impendia

80 ms·

631.
by impendia 11y ago
Yeah, but the rotational symmetry doesn't explain why the pi is there. (e.g. why is it squared?) If you can explain, convincingly and geometrically, why pi is present in this formula then I would be VERY VERY interested to read.
632.
by impendia 11y ago
The consensus is that Mochizuki's theory, at least insofar as it claims to prove ABC, is probably incorrect. (Otherwise this workshop would be a lot more popular.) But not definitely incorrect. Mochizuki is certainly not an obvious
633.
by impendia 11y ago
It would take an extraordinary effort. I doubt there is anyone who could learn this material given anything less than a year of solid study -- and I am thinking of the leading researchers in the world, who are already experts in everyth
634.
by impendia 11y ago
I lived in Japan for two years, and studied the language, and it was amazing how that sentence always brought any discussion to a conclusion. Grammatically, its negation would be "Shikata ga aru", but I never heard this said onc
635.
by impendia 11y ago
> Chalk is on it's way out. It's a rapidly shrinking market. I am a math professor. Most of us prefer chalk, and have no desire to go to whiteboards, smart boards, Powerpoints, what have you. I think that there is a fairly dura
636.
by impendia 11y ago
> How do you know if the proof is valid, or if they're just scratching each others' backs and pretending they're all brilliant? (Professional mathematician here) Such a conspiracy could never happen. Mathematicians are, in
637.
by impendia 11y ago
> Trig is a bunch of arbitrary formulas if you don't have the calculus behind them. Why do you claim this? You don't have to have seen calculus to appreciate how trig functions are defined, how to manipulate them, or how to use
638.
by impendia 11y ago
> perhaps you could invite some companies for talks That might be an interesting idea. Might go nowhere, but could be worth trying.
639.
by impendia 11y ago
As I said, unfortunately I don't think that there's any local company which I know of and which I'd recommend to a talented student. This place is very, very much not Silicon Valley.
640.
by impendia 11y ago
Thanks. But could you recommend a "someone else" I might steer them to? Our undergraduate CS and math majors are not strong (and the local job market even more so), and I suspect that our career services office has adapted accordi
641.
by impendia 11y ago
> So obviously NSA is an option. Indeed, my first Ph.D. student was very much a self-starter, wanted very much to work for the NSA, and landed an internship and then a full-time gig. He asked for rec letters from me, which I was very pro
642.
by impendia 11y ago
> and this is going to sound arrogant, but oh well -- you should consider the ethics of taking 5+ years Not arrogant at all. But --- these students decided to pursue a Ph.D. when they applied to graduate school, i.e. before they met me.
643.
As a math professor, how can I help grad students find nonacademic jobs?
19 points by impendia 12y ago|23 comments
644.
by impendia 12y ago
As far as I can tell, the relationship between OP and his/her direct supervisor is completely shot. There is nothing to maintain.
645.
by impendia 12y ago
On the one hand, I agree with you. On the other hand, to answer your demand: I define complex exponentiation by the formula e^(it) = -1 for all real, nonzero t. Clearly stupid. Why? There are a lot of properties that one might naturally ask
646.
by impendia 12y ago
> I never asked questions; never used any tutors or talked to a professor; I am a professor (albeit at a non-elite university). How do I persuade students such as yourself to ask questions, to use tutors, to show up to office hours, and
647.
by impendia 12y ago
Academic here. There is no reason why these articles should have to cost $45. Academics have to publish in name-brand journals to get recognized, and these high prices are pure rent-seeking on behalf of the publishers.
648.
by impendia 12y ago
You are quite correct. (Professional mathematician myself, and indeed a former grad student of Ken Ono, so I have at least a passing familiarity with the subject matter.)
649.
by impendia 12y ago
I was an autodidact as a kid. I taught myself to program, and wrote fairly substantial computer programs. If you'd looked at the maze of spaghetti code I wrote when I was 11, you would have definitely concluded that someone should teac
650.
by impendia 12y ago
> it's unclear why you are spending money on a degree. Because universities help you accumulate knowledge. Yes, autodidacts exist. But, for most people, the atmosphere of a university, the exposure to and attention from experts, and
651.
by impendia 12y ago
Epp's Discrete Mathematics with Applications is a nice book that covers much of the same material as this MIT class, but at a slower, easier pace. It's highly suitable to the beginner. You should know high school algebra and pre
652.
by impendia 12y ago
I am a pretty strong feminist, and agree that a comparison to ISIS is far off base. Nevertheless, I believe that one reason for the backlash against feminism is the perception that feminists are spiteful and would rather argue against straw
653.
by impendia 12y ago
> the freedom of a tenured professor Well, one disadvantage of academia is that you don't really get to choose where to live, even if your CV is quite good. Indeed, there are a number of academic couples that make crazy long-distanc
654.
by impendia 12y ago
I was obliged to move from San Francisco to Columbia, South Carolina for work and I desperately miss SF. I miss the energy levels, the buzz on the street and present at practically every event I went to. To give just one example, I tried si
655.
by impendia 12y ago
> Rent goes down. The market has corrected itself and all is well. What am I missing? You're missing the fact that rent won't go down -- at least not by much, because living in San Francisco will remain desirable for enough pe
656.
by impendia 12y ago
I am a mathematics professor at an R1 university who has been directly involved in faculty searches for four years in a row. This article is quite mistaken, at least from the perspective of an academic mathematician. (Maybe it is more accur
657.
by impendia 12y ago
> we need to stop making gender a big deal By your own admission, FFC didn't make a big deal out of gender and is therefore doing as you ask. Events like these are appreciated and found helpful by the women who participate in them.
658.
by impendia 12y ago
"All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." -Edmund Burke The person you describe is guilty of the most despicable sort of fraud, albeit on a very small scale. Call the police. Anyone that brags abou
659.
by impendia 12y ago
> As nonresidents, they pay no city income taxes and often receive hefty property tax breaks. This strikes me as the problem. Why should these people, or for that matter any extremely wealthy homeowners, get property tax breaks? Indeed,
660.
by impendia 12y ago
There is this, for example: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Calculus.... Not terrible, but not as good as commercial textbooks. (Please let me know if you are aware of anything better.

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