« first day (2018 days earlier)      last day (3008 days later) » 

12:05 AM
I don't think he knows the classical formulas for computing the signatures or how to manipulate them. He obviously knows things about them though.
 
I figured all the Kirby types were proficient at this stuff.
 
hi @TedShifrin
 
hi Karim
 
@TedShifrin I noticed my geometric intuition isn't that good
 
hi I need help with harmonic lines
 
12:09 AM
I need to improve that
I failed to see something how certain gluing is done but I can go through the actually details of why it is true
but can't see it clearly in my head
 
There are big leaps in the topological reasoning you meet in the geometric questions in algebraic topology.
It takes good teachers and lots of practice.
What do you mean by that, @user19405892?
 
yeah
 
Maybe this is easier to do by Brieskorn's classical formula.
That isn't exactly transparent to me though.
 
Sorry, @PVAL, I wish I could help.
 
12:27 AM
@Ted: Maybe you can compute some moduli spaces for me.
 
I can probably handle the high school stuff I'm doing.
 
Hey @TedShifrin this below is represented mathematically as follows right ? $\bigcup \Delta_{\alpha}^n\right)\big/{\sim}$ w$here $x \in \Delta^{n_{\alpha}} ~ y \in \Delta^{n_{\beta}} iff \sigma_{\alpha}(x) = \sigma_{\beta}(y)$ right ?
1 sec let me fix this latex
 
Yeah, that seems right ... a bit difficult to read. You're gluing together faces along lower-dimensional faces.
 
yeah the math works out I proved that X in this case is homeomorphic to the above
but I can't imagine the geometry of this delta complex structure though
I can't picture it
I can picture the case where we identify the face of 1 simples to 0 simples we get a circle
but when we go higher I can't picture what is going on
 
12:42 AM
It's like triangulations, but weaker requirements. (For example, for triangulations, two faces can't share two vertices unless they share the edge joining the two vertices. Or they can't share two edges.)
 
I see
In this example we have 1 zero simplex, 3 one simplex, 2 two simplex
We start with the 3 one simples we will get three circles that are joined at one point right ?
 
Right. That would not meet the requirements for a triangulation, but you're attaching the two 2-cells along the 1-cells.
Yes.
And then you're sewing in two disks with the boundaries going around those three circles.
Not the usual way we picture a torus :P
 
1 second just trying to picture it
 
You know that with a rectangle identifying the $a$ and $b$ edges like that makes a torus, right?
 
if we look at the 2-cell we identify each of its edge with 1-cell I see yes we will get like somewhat like a squeeshed upper and lower sphere right
yeah
 
12:50 AM
No spheres.
 
I can see the picture above clearly we identify a with a we form a cylinder
and then b with b to form the torus
 
You're slicing the torus in half along what's called a $1,1$ curve (it wraps once around each way).
 
by connecting the ends of cylinder together
 
Yes.
Each of two 2-cells covers up one of those half-torus pieces.
 
why ?
 
12:51 AM
Why?
 
why does each of 2 cell generate half torus after identifications ?
or as I like to put it a part of a bagel
 
Because the "circle" $c$ is this 1,1-curve that cuts the torus in half.
It is a spiraling curve, not looking like a "usual" circle.
 
I see, so what information does the 2-cell generate after identifications ?
let us take for example L above
I wish I could see like this geometry because I definitely see in my head the information that the 1-cells generate
because what is confusing me is the following
for L we have faces b a and c, so for each of them we identify the them with 1 simplex which is lines right ?
if we identify b with something we get a upward cylinder
 
Huh?
 
maybe I am confused about this part. what shape do we get once we identify the face b with a 1 simplex ?
 
12:59 AM
$a$, $b$, and $c$ are the latitude circle, the longitude circle, and this spiraling curve that cuts the torus in half.
It sometimes is confusing to use "face" in all dimensions.
In 2-dimensional topology, I would reserve face for 2 dimensions and call the 1-dimensional simplices edges.
 
alright
I see that
$a$, $b$, and $c$ are the latitude circle, the longitude circle, and this spiraling curve that cuts the torus in half. This information is coming from the 1-dimensional simples after identifying them to a point right ?
 
