highlighting equation
To highlight an equation, \bbox can be used. E.g,
...
55
votes
Accepted
Why image cannot be used for explaining my maths problem?
This is largely an accessibility issue.
Images are not searchable. Whatever you think of the quality of the built-in search engine, or external tools such as approach0, and their ability to find ...
- 27.4k
48
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Pack of cards
If you are asking (or answering) a combinatorics question involving packs of cards you can make it look more elegant by using \spadesuit, ...
36
votes
How does the voting in the election work?
How does voting work?
You can rank any number of candidates. You select a first choice, a second choice, a third choice, etc. (It is possible to only make a first or a only a first and second choice.) ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
32
votes
How to search on this site?
Approach0
Searching for a specific formula is often rather difficult. A tool which is very suitable for this is the Approach0 search engine.
Some basic information can be found in Guide for New Users (...
30
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Displaystyle and Textstyle
Many things like fractions, sums, limits, and integrals display differently when written inline versus in a displayed formula. You can switch styles back and forth with <...
30
votes
Accepted
What is a "PSQ"?
To answer the first question, the acronym (or some might prefer initialism) PSQ, is derived from Problem Statement Question.
In its purest form it is a question post that only contains the statement ...
quidMod
- 41.9k
29
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Vertical Spacing
Some formulas such as $\overline a+\overline b=\overline {a\cdot b}$, $\sqrt{a}-\sqrt{b}$, do not look quite right when it comes to vertical spacing. Fortunately, there is more than ...
28
votes
How to ask a good question.
Pare question to its basics
Pare your problem down to the minimum core problem. Instead of asking for
$$\frac{\sin 2 k \sqrt{3 + q^3}}{b! (b-2)!} \int\limits_{x=0}^{\infty} \frac{e^{-x^2/(2 \sigma^2)}...
- 29.5k
27
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Equation numbering
Simple equation
To give an equation a number, use the \tag{}. To refer to it later, use \label{} to label ...
22
votes
How to ask a good question.
If the question you want to ask appeared in a
Math contest (or contest training), then
You should make it clear that the question is from a contest. Adding the contest-math tag is a good way of ...
- 131k
21
votes
How to ask a good question.
Include source / motivation for your question
According to recent discussions on this Meta post-Is it a good idea to include source from where a question is taken? , and by the responses of many ...
- 9,920
20
votes
How to ask a good question.
Use Approach0
Use Approach0 to search for any possible duplicates of your question before asking.
We get hundreds of questions every day. If your question is about arithmetic, geometry, algebra-...
- 16.8k
20
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Linear programming
Formulation
A theoretical LPP can be typeset as
...
20
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Units
While $\LaTeX$ has packages that format units, MathJax does not. For visual consistency, one should format units within the same string of MathJax code as the value to which it corresponds, ...
20
votes
How to make or suggest good edits
When Editing
Consider the age of the post.
Whenever a post is edited, it is bumped to the top of the Active Questions list on the front page. This crowds out other posts which are also deserving of ...
17
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Mixing code and MathJax formatting on lines
To give an example of how this might be useful, I wanted to express an algorithm in more or less the same indentation and symbolic way it appears in a ...
16
votes
What is Math SE's policy on posts in languages other than English?
Network Policy
The network policy, outlined on the main meta site, is that all questions, answers, and comments must be in English, with a small number of exceptions made for bilingual sites (e.g. ...
- 27.4k
13
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Markov Chains
This is a heuristic solution for coding Markov chains in Mathjax using a combination of commutative diagrams, the encircle tool and font sizes. There are a few minor issues with this ...
12
votes
History of Math.StackExchange
According to my screenshot, the 1 millionth question was just posted today by Firat Celebi
Sadly, like those counts of who is the millionth person to walk over a bridge, I don't think there is ...
- 5,163
12
votes
MathJax basic tutorial and quick reference
Tables
W/ Sub-Variables
After spending too much time searching for a way to make tables of this form (to no avail), I spent even longer searching for the pieces (of which most were found here) to ...
12
votes
How to ask a good question.
Avoid confusing abbreviations and notation
Try to limit the usage of abbreviations that are uncommon restricted to certain contexts, or may cause confusion. For example, not every user of the forum ...
- 3,019
12
votes
How to search on this site?
Lists of questions
There are also various lists of questions which might help when searching for some topic (some of them generated by the Stack Exchange software, some of them created manually).
If ...
11
votes
How to search on this site?
Google
You can simply use Google with the restriction to this domain, using (in addition to the search query) site:math.stackexchange.com. (Of course, you can also use any other search engine where ...
11
votes
What are the guidelines for reviewing?
The site offers several review queues that make helping moderate this community more streamlined. For details on these queues, see the FAQ on Meta Stack Exchange: What are the review queues, and how ...
10
votes
How to search on this site?
Built-in-search
The site has built-in search engine - the search bar is near the top of the site. Notice that after you get to search results a link with "Advanced Search Tips" become ...
10
votes
How to ask a good question.
One question per post
Limit yourself to one question per post (according to the general StackExchange guidelines).
Maybe (but this should be an exception rather than a rule) two closely related ...
- 94k
8
votes
How to ask a good question.
Avoid non-descriptive/non-helpul titles
Bad Example: Help me!
$$$$
This is bad because it doesn't specify what specifically you need help with ( it might as well be going to the bathroom), second ...
- 827
Only top scored, non community-wiki answers of a minimum length are eligible