@Trufa: If instead of f(a)/2 and f(b)/2 you just had f(b), then you would be adding the areas of n rectangles, each of which has height determined by the function value on the right. If instead of f(a)/2 and f(b)/2 you just had f(a), then you would be adding the areas of n rectangles, each of which has height determined by the function value on the left.
@Trufa: Having f(a)/2 and f(b)/2 there means that you are averaging the left- and right-hand approximations. This is known as the trapezoidal rule: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trapezoidal_rule
@Trufa Hi Trufa, sorry I wasn't around at the time you asked. In the future, every question should just be posted on the main site. If it's not appropriate, it will be dealt with, don't worry :).
@GlenWheeler Thanks for the advice and, of course, don't worry about it!
Maybe the rules are a little bit different here, but I participate mainly in Stackoverflow, and I try to get rid of the quick and dirty questions on the chat.
But if I have "real" question, I will sure post them!
@RobertSmith I don't understand where the problem lies, but If there's no way to measure cooperation , how you know levels of cooperation are not equal?
@Gigili I do think there are ways to measure cooperation although I don't think they are extremely obvious to get everyone satisfied with the overall result of that. As for your question, I'm interested in a situation in which there is an online collaboration to solve a technical problem. Most of the time, in that kind of collaboration, the levels of cooperation are unequal (you know, there a few who are engaged in the task fully, others who are more casual in their participation, etc).
@Robert Smith - Have you heard of the Hardy-Littlewood Axioms of Collaboration? :]
The fourth stated that it was quite indifferent if one of them had not contributed the least bit to the contents of a paper under their common name . . .
@Prometheus Very amusing! (by the way, I didn't know about it, although it seems like a recipe for disaster except when you're collaborating with Hardy, Littlewood or for that matter, the mythical creature called Hardy-Littlewood )
@Gigili I noticed that! Thanks for that (particularly because it was at no cost :-))
Let's suppose you are collaborating online to solve a problem with a bunch of people that you don't know very well. Which way to assign credits to each one would be more comfortable for you and on what basis? Does it depend on who proposed the problem?
