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1:09 AM
Hi @AlexW
 
1:29 AM
hello
 
Hello there, @Mike.
How goes it?
 
It's alright. Got a cold, which isn't so hot.
 
Aw, I'm sorry to hear that. How long've you had it?
 
About 24 hours now.
 
Damn. Well, here's hoping it's over the 24 hour virus variety, then. Feel better!
 
1:38 AM
Haha, thanks.
I still got some work done today, luckily. Got someone to cover my teaching tomorrow - the second day is always the worst for me.
 
That's good, I always find it near impossible to study well when I'm sick. What are you working on?
 
I'm in the algebraic geometry course right now, I'm doing exercises for it. I also need to write up the first bit of my talk, but I've given myself until Monday to do that.
 
Neat. You're working out of Hartshorne, I'm guessing?
 
Yeah, sort of. The course is going much slower than the book, and I'm not taking the sequel (too busy with other things), so I'm getting less out of it than I hoped.
 
That's a shame, I'm always frustrated when my expectations for a course aren't met. What are you taking in the spring?
 
1:44 AM
227, though I'm mostly hoping to learn some new things from it, as I know most of the "stated" topics, I'll be participating in the topology seminar (I think I heard mutterings we'll be talking about the Vafa-Witten equations?), and I'm doing a reading course with Manolescu.
 
ooo, witten
 
Shoo, physicist!
(PS: I forgot to mention the other day. Formal prerequisites aren't really a thing. If you want to take something, and you think you have the background knowledge, you can take it. There's no demand that you have taken the geometry qual or 225C to do 227 if you, like, know the contents of 225C...)
 
@Semiclassical At some point I'd like to learn some of the "physical" motivation for lots of these topics; why a physicist might believe they're true. But that's a long way away - down in a future where I've time.
 
Ah, excellent. Manolescu does very cool work. Are you thinking about him as an advisor? He does geometric topology, if I recall correctly.
 
1:47 AM
Yes and yes. Doing a reading course is essentially step 1 to getting an advisor.
The course is basically, "Here's 4 topics I want all of my students to know. Here is a combined 12 references on these topics. Now go, and learn!"
 
Haha, thanks for the heads up. That is good to know, though in truth, I have an exceptionally weak topology background, so I'd really like to learn these things. I actually love taking courses, I just am concerned about whether the workload will be too much, and retention as well.
 
witten stuff is pretty much above my pay-grade, to be honest
 
Plus, there's only so much time you can devote to courses before you have to get to the more important task of research, I suppose.
That's awesome though. Do you know already what you'll be reading out of?
 
i don't do particle / high-energy physics, so the context i know is less esoteric
 
well, he's basically a mathematician that doesn't waste time proving things, @Semiclassical. that lets him develop more ideas that we can then steal whole-cloth :)
so i strongly appreciate him!
 
1:50 AM
lol, yep
 
Yeah, @AlexWertheim, I have all but two of them as ebooks on my chromebook right now. I'd have started already but I've still got stuff to do this quarter.
 
actually, some of the stuff we used in our stuff (namely picard-fuchs equations and monodromy) is stuff we knew of b/c witten used that stuff. (obv. mathematicians knew about it a lot longer)
 
Probably I'll start a day or so after my talk. :P
@Semiclassical it's really great the symbiotic relationship math and physics is developing in recent years.
 
well, it's been there in different periods
there's a reason why physicists are the ones who call the divergence theorem "gauss's law", after all
 
Awesome. It's a shame I'll just narrowly miss that talk :(
 
1:52 AM
right
@AlexWertheim: I'll send you my notes after I'm done with them, if you'd like. They'll be fairly detailed because I really doubt I can remember all the details on the fly.
 
though sometimes you do stumble upon 'new' ideas/applications
 
That'd be great, @Mike. The detail will be extremely helpful/necessary, haha.
 
even in the fairly simple realm i deal with
 
Suppose $f$ is meromorphic on $\mathbb{C}^*$ and suppose $f$ has no zeroes. Then $f$ is a constant. Is this true?
 
What is $\Bbb C^*$? The extended plane, or the punctured plane?
 