After identifying their endpoints to the common point, you mean?
 
yeah
if that is the case then I do definitely see this, but what I don't see is the information coming from the 2-dimensional topology
 
Maybe it would be good for you to see the $\Delta$-complex structure if you wanted to cut the (surface of the) bagel horizontally into two half-bagels (like you would eat).
Or warm up by doing the sphere. Suppose you cut it into two hemispheres. Or eight eighth-spheres. (Not just one 2-cell and one 0-cell.)
 
well, for CW complex it is easy to imagine the construction of the sphere
1 sec let me think about this using
Delta complex
 
1:07 AM
The delta complexes we're talking about are CW structures, I think.
 
the CW structure we are building this by identifying the n-cell to its boundary
not by gluing to its faces
 
Well, there are lots of different CW decompositions.
 
@Semiclassical Alright I proved it for n>50 (and checked it up to n=50). I made use of Brieskorn's formula for the signature as a signed count of elements in an open tetrahedron.
There wasn't any numerical analysis involved.
:s
 
Good for you, @PVAL !
 
Hey guys! looking from the context of Gronwalls inequality, I am trying to answer "What can I say about a continuous function $f \colon \mathbb{R} \rightarrow [0, \infty]$
if $f(x) \leq \int_0^x f(t) dt$
 
1:11 AM
$f$ has domain all of $\Bbb R$?
That can't be.
 
@TedShifrin Instead of writing a way less than optimal linear algebra proof I found a way less than optimal purely combinatorial proof.
 
LOL ... no one expects the first stab at research to be more than optimal :P
 
For example to build the sphere as CW complex structure we start with 1 disk then identify its boundary to 0-disk then we take 2 disk and identify its boundary with the circle we constructured.
 
That's just a hemisphere, Karim.
 
@TedShifrin This is indeed true from the textbook.
 
1:14 AM
@masfenix: Well, the textbook is wrong. Because if $x<0$, the integral on the right will be negative. Oh, I guess we will say that $f=0$ on $x\le 0$.
 
Oh yes, forgot to mention. For Gronwall's inequality, $f$ is non negative
 
So Gronwall is the answer to your question, as far as I can tell. What are you looking for?
 
The question is just saying "what can you say about the function"
 
Oh, I think I see what they're getting at. What do you think the answer is, based on Gronwall?
 
I guess if we glue the 2-disk to a single point we obtain the full sphere
 
1:17 AM
Maybe something to do with the growth of the function being slower than exponential?
 
For sure, @masfenix. But isn't there an $f(0)$ coefficient in Gronwall's inequality?
Yes, Karim. But if we want to use the $1$-cell as you did, how do we make the sphere?
 
Hello
 
we will need 2 1 cells
 
No, Karim.
hi @TheKindCat
 
@TedShifrin There are a few different versions of it. But yes there is a $f(0)$ in it
 
1:21 AM
Karim, if you're going to insist on 2 1-cells, I think you'll need 2 0-cells, too.
So what do you know about $f(0)$, @masfenix?
 
well its clear that its zero
 
And so what do you conclude?
 
I guess we need $D^3$ right ?
 
Yikes, NO, Karim. We're talking about the 2-sphere.
 
Hmm I am not sure @TedShifrin, I don't see what we can conclude from the fact f(0) = 0
 
1:25 AM
Doesn't Gronwall say that $f(x)\le f(0)\int_0^x e^?\,dt$?
 
not really. I can't type latex in here, but the two inequalities are given here
 
@PVAL: Now can you prove 3/2?
 
Oh, I am misremembering, I guess it's $f(0)e^{\int_0^x ? \,dt}$.
 
the first version in which the derivative is included has the $f(0)$ constant, but the second version dosnt. (in particular, the textbook that's asking the question is in the context of the second version)
 
@masfenix: I'm right. What is $g$ in your case?
 
1:28 AM
0
0 for all t
 
Right, so what inequality do you get as a result?
 
oh, right, that my function is identically 0?
 
Yup.
 
Thanks! I hope you never quit chat.
 
LOL ... Thanks, I think.
Karim, you still alive?
 
1:37 AM
sorry @TedShifrin I had to talk to my dad about something
sorry back
I guess if we have two disks
and two circles
so we form two hemisphere and take the union of them
right ?
 
Not 2 circles!
 
