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12:04 AM
geocalc, possibly? it's certainly the union of four quadrants, assuming the quadrants are defined to include all of the axes and the origin appropriately. whether this corresponds to a 'gluing' of components might depend on what you have in mind by 'gluing' and what objects can serve as inputs to that. note e.g. that $\{(x,y): x > 0, y > 0\}$ is a manifold but $\{(x,y): x \geq 0, y \geq 0\}$ is not.
this is not an insurmountable thing, but does at least raise abstract technical questions about how you'd generally put a manifold structure on a 'glued' result of pieces that might not themselves be manifolds where you want to 'glue' them.
 
12:41 AM
Good points. Well what if you take the four manifolds $\{(x,y): x > 0, y > 0\}$ and $(-x,y)$ and $(-x,-y)$ and $(x,-y)$ and glue $(x,y)$ to $(-x,y)$ at their common boundary $(0,y)$ continuing like this for the other ones?
 
12:57 AM
This guy has a nifty technique with his markers: youtu.be/s3w9ecPelqc
If I ever teach in an actual classroom again, I might have to think about practicing that.
 
well, that's the issue. as you've defined them (the open quadrants? looks like) they don't share any points that you can glue together. they do sit next to each other in R^2 and there's something in the ambient R^2 that fills those gaps. which is extra structure you wouldn't have with four random manifolds that you want to glue together. so i don't know if it's helpful to think of it as 'gluing,' if it's just 'unioning stuff together inside a larger manifold that we already know is there.'
 
@leslietownes it is a manifold with boundary, however
and gluing manifolds with boundaries along pieces of their boundaries is a very well-understood construction, both in the topological and the smooth category
or, more precisely, topologically it's a manifold with boundary
smoothly, it's a manifold with corners
 
thorgott, i know. geocalc didn't appear to be there yet. i was being, what does ted say, socratic.
taking steps there instead of just going there.
 
alas, it seems like I was being premature
 
we'll get to orbifolds eventually.
wait and see :)
 
1:03 AM
that said, I don't actually know the right formalism for smoothly gluing manifolds with corners
 
Listing facts is socratic?
 
but it's most likely in Wall's book
 
it can be, ted.
 
I thought Socrates merely asked questions.
 
there probably is a whole reasonable theory on how to glue stratifolds along substrata
not that I would know
 
1:06 AM
OK, it's the generalized socratic method, where instead of asking questions, you point stuff out and wait for the other person to ask questions.
we can call it the townes method.
 
I figured it would come back to leslie coin.
 
i'm writing a pamphlet on it as we speak.
 
Thor, that stuff gets technical in a hurry.
 
it certainly will
 
just don't sniff the glue when you do it.
 
1:09 AM
as I said, I don't even know off-hand how to do it for corners
 
xander that marker technique is so good it's almost distracting. it might be too good. i guess students get used to it.
i do like using color or boldface, in moderation, to draw focus to particular things, particularly pieces of things that change in a calculation. i always thought of this as something you could only do in typeset documents. with this marker trick you could actually do it at the board.
 
When I gave guest lectures and had to use markers, they without exception caused me great distress. I stuck with blackboards and plenty of colored chalk.
 
I'm just going to say "union"
I want a union!
So $\Bbb R^2$ is certainly a union of four quadrants by the Townes method
 
1:25 AM
unionism is spreading. first starbucks, now this, what's next? the red army marching through washington, no doubt.
 
can you union four quadrants and not get a manifold?
 
Define quadrant in general.
 
the axes of a two-dimensional Cartesian system divide the plane into four infinite regions, called "quadrants," each bounded by two half-axes
 
But you are starting with a whole thing. Try to do this starting just with pieces and no whole space .
Otherwise, as leslie said, this is just an exercise in tautology.
 
1:41 AM
Okay I will start from the basic pieces and build up to the whole space
 
2:08 AM
Good evening, @Ted
 
Rehi @robjohn
 
 
1 hour later…
3:10 AM
@Ted: sorry, I had to leave for a bit. My wife had outpatient sinus surgery and is requiring a good bit of care.
 
Wish her well for me. I’m currently enduring sinus ugh.
 
3:46 AM
my sinus ugh lasted for almost two weeks.
 
3:57 AM
Mine is about that length of time now ... no signs of quitting.
Did you like my attribution of tautology to you to compensate for your pseudo-socratic allusion to me? :D
 
yes. i think your attribution was more accurate than mine.
 
I thought it needed to be said, so who better to say it than you!
 
i use the sarcastic method. it was developed by a greek thinker named sarcastes. a lot of people haven't heard about him.
 
Do you mean Socrates?
 
4:00 AM
I think it was joke
 
NO. i DON'T. (this is an example of the sarcastic method)
the easiest way to tell if i'm joking is to see if anyone is laughing. if the answer is no, then it was a joke.
 
Do you study philosophy?
 
i don't. i have absorbed a tiny amount of history secondhand from math books and books on math history.
 
I tried to read Aristotle's physics, I didn't understand a word.
 