1:57 AM
extended
 
Then yes. Theorem: every meromorphic function on $\Bbb C^*$ is a rational function.
@AlexWertheim: I've asked you a hundred times, but: visit is 3/11-3/12, right?
 
Haha, no worries @Mike. I owe you big time after asking you about eight thousand dumb questions. That's right.
 
I've heard about eight thousand questions, but no dumb ones yet.
 
the piece of math which i wish i knew something about is index theory
mostly so i could really understand what all this stuff in topological insulators is about
 
try bleecker-bavnbek
 
2:07 AM
hmm, that's a promising title
 
it's written for someone with only, say, a background in basic facts about banach and hilbert spaces
but who's willing to learn a lot
and is pretty much self-contained
 
nod
and i'd suspect that at least some stuff in there would be familiar as physics if not as math.
 
it's sort of stratified into a mathematical half and a more physical half
the physical half was rough for me
in the sense that i stopped reading it
 
Is it a common expression to say an exam "raped you"?
?
in english?
 
2:14 AM
eh, the phrase i've heard is 'raked me over the coals'
 
it's not uncommon, but it's also not really acceptable in polite society
 
So you have heard the phrase "damn, that test raked me over the coals"?
what do you mean with polite society?
 
i'm not sure how common in day-to-day usage it is, but it's a known idiom
 
Does anyone have a satisfying intuitive interpretation of why $S_{6}$ has a nontrivial outer automorphism group? I've seen the construction, and understand the proof. I also understand the proof of why the automorphism group is strictly inner for $S_{n}, n \neq 2, 6$. That being said, I've never had a good understanding of what makes $n=6$ combinatorially/geometrically special.
 
and comparing a painful exam to rape is, well, not something i'd do in front of my parents/authority figures/people who i think would be sensitive to it
(it's not a phrase i'd use in general, but that's me)
 
2:17 AM
oh ok
So you would have a bad impression if someone used it with his friends?
 
well, i'm not sure how much impression it'd make on me. but i'd expect some would definitely think ill of it
 
k
It's a really common expression in my country.
 
2:32 AM
@MikeMiller: i should note that, for my purposes, i'm interested in the index theory of difference equations rather than differential equations. (which i'd think would be more elementary)
 
2:48 AM
Dunno anything about that.
 
3:23 AM
Hello!!

A mass of 1 kilogram ($1$ kg) that lies at $(0,0,0)$ is hanging from ropes tied at the points $(1,1,1)$ and $(-1,-1,1)$. If the gravitational force has the direction of the vector $\overrightarrow{-k}$ which is the vector that describes the force along each of the ropes?

Could you give me some hints??
 
Making a sketch may help.
 
force diagram
 
nice old avatar
 
Classic
 
@anon Hello.
 
3:28 AM
hwello
 
@anon Do you know a proof of the implication $S^2-U$ connected $\implies U$ simply connected for $U\subseteq S^2$ open?
 
no. I assume you would contraposition it.
@TheEmperorofIceCream hello
 
@infinitesimal @anon Is it as followed??
 
@anon The Riemann mapping theorem gives that $U\subsetneq S^2$ simply connected implies $S^2-U$ connected.
 
3:32 AM
i.stack.imgur.com/1Sdel.png @infinitesimal @anon
 
But I couldn't get the other direction.
I wonder if I'm missing something very obvious.
 
pedro: explain your argument, exactly?
 
@MikeMiller Take $U\subsetneq S^2$ (connected) simply connected.
By Riemann, $U$ is homeomorphic to $B(0,1)$.
 
yes?
 
3:35 AM
@MaryStar: two hints, and that's all i'll say: 1) the two force vectors should each point from the location of the mass to the point that they're tied. 2) the sum of all three force vectors should be zero since the mass is in equilibrium.
 
Where is (-1, -1, 1) @MaryStar?
 
@MikeMiller Right. You got me.
 
hehehe
 
@PedroTamaroff wait if you put an open cap around the north pole and an open cap around the south pole and call that U isn't S^2-U connected but U is not?
 
@anon Right, when I say "simply connected" I do assume connected.
 