I guess 2 disks then ?
because we punch in the middle of the disk it will extend and form hemisphere
 
Right, one 0-cell, one 1-cell, two 2-cells.
 
and same thing with the other disk
yes
what about the delta structure
 
This is a fine $\Delta$ complex.
 
1:42 AM
oh I see because the disk is actually homeomorphic to 2 disk
Ok I understand this thing with the sphere
 
Now do the bagel cut in half.
 
ok 1 sec so ofcourse we will need one 0-cell
 
@Ted: Who does Arthur Besse comprise?
 
Not sure, @MikeM, but for sure it includes Marcel Berger, maybe Gromov.
 
An interesting question might be: What are the criteria that a mathematical object $M$ has to satisfy in order for the question "Proof some properties in $M$ without using some properties $A$" to have a nonempty solution
 
1:56 AM
That's probably neither coherent nor specific enough to be mathematical or interesting
 
heya @Axoren
 
Hey, @TedShifrin
 
So I need to at least specify a certain $M$ I am interested in in order to have enough context to get an answer from such question?
 
@Secret: Are you asking if mathematics has redundant definitions?
 
I actually needed help asking a question, rather than having it answered. It involves a vector space and two metrics, and it's driving me bonkers. I've been trying to find a new way to ask this question here: math.stackexchange.com/q/1637996/187120
Intuitively, I already know a sufficient answer, but I'm not happy with the fact that I don't really know how to ask the question.
 
2:05 AM
@MikeMiller ya
 
nope I am wondering whether these's a systematic way for multiple methods of solving a given problem to exist, that is ,treat the problem itself as some abstract object and trying to work out what criteria it has to obey in order to have multiple ways of solving it
 
well we can get the bagel by identifying a with a and b with b then cutting it in half along the merdian
half bagel I guess
 
@MikeMiller I'm sure the ratios much better than that.
 
for example:
0
Q: Proving the convergence of the $p$-series without using the integral test?

user114014I'm having trouble figuring out how to prove the convergence of the $p$-series, that is, $$\sum_{n=1}^{\infty}{\frac{1}{n^p}}$$ where $p > 1$. I'm in a real analysis course and I have a midterm coming up. I think I might need to prove this on the midterm, but without using the integral test. ...

 
No, Karim, that won't work.
 
2:05 AM
@Secret So proof theory?
 
probably I am not advanced enough yet to know many abstract fields of maths
 
I don't know that there's an abstract way to decide if there are truly different proofs for a theorem, @Secret. But your question has a well-known alternative argument with the comparison test (see Rudin, for example).
 
if we treat the question linked above as an abstract object, one question that we can ask is how to show that this "solution without integral test" method exists
 
@MikeMiller I guess it limits to 1/2 for kind of an obvious reason.
 
2:07 AM
It's not a formal question, @Secret. It's about the state of mathematical knowledge.
 
@PVAL: Well if it's at least 11/8 I'm happy.
 
@MikeMiller I mean 2
 
Well, 2 and 1/2 are close, mod experimental error :D
 
so in general, generalising all possible problems as some abstract objects, the question is an existence proof of alternate solution methods and the number of them
 
so zero 0-cell, two 1-cell, one 2-cell ?
@TedShifrin?
 
2:09 AM
@Secret This would be feasible if you already had the totality of provable statements. Otherwise, iterating over the set of known truths and combining them in a brute-force manner to generate a Knowledge Tree would be seriously infeasible.
You're essentially asking for a way to search the Tree of Knowledge.
Where a proof would be a path through the tree.
Potentially, with a heuristic, it's possible. But the best heuristic for that would be intuition, and that's hard to develop an algorithmic system for.
 
@TedShifrin @MikeMiller It's literally the # of lattice points inside a rectangle divided by the # of lattice points in a right triangle dividing it in halves. No idea how Brieskorn showed this.
 
I think this is correct
zero 0-cell,two 1-cell and one 2-cell right ?
 
@Secret: But even deciding what "fundamentally different" proofs are is somewhat nebulous.
Yikes, Karim, you must have a 0-cell.
We're cutting the bagel in half horizontally, Karim, so we need (at least) two 2-cells.
@PVAL: I've never known any of this.
 
why ?
 