3:38 AM
simply connected means $\pi_0 = \pi_1 = 1$
 
@MikeMiller Yes, yes.
 
one of those is the fundamental group. the other is the set of connected components? don't remember what they are.
anyway, the implication is S^2-U connected => U simply connected, but with the example we have S^2-U connected and U not simply connected, so what's up?
 
yes
path components
 
@anon Your set is not connected.
(Note also that in $S^2$ (or $\Bbb R^n$, $S^n$) connected and path connected for open sets is equivalent)
 
or on a manifold, yes
 
3:41 AM
Let $F_1$ and $F_2$ be the two force vectors.

At x-axis we have $F_{1x}+F_{2x}=0$.

At y-axis we have $F_{1y}+F_{2y}=0$.

At z-axis we have $F_{1z}+F_{2x}-mg=0$.

Is this correct?? @Semiclassical @infinitesimal
 
@PedroTamaroff that's what I'm saying, U is not connected even though the implication says it should be
 
@MikeMiller You and your fancy manifolds.
 
$\pi_n$, as a set, is the number of based maps up to based homotopy $(S^n, *) \to (X, x_0)$; maps from $(S^0, *)$ are just maps of the leftover point; basepoint preserving homotopies are just paths
 
surely I am not getting something ofc
 
right. but the components of $F_1$ and $F_2$ need to be in the correct proportion to point in the right directions.
 
3:42 AM
@anon Oh. Sorry.
Right, so what I should have written is this, @anon.
Assume $U$ is open connected in $S^2$.
Then $U$ is simply connected if and only if $S^2-U$ is connected.
 
k
 
Although it should be true that $\widetilde{H_0}(S^2-U)=0\iff H_1(U)=0$.
 
if U ain't simply connected then put a noncontractible loop in it and argue maybe that S^2-U has one component on one side of the loop and one on the other?
 
that is indeed true, since those are isomorphic (as long as $S^2 - U$ isn't fucked up)
 
@Semiclassical Do you mean that the signs are wrong??
 
3:45 AM
@anon sounds like you want your loop to be embedded
 
nope, they're fine
 
@anon Right, we need to assume our loop is homeomorphic to $S^1$.
 
what i mean is that (for example) $F_{1x}$ and $F_{2x}$ aren't independent quantities.
 
That is, we have to show that if $U$ is not simply connected, there is a nontrivial loop inside it that is $S^1$.
 
that's true but i don't know an elementary way to prove it
 
3:46 AM
@MikeMiller What nonelementary way do you know?
 
there's a classification of multiply connected regions. see, e.g., ahlfors.
pick one such canonical region it's isomorphic to and you can just draw a loop.
but if you're doing that, you're already done
hm, it actually assumes of S^2 - U isn't fucked up, too
 
It stands that $F_{1x}=-F_{2x}$, right?? @Semiclassical
 
argument doesn't work if that's a cantor set. (though again you could just draw a loop then.)
 
oops. yes, that's correct, but that's not what i meant to say above
what i meant to say was that (for example) $F_{1x}$ and $F_{1y}$ aren't independent
 
Which relation do these two have?? @Semiclassical
 
3:56 AM
@MikeMiller
 
yes
 
 
2 hours later…
6:01 AM
Hello
 
6:36 AM
@PedroTamaroff Transfer to $\Bbb R^2$ by assuming $S^2 - U$ is nonempty. If $U \subset \Bbb R^2$ is not simply connected, then there is a loop all over $U$ that cannot be homotoped. This means that the standard straightline homotopy fails, i.e., one or more of the straightlines passes through something that's not in $\Bbb R$. $U$ is not homeomorphic to a convex subset. I guess this should imply that $U$ has nontrivial genus (?) which would mean $\Bbb R^2$ is disconnected.
Of course, this isn't a rigorous proof and probably can only be rigorously stated if $U$ has finite genus.
If $U$ has finite genus, then it deformation retracts onto some finite boquet and the complement is disconnected.
Actually, even if $U$ has infinite genus, just pick one of the holes and pull it towards the boundary.
You still have a disconnected complement.
 
Hello!
Would you mind helping me with something really simple?
 
What is the question?
 
Are you talking to me or Bala
?
 
Anyone
 
Just ask; don't ask to ask.
 