Because each half of the bagel must be (at least) one 2-cell.
 
2:15 AM
I see
 
You must have (at least) one 0-cell because you can only attach 1-cells to a 0-cell. They can't just live in free space.
 
I typed zero 0-cell wrongly
 
Ah, ok.
 
it was a typo because my brain was thinking about writing the 0-cell
 
It's no big deal.
 
2:16 AM
@TedShifrin Technically, you could argue that there is a specific truth statement which cannot be used in a proof. However, this doesn't stop you from taking all that precedes it and simply building a proof that subverts that one statement. It's very muddy watter, @Secret
 
each half bagel must at least 2-cell ? why is that
 
Well, how do you make the surface of the half-bagel? It's a two-dimensional rectangle.
 
yes
ok I agree it must be atleast 2
 
Karim: I'm going to go cook dinner, but the cheapest way I can do the torus with the two bagel halves is with 2 0-cells, 4 1-cells, and 2 2-cells. See if you can do that.
 
alright
 
3:15 AM
Good morning
 
@TedShifrin Are the 1-cells two longitudes and two halves of a meridian?
 
3:38 AM
@MikeMiller I got into NYU! :D
 
@GBeau: Congrats!
 
Félicitations, @GBeau !
Not quite, @Akiva = DogAteMy.
Remember that we've cut in half laterally, so you only have half a longitude along each half.
 
4:12 AM
@TedShifrin Is there anything like a manifold for the field of rationals?
In that you can map from it continuously, operate on it in a new space, and then map back to the original grid?
Well, without the continuous part.
Since, rationals disconnected.
As if maybe there's a "close enough to" continuous mapping for a "kind-of like a" manifold object.
 
4:36 AM
my math professor thinks he's a funny guy with these cryptography bonus problems that he said were "weak for one reason or another"
 
5:26 AM
mmmmmm
 
5:36 AM
If $p$ and $q$ are distinct odd primes, how could I approach showing that $x^{\varphi(pq)/\gcd(p-1,q-1)}\equiv 1\mod pq$ for all $x\in (\mathbb Z/pq\mathbb Z)^\times$?
(I realize the numerator of the exponent is $(p-1)(q-1)$)
 
Yo
Wassup
 
5:52 AM
A quick question if someone has time. I was watching a video and the lecturer said: "This is a group mod 2" What does modular 2 mean in this case? Thx.
 
@JKnecht Presumably $\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$?
 
Another question...are we experiencing a bug today...i dont get any reputation points for the last few hours
@GBeau But what does it mean. Can you dumb it down a little, to my level of group theory knowledge, and give a simple explaination if its possible to do that in a few sentences?
to my mediocre knowledge it should have been
 
@JKnecht can you tell me the context?
you ask about "this" without describing "this"
 
sure, one moment
 
6:09 AM
He was talking about the fundamental group of the projective plane. Which has two elements {e, a}. I dont think you need to know its about the projective plane tho but just a simple group. Then he says "the only non-trivial multiplication" is a^2=e. In terms of group theory its called Z_2, its the same as the additive group {0, 1} mod 2 or {-1, 1} multiplicitive mod 2, depending on how you want to think about it"
 
@JKnecht do you understand why it's the same as the additive group $\{0,1\}$, or are you still lost at groups?
the additive group $\{0,1\}$ mod $2$ describes the list of all possible elements: 1 and 0, the group operation: adding, and the way items are determined to be equivalent: taking the remainder modulo 2
so in this case $a\cdot a=e$ is the same as $1+1=0$
($1+1=2$, and $2$ has a remainder of $0$ modulo $2$)
so, presumably $e\cdot a=a$ and $e\cdot e=e$
 
ahh, thank you very much, now i got it!
 
Huy
7:07 AM
@BalarkaSen: you up yet?
@MikeMiller @TedShifrin still around?
 
I am here
 
Huy
@BalarkaSen: Mike once told me that "$\pi_1(S)$ acts discretely on $\mathbb{H}^2$" is very likely meant as "properly discontinuously". properly discontinuously can be stated as for all $x, y \in \mathbb{H}^2$ there exist neighbourhoods $U_x, U_y$ such that the set $\{g \in \pi_1(S): g U_x \cap U_y \neq \emptyset\}$ is finite. is that correct? if yes, can I also choose $x = y$ and then it follows that any stabilizer must be finite?
 
Your definition is correct. And yes, it does mean that there exists nbhds $U, V$ of $x$ such that only finitely many translates of $U$ hits $V$. In particular, the stabilizer of $x$ is finite.
 
Huy
@BalarkaSen: that's odd though, because I don't think it makes any sense for them to be finite in this case, but maybe I'm wrong. is there any other reasonable interpretation of "discrete action" that doesn't imply finite stabilizer?
 
Hold on, let me check if what I said is correct, since I am prone to saying wrong things.
OK, assume stabilizer is not finite. There are infinitely many $g$'s such that $gx = x$.
Pick any nbhds $U, V$ of $x$. $gU \cap V$ for precisely those $g$'s must be nonempty, as they'd contain $gx = x$, yeah? So that's a contradiction, because you get infinitely many such things.
So there is no such nbhds $U, V$. Proper discontinuity fails.
@Huy Hmm, what's the context?
 
7:22 AM
I am currently having troubles finding a motivational example of Higman's Lemma in action the represents the lemma beauty and importance. Any ideas?
 
@Huy: Really it should just mean that the group is a discrete (and closed?) subgroup of the group of diffeomorphisms. For whatever reason I thought this was equivalent to a properly discontinuous action.
 
Huy
@BalarkaSen: proof that for any hyperbolic $S$, the centralizer of nontrivial elements of $\pi_1(S)$ is cyclic. identify $\pi_1(S) \cong \operatorname{Deck}(p)$, $p: \mathbb{H} \to S$. the deck transformation are nothing else than so called *parabolic* and *hyperbolic* isometries. those are classified by their fixed points on $\partial \mathbb{H}^2$: one fixed point means parabolic, two means hyperbolic. you can prove that two such isometries commute iff they have the same fixed points.

so take for example just one fixed point in $\partial \mathbb{H}^2$. take some parabolic isometry corres
 
I think now that a discrete action with finite stabilizer is properly discontinuous. Sorry for the error.
 
@Huy The man has clarified his statement, there's no need for me now :)
 
Huy
thanks @Mike, and have a good sleep.
 
7:26 AM
The night is still young! For like another half hour.
 
Midnight is not the middle of the night.
 
Huy
@MikeMiller: just to be sure: from the bigon criterion (transverse scc are in minimal position iff they don't form a bigon) there's a corollary that distinct simple closed geodesics in a hyperbolic surface are in minimal position, the argument being that if such geodesic curves bounded a bigon, since this bigon is simply connected, one can lift it to $\mathbb{H}^2$, but there, geodesics between two distinct points are unique, a contradiction.
can't I just argue that lifting a geodesic yields a geodesic and having two intersections in $S$ I also need at least two in $\mathbb{H}^2$, so I get a bigon? or am I using simply connectedness implicitly here?
 
@Huy: There is no reason the paths lift to paths that intersect in more than one point up above.
Dumb example: Take the latitude and longitude and the torus. They intersect infinitely many times (when considered as maps from $\Bbb R$)! But they only intersect once in the lift.
 
Huy
hm
 
That's not how lifts work. I'm not lifting those paths locally to each chart that covers them, just one.
 
Huy
7:34 AM
@MikeMiller: so how exactly does simply connectedness come into play here?
 
Because I can lift the bigon using that.
 
Huy
I don't really know what you mean
but yes, I realize now I thought about the lift wrongly in this case
 
if I know $\varphi(pq)/\gcd(p-1,q-1)$ and $pq$, can I use this to factor $pq$ like you can if I knew $\varphi(pq)$?
 
Huy
@MikeMiller: ah, wait. nullhomotopic closed curves are lifted to closed curves, so that guarantees that the bigon (bounded by a nullhomotopic closed curve) is lifted to a closed curve. is that it?
 
Can someone help me with the question that I asked above?
 
Huy
8:05 AM
@BalarkaSen: any path-connected surface with $\chi(S) >0$ is simply connected, right?
anyone know how to pronounce Brouwer?
 
@Huy By surface you mean closed compact orientable 2-fold?
Then yes, the only such things out there are disjoint union of spheres.
 