6:47 AM
The question is just what is the domain and range of f(x)=-4tan(2x+pi), I googled a bit, and Its probably something super simple
I put -infinity, +infinity for range
 
and the domain?
 
and I did an inequality with 2x+pi in the middle and got x by itself and had -3pi/4 and -pi/4 so I put that for domain?
I don't know if its correct though
 
what's the domain of tan(x)?
 
{x|x/=(2n+1)pi/2, where n is any integer}
According to my book
 
then how would to correlate that to "2x+pi"
 
6:50 AM
Right, so what should be the domain of tan(2x + \pi)?
 
Well I guess its smaller, the asymptotes are closer?
 
just sub in 2x + \pi instead of x in your domain, @Maximilian
 
Well damn, thats easier..
 
^^ I didn't want to say it @Balarka
the magic word: subsitute
 
6:55 AM
Lol, noob at math here!:P
Thank you
 
No problem.
 
@Julian So, have you finally proved that $\tau_c$ is a topology?
 
Well. I actually sort of found a very similar proof that I had built off of. it is in the next section
 
It's not hard.
See if union/finite intersection of your open sets has countable complement or not. That's just it.
 
6:59 AM
Yes. it does
I always make everything seem so complcated when really it isnt. that is something I have to fix about myself...
 
@Julian If you're having trouble with this highly abstract idea of topologies, I would really recommend you Simmons and starting off from metric space. It introduces topology way later.
No, topology is abstract. It's not your fault, you're just a beginner.
 
Ok. I will take a look at it. Will it get me a good transition to alg top after finishing the entire book?
 
Hi@BalarkaSen
 
I'm learning topology starting with metric spaces :P
 
@KajHansen approves of that kind of learning
 
7:04 AM
Hi @JulianRachman
 
@Kaj I was just about to ask @Balarka if your classes' notes good for my learning
 
@JulianRachman Maybe, maybe not. If you know topology well enough, you'd be able to learn altop too.
 
can you link the class so he can check it out?
 
Pete's notes? Definitely!
 
@Balarka how well? when? Any details?
@Sayan sorry. Hi! Hows everything?
 
7:05 AM
@BalarkaSen u have any idea of the power set question......
Great@JulianRachman
 
Well, @Kaj will be able to recommend you those, @Julian, since I haven't seen them.
 
Here's my course webpage: math.uga.edu/~pete/MATH4200S15.html
 
@Balarka Ok. so any suggestions on when you think I will be able to understand alg top as you started to discuss above?
so i should scrap munkres?
 
@JulianRachman You still need to understand algebra well enough. And that could take years.
Don't scrap it. It's a useful book. Come back to it after Simmons.
 
thank god I only use electronic copies and I print pages one by one
 
7:08 AM
Same here@JulianRachman
 
Don't hurry, @Julian, and don't set your goals for algebraic topology either. You might just like something else while you're studying.
 
@Balarka I heard that you need to like be good at abstract algebra first
 
The master says everything right....@BalarkaSen
 
For example, about two years ago, I was sure I would become a number theorist, but that was just because I had neither studied number theory nor topology :P
@JulianRachman Er, kind of.
 
ya. I know I am hurrying too much. I just want to achieve writing a research paper before I graduate because that will be a plus on my apps for me to get into my "dream" school
 
7:10 AM
So u dont like number theory @BalarkaSen
 
I never said that, @Sayan. I like it, but I don't know enough number theory to claim I'd want to study it.
@KajHansen How're you doing with the problem set?
 
Wait how old are you @Balarka?
 
51.
 
@Kaj your problem sets are hard!
Oh right.
 
Oh....@JulianRachman u will be shocked don't ask that question
 
7:12 AM
@Balarka ^^
@Sayan ? ask his age?
 
lol @JulianRachman
 
@BalarkaSen is a prodigy
 
I have to choose 14 problems to do from the fourth set
 
I dont believe that he is 51
 
He is not 51
 
7:13 AM
@JulianRachman, Balarka is a teenager :P
 
hes 14 right?
 
I can tell because I would expect him to have over 20k rep at that age
wow......
 
@BalarkaSen so did u start topology after finishing sets and calculus
 
Of course @Sayan.
 
7:15 AM
Or u did something else
Wow.....
 
what????? I went the foundational way and went to real analysis
 
Oh, I don't mean I started topology right after studying sets and calculus, @Sayan.
 