Huy
@BalarkaSen: what happens if I drop compactness?
 
Um. That could be a trouble.
OK. Let me see.
@Huy Here's a half-baked argument. Start with a not necessarily compact closed orientable manifold. Then top homology vanishes by noncompact Poincare duality. So there's no top dimensional cell upto homotopy (I am assuming the surface can be given a finite cell complex structure - finiteness is necessary for well definedness of $\chi$ and that 2-folds admit cell complex structure should be a standard yet not so easy to prove fact). So my surface is homotopy equivalent to a 1-complex.
Any 1-complex is wedge of a bunch of circles, $\chi$ of which is $1 - n$ where $n$ is the number of 1-cells. This is positive iff $n = 1$, in which case my surface has homotopy type of a point, hence is simply connected.
And yes, cell complex structure comes from the more general fact that 2-folds admit triangulation. You should find a proof by googling: this is something I took as granted because the proof is involved.
So I guess that should constitute a proof.
(Typo, meant $n = 0$ up there)
@Huy Note that this actually shows that any closed connected noncompact surface with $\chi > 0$ is contractible, not just simply connected.
 
Huy
8:38 AM
thanks @BalarkaSen, that sounds good.
 
anytime.
 
Huy
btw, I keep reading about the "homotopy lifting property". does it mean that if $\alpha$ is given and some homotopy $H$ starting with $\alpha$, there is a (unique?) homotopy corresponding to the lift of $\alpha$ projecting down to the original homotopy? @BalarkaSen
 
@Huy yes. if $H : I^2 \to X$ is a homotopy of paths starting at $\alpha$, you can lift it to a unique homotopy $\tilde{H} : I^2 \to \tilde{X}$ starting at $\tilde{\alpha}$ upstairs.
 
Huy
@BalarkaSen: and what kind of covering space do I need to have this "homotopy lifting property"? universal should be sufficient, right? anything less strict?
 
sorry if I am late in answering, I am working out some problems from Ted's book. just leave the question there and I'll answer in a few minutes.
@Huy Any covering space.
 
Huy
8:47 AM
ah, cool
no problem about answering late @Balarkasen ;)
 
hey what is the floor sign in latex ?
 
@Idle001 \lfloor and \rfloor
(detexify to the rescue once again)
 
$\lfloor and \rfloor$
thanks
 
How can you taylor expand e^x/x? Can it be expanded at x = 0? Can it be expanded as x approaches zero?
 
@Riggs It can clearly not be expanded at a point where it is not defined
 
9:02 AM
@Huy Shall the world, then, be overrun by oysters? Do this creatures have no natural enemy? Horrible, horrible.
 
You could write up the expansion as a function of where you expand around, and see what happens when that points goes to $0$.
 
Huy
@BalarkaSen: Doyle?
 
Indeed.
Pfew, a heckload of work done. Onto more exercises.
 
9:18 AM
cool chris had an answer to her awaited question
(blind-upvote)
 
10:00 AM
@robjohn how did you jump from 1 to 2 ?
 
@Idle001 ¿que?
 
@robjohn your latest bullet
 
@Idle001 where? can you give a link?
 
oh it was just 9 minute ago !!!!
 
10:35 AM
@Idle001 Sorry. I did not understand "latest bullet". That was by induction on $n$.
The formula works for $n=0$ and $(1)$ is the inductive step to finish things off.
 
need to revise legendre formula
 
11:09 AM
How?
 
@robjohn i vnt known about legendre formula til now
i am coding an automatic graph-based code for chromatic polynomials, having incredible fun
bbl
 
11:25 AM
Is there a metric we can come up with such that $\mathbb{R}$ itself is compact?
 
@GPhys Sure, it is just an uncountable set for this purpose.
 
@TobiasKildetoft O.O Is there a simple example?
 
@GPhys Take the unit circle for example.
 
11:42 AM
@GPhys Take any compact metric space $X$ with cardinality $|\Bbb R|$. Set up a bijection with $\Bbb R$ and label the reals by the elements of $X$ by that bijection. Then transfer the metric.
 
@TobiasKildetoft what is the metric on R for here?
 
@GPhys As @BalarkaSen Said, take a bijection between the sets and transfer the metric
 
@TobiasKildetoft Hi. How's everything?
 