Did you learn from simmons?
 
@JulianRachman u started real analysis
 
I started topology last year, after I studied algebra.
 
7:16 AM
and how did you get into alg top?
 
Yup, @Julian
 
@Sayan yes
 
@JulianRachman What d'you mean, how did I get into? I just started doing Munkres.
 
reallly? but the alg top is at the end though? you should have gone straight into Hatcher's book or something?
and how do you knw that you have enough of an understanding before getting into alg top
?
(so many q's)
 
So what if alg top is at the end? Hatcher is dense.
 
7:19 AM
@BalarkaSen then what did u do after calculus and set theory
 
@JulianRachman Er, I don't want to say this, but : you really need very less topology to understand algebraic topology :P Don't let that fact mess up your schedule though.
@SayanChattopadhyay I don't recall. And don't set me as an ideal either. A lot of what I know is very shaky.
 
@Balarka totally. I want to learn top to the fullest of my abilities. :)
But any specific onto where you thought that you knew enough to understand?
 
Good algorithm for knowing whether you know enough : Start reading --- if "I can't understand hell out of this" then end program --- if "this looks not that hard!" then continue reading.
 
And I know that i have to learn abstract algebra too so I was thinking about taking that after I finish topology.
 
Yes, sure.
 
7:25 AM
@BalarkaSen, does anyone do topology before calc?
 
so if you can understand, stop?
i dont think that is good philosophy... @Balarka
 
@KajHansen who knows. must be an unfortunate person.
 
@Kaj I would cry if I saw that
 
Then again, I don't see what the problem would be necessarily?
Or rather, it seems wrong but I cannot articulate why.
 
Well, actually I never studied analysis but it doesn't in the least affect my understanding of topology.
 
7:28 AM
@Balarka you should learn it
 
@KajHansen Well, he wouldn't understand a lot of examples.
 
it is like the why's and how's of calc
 
Analysis don't get into me. And I don't need it yet either.
 
So you study things only if you need it?
 
Kind of.
 
7:30 AM
I think that is wrong
study as much of everything as you can
 
Well, it didn't hurt, at least not yet.
I'd soon need to study analysis though. Have to restudy complex analysis and grasp sheaf cohomology.
 
You already studied grasp sheaf cohomology?
 
I already studied complex analysis :)
Sheaf cohomology I need to study after cohomology, to understand it geometrically, I guess.
 
Balarka is OP
 
That'd involve a lot of differential forms and etc. I don't know anything about it.
Probably I'd have to study differential geometry too. Ugh.
 
7:34 AM
I am not into geometry
I like abstraction and how it almost makes no sense
 
abstraction is stupid. I can't possibly do math without visualization and handwaving.
:P
 
but that is what math is!!!
 
it's not :)
 
we can essentially describe nothingness
the beauty and understanding of it comes from within the community that can
^^ that is my semi-deepest thought about mathematics
 
you've got a wrong idea about mathematics. category theory can't possibly be everything to math.
 
7:38 AM
it isnt
I didnt say it was everything
but abstraction can also be linked to almost anything
 
most of the people out there did abstraction not for abstraction's sake, but for some purpose.
anyway, as i said, visualization is an essential part of my understanding of mathematics.
 
well yes. I use visualization in topology almost 98% of the time
 
i'd have to interpret everything geometrically to even make sense of it.
and it's partially the reason i don't like analysis. the real geometric picture gets veiled out by the epsilons.
 
ah.... epsilon.....
:)
such a simple variable yet means so much and is used everywehre
 
We talked too much. I guess I should go now :P
 
7:44 AM
See you later pal.
:)
 
See ya @Balarka!
 
8:42 AM
Hello!! Does someone of you have an idea for this:
0
Q: Write the force as a sum

Mary StarWe suppose that a force $\overrightarrow{F}$ (for example, the gravity) is applied vertically downwards to an object that is placed at a plane which has an angle of $45^{\circ}$ with the horizantal direction. Express this force as a sum of a force that acts parallel to the plan and of a force t...

??
 