@BalarkaSen Hi. Good
mainly doing some reading today
 
I don't know if finding a compact metric space with the cardinality of R is any easier?
 
11:52 AM
$S^1$.
$[0, 1]$.
Lots of them out there.
 
I don't know what $S^1$ is, but are you saying $[0,1]$ with the metric $\lvert x-y\rvert$ ?
 
$S^1$ is the circle. And yes, that is the metric on $[0, 1]$.
 
Then maybe I just misunderstand what 'transferring the metric' entails
 
Pick a bijection $f : \Bbb R \to X$. Define $d(x, y) := d_X(f(x), f(y))$. That's all.
I mean, there's nothing special about $\Bbb R$. Without a metric, or any kind of extra structure, it's a bare uncountable set. There are millions of metrics on a uncountable set which makes it into a compact metric space.
 
Huy
millions???
 
11:57 AM
@Huy pls.
 
Huy
pls
 
I have finished revising most of Ted's book. Exhausted.
@Huy Hey, can you help me with something?
 
Huy
maybe, I need to leave in 20 minutes though
what's up?
 
@BalarkaSen Oh, that makes a lot more sense than what I was thinking
 
I want to maximize say $x + y + z$ with the constraint $xy^2z^3 = 108$, $x, y, z$ positive real. Using Lagrange, this takes a few seconds. But I want to do it the plain vanilla way.
So you look at $F(y, z) = y + z + 108/y^2z^3$.
 
Huy
12:00 PM
why would you want to do such a terrible thing
 
@Huy Because I need to learn calculus, not just keep catchwords at the back of my mind.
:)
OK, differentiation tells me the only critical point of $F$ is at $(2, 3)$. There, $F(2, 3) = 2 + 3 + 1 = 6$. This is clearly a local minimum. But I have to prove it's a global minimum.
 
@BalarkaSen I thought you were maximizing
 
Oops, I meant minimize. Typo.
Now, I realize I need to construct a compact set $X$ of $\Bbb R^2$ containing $(2, 3)$ such that $F$ is more than $6$ outside the interior of $X$. Then max value theorem tells me $(2, 3)$ is global minimum.
 
Hmm, so where is this new function defined?
 
On $\Bbb R^+ \times \Bbb R^+$. $y, z$ are positive.
I am having trouble constructing $X$. It should be bounded below by $y^2z^3 = 1$. It's getting a bit ucky.
What should be my strategy for constructing $X$?
 
12:08 PM
@BalarkaSen How would such a set guarantee that you have found something global?
ohh, never mind, I saw "outside" as "inside"
 
Yeah, sorry for bad wording.
 
Huy
@BalarkaSen: I'm not sure I can still do this, let alone without pen and paper. I can try once I'm at home again, if you haven't finished it by then
 
@Huy Sure, no problem. I am not actually thinking hard about this because Lagrange is my friend, but it's nice to know how not to use big machinery.
 
Huy
Lagrange is a good friend to have
 
@L33ter Hiya. Did you figure out your confusion?
 
12:13 PM
hi @BalarkaSen
here
 
Huy
I remember using Lagrange for all those typical calculus problem and then in my physics class, we used Lagrange to derive some formula that was of actual physical significance, which was rather nice for a change
 
@Huy Cool.
What was the formula?
 
Huy
I think it was some sort of (probability) distribution for some isolated system with distinguishable particles under the constraint of a given energy and number of atoms.
that was probably something involving the single particle partition function, but I don't remember the very details
 
Fun. You need to tell me about your physics stuff after I learn all this calculus and topology I have to learn.
 
Huy
I don't remember much of the physics, been doing mostly pure maths in the last years as you might have noticed
got a bit tired of cruel computations
gotta leave now. laters.
 
12:20 PM
@Huy Bu-bye! See ya later.
 
Do you know what happened to anon @BalarkaSen?
 
Hmm, @skullpetrol, I don't. When was the last time he was here?
 
Hmm. I hope he's alive.
Probably he's just busy with pediatric mathematics :)
 
12:24 PM
Hello@Balarka
 
Hiya.
 
12:36 PM
user image
2
 
Doesn't beat thatsmathematics.com.
 

« first day (2018 days earlier)      last day (3008 days later) »