The incline plane is one of the oldest questions in physics classes :-)
 
8:58 AM
2
Q: Determining the direction of friction

farmerjoeI had a question which has always been of slight confusion to me. Say you are dealing with your typical block-on-an-angled-plane setup. You have a block with mass m that is initially at rest. The block sits on a surface at angle θ to the ground, has coefficient of kinetic friction μk, and a co...

 
So is it $\overrightarrow{F}=F \left ( \cos 45^{\circ} \overrightarrow{i} + \sin 45^{\circ} \overrightarrow{j} \right )=F \left ( \frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \overrightarrow{i}+\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}} \overrightarrow{j} \right )$ ?? @infinitesimal
 
9:17 AM
Anyone on right now that's willing to look into a question?
 
Askaway :-)
 
0
Q: A discrepancy in the total number of conjunctive normal forms and the number of distinct boolean functions.

AxorenConsider a set of truth literals $C$. The set $\{\text T, \text F\}^{C}$ is the set of all boolean functions over $C$. This comes from the notation $\mathcal{Y}^\mathcal{X}$ which is the set of all functions $f : \mathcal{X} \to \mathcal{Y}$. The set of all conjugations will be a subset of $\{...

Why aren't the numbers the same ; _ ;
There are more conjunctive normal forms than there are distinct boolean functions, but there shouldn't be.
I can't figure out what I've done wrong when calculating the stuff
And I'm too tired to keep banging my head against it
I can't think of any CNFs that don't represent a boolean function.
So the only possibility is that there's a boolean function with 2+ CNFs that represent it.
 
$||\overrightarrow{F}_{perpendicular}||=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}||\overrightarrow{F}|| \Rightarrow ||\overrightarrow{F}_{perpendicular}||^2=\frac{1}{2}||\overrightarrow{F}||^2$
$||\overrightarrow{F}_{parallel}||=\frac{1}{\sqrt{2}}||\overrightarrow{F}|| \Rightarrow ||\overrightarrow{F}_{parallel}||^2=\frac{1}{2}||\overrightarrow{F}||^2 $

When we add these two relations we get:

$||\overrightarrow{F}_{perpendicular}||^2+||\overrightarrow{F}_{parallel}||^2=||\overrightarrow{F}||^2$

Is this correct??
Or have I understood it wrong?? @infinitesimal
 
9:44 AM
Looks ok to me.
F = mg
 
@infinitesimal What do you think about my question?
 
No, I mean do you have any input on it?
I appreciate the +1, however.
 
Nope, sorry.
 
Alright, thanks.
 
9:51 AM
@MaryStar the vertically downward force is the sum of the other two forces, right?
Where the other two forces are the perpendicular force and the parallel force.
$F = F_{perp} + F_{para}$
 
 
2 hours later…
12:18 PM
hi guys, how can i show that 2^(loglog n)>log_2 n ?
 
12:31 PM
Hi @DanielFischer
 
Hi @Moses.
 
12:50 PM
@DanielFischer Do you know why it is that when considering a integrand of the form $\sqrt{a^{2}+x^{2}}$, it is valid to use the substitution $x = a\sin \theta$, how is that not possibley changing the value of the integral?
 
@Moses When you do that substitution, the $dx$ becomes $d(a\sin\theta) = a \cos\theta\,d\theta$, you introduce a weight to keep the integral unchanged. In terms of the fundamental theorem of calculus, it is basically the chain rule. However, for $\sqrt{a^2 + x^2}$, a hyperbolic substitution like $x = a \sinh t$ looks more promising, one would use the trigonometric substitution for $\sqrt{a^2 - x^2}$ more likely.
 
@DanielFischer So what are the restrictions of substitutions? You can say let $x$ be anything as long as you change $dx$ accordingly?
 
@Moses It should be invertible and differentiable, though both can be relaxed a little. So for substitutions like $x = a\sin \theta$, you typically restrict the domain of $\theta$ to be a subset of $[-\pi/2,\pi/2]$, since $\sin$ is invertible there.
You can also restrict to subsets of $\left[ \bigl(k-\frac{1}{2}\bigr)\pi,\bigl(k+\frac{1}{2}\bigr)\pi\right]$ for integers $k\neq 0$, where for odd $k$ you need to take care of the fact that $\sin$ is monotonically decreasing there, so the substitution inverts the orientation.
 
1:10 PM
@DanielFischer So you can only substitute $x$ with a differentiable, surjective and injective function. I understand why it needs to be differentiable, since you require $dx = ...$ but why does it have to be injective and surjective?
 
Ugh... I just can't make any sense of these results I've found while working with polylogs...
 
@Moses It needn't necessarily be bijective. For example you have $$\int_{-1}^1 f(x)\,dx = \int_{-\pi/2}^{5\pi/2} f(\sin\theta)\cos\theta\,d\theta$$ for all integrable $f$, even though $\sin$ isn't injective on $[-\pi/2,5\pi/2]$. That's because the integral over $[\pi/2,5\pi/2$ cancels itself out since $\sin$ symmetrically goes from $1$ to $-1$ and back there. If you look at the FTC formulation, with $F' = f$, you have
$$\int_a^b f(x)\,dx = F(b) - F(a) = F(u(\beta)) - F(u(\alpha)) = \int_\alpha^\beta (F\circ u)'(t)\,dt = \int_\alpha^\beta f(u(t))\cdot u'(t)\,dt$$ for all continuously differentiable $u$ with $a = u(\alpha),\; b = u(\beta)$ such that $f(u(t))$ is defined for all $t\in [\alpha,\beta]$, whether $u$ is injective or it wobbles to and fro a little between the end points.
 
@DanielFischer Yeah I see, but in most cases you would consider a bijective differentiable function as a substitution?
 
You need surjectivity - that means the image of $u$ must cover the entire interval over which you integrate - or you'll leave out some values of $f$ in the composition $f\circ u$. Non-injectivity is cancelled out since the derivative has different signs when $u$ is in- or decreasing.
@Moses Most of the time, it's simpler to use a bijective substitution. And when you go to higher dimensions, non-bijective substitutions become complicated.
 
1:33 PM
@DanielFischer As an example, the substitution $x = a \tan \theta$ for integrand $\sqrt{a^{2} + x^{2}}$ is only applicable for $\theta \in [\frac{-k\pi}{2}, \frac{k\pi}{2}]$, where $k \in \mathbb{N}$? so that the differentiability requirement is satisfied.
 
@DanielFischer Hatcher wants me to prove that every map $S^n \to S^n$ can be homotoped to have a fixed point. Instincts tell me to rotate the sphere so that $f(x)$ moves all the way to $x$. But this looks suspiciously easy, especially for an exercise set on a chapter on homology. Am I messing up?
 
@Moses $\tan$ has poles in $\bigl(k+\frac{1}{2}\bigr)\pi$, so you can only take $\Bigl(\bigl(k-\frac{1}{2}\bigr)\pi,\bigl(k+\frac{1}{2}\bigr)\pi\Bigr)$ or subsets of that. Unless you have a special situation and know very well what you do.
@BalarkaSen That's how I would do it too. There are of course brazillions of other ways.
 
@DanielFischer I made a mistake, I meant $(\frac{-k\pi}{2}, \frac{k\pi}{2})$.
 
@BalarkaSen Of course, only for $n > 0$.
 
Phew. For a wild moment, I though I forgot the basics.
Yeah, $S^0$ is disconnected :)
 
1:38 PM
Totally
 
I think thats still including asymptotes.
 
2:02 PM
@DanielFischer Ex. 12 "[...] on the other hand, show via covering spaces that any map S^2 --> S^1 \times S^1 is nullhomotopic" huh? what about the map that takes the sphere, fixes one hemisphere, grabs the other hemisphere and pulls it round, identifying it to the fixed hemisphere? (i.e., the thickened loop inside the torus)
oh wait.
i am thinking about the solid torus. duh.
 
@BalarkaSen The map should be continuous. Does Hatcher have a convention that only continuous maps shall be considered?
 
yeah, he assumes that.
[gah, it's obvious that it is nullhomotopic. pull it up to the universal cover $\Bbb R^2$. pft]
 
2:19 PM
@DanielFischer, how did you get to be so good in math?
 
Practice, I guess. Decades of reading and playing.
4
 
playing with the ideas?
 
how do you go about that? i mean in practical terms. what is it you do. stuff like that
 

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