Hi @Under
in Greek, @Osmium?
 
4:02 AM
Sup Ted
 
I English.
In English.
 
euclid is surprisingly clear, by modern standards, at least in the dover translation with footnotes and context, although it's still far from ideal as a modern math book.
 
1
Q: Proving the inequality $\sin{\theta} \leq \theta \leq \tan{\theta} $

bgcodeIn the Squeeze Theorem proof of $\lim\limits_{\theta\to 0}\frac{sin{\theta}}{\theta} $, the appeal is made to the obvious triangle inclusion in the image on the unit circle below to say that $$\frac{\sin{\theta}}{2} \leq \frac{\theta}{2} \leq \frac{\tan{\theta}}{2} $$ While it is indeed obvious t...

Robjohn's answer is being discussed.
 
i met someone who said they were reading newton's principia once, and my only question was 'why?' i've skimmed it and the impression i get is that you'd need either to be newton, or to already understand both calculus and physics, to get much out of it.
 
@leslietownes This guy named Thomas Heath heavily annotated Euclid with some of his thoughts regarding the books. I've been slowly making my way through the first one.
 
4:05 AM
@Koro are they saying nice things?
 
It’s actually an axiom for area.
 
euler is clearer (at least the translations i have read) but even then it really helps to know the modern approach.
 
robjohn: I understand that they think that using areas to prove the inequality is not rigorous.
 
under: that's the one that dover reprinted. it's a great piece of work.
 
Ah, ok. Yes, I agree.
 
4:06 AM
Everyone should read Principia. Thomas Jefferson read him as well.
 
See my comment @Koro
 
well, just add that to the list of things that thomas jefferson did that i didn't, i guess.
 
Ted: Your comment is not there yet.
 
There is a modern translation by Chandrashekhar.
 
up here, not there
 
4:07 AM
@Koro I see that Michael Hardy won't like any proofs based on areas
 
Well, arclength is even more problematic!
 
That is why I used area
 
I always did the same proof. But we should be clear that there is an axiom on area here.
 
Ted: yes, I understand that they if they define area then noting its axioms, they can see the rigor. :)
 
There are also issues with $\pi$. Define it to be area of the unit circle. Then why is the full angle of a circle $2\pi$?
 
4:11 AM
now we'll hopefully get a comment about how sin theta and tan theta are meaningless.
if not, i'll add one.
 
@leslietownes Hm?
 
Are we going to have play-by-play announcements?
 
well, not meaningless, but usually not defined at any higher level of 'rigor' (whatever that is) than the area argument. there's no starting point for what a real number is, for heaven's sake.
i see ted already made this point or something equivalent in connection with pi and 2pi.
 
25
Q: Is $\tan(\pi/2)$ undefined or infinity?

lab bhattacharjeeThe way I have understood, $0/0$ is undefined or indeterminate because, if $c=0/0$ then $c\cdot 0=0$, where $c$ can be any finite number including $0$ itself. If we also observe a fraction $F=a/b$ where $a,b$ are positive real numbers, the value of $F$ increases with the decrements of $b$. Bein...

 
but why don't they simply use LMVT to establish the inequalities if they don't like areas?
 
4:16 AM
a lot of books introduce trig functions and need that limit well before any mean value theorem. you need lim sin(t)/t just to see that sin is differentiable, for example.
 
How do you get the derivatives?
 
Even for the area arguments, you'll require atleast continuity of $\sin x$. right?
 
i refuse to axiomatize this stuff. but i agree koro, at the time this limit is encountered, usually a lot of details have been left out or postponed.
e.g. continuity. e.g. what sin is. what's sin(1). if it's triangles, go ahead and draw me one radian. i'll wait.
 
I wrote notes for my Spivak course justifying all that. I posted them here long ago.
 
@leslietownes Oh, wow. I never realized this was an issue.
@TedShifrin I'll search them, that sounds interesting.
 
4:20 AM
I think there should be a search option on everyone's profile and using that search option one should be able to see the user's answer.
 
under: another thing in this area, similar vibe, the calc book will assume that we all understand what 2^x is for real x, but we kinda don't, really? most people go to a calculator for 2^(1/2) and at least that's something whose square is 2. something like 2^pi doesn't have an interpretation as an nth root of an integer, what the heck is it.
these aren't at the level of mysteries of the cosmos, but they're very much not the focus of attention. so if you dig into it it's easy for people to get into arguments about what the words mean, or what they're assuming vs. proving.
i think it's more than enough to know that this stuff can be made rigorous, in any number of different ways, and so it kinda doesn't matter how. i feel the same about trig functions and trig limits. i like the power series definitions but they are definitely not what i would start with.
 
I posted my pdf in this chat.
 
you should paywall it, ted. and maybe title it something catchy, like, 'mysteries of the cosmos.'
 
I'm trying to use the chat search option, but it's not being helpful.
@leslietownes Is this more a gripe with how mathematics is presented in general, or just the way it's presented at certain levels?
 
i don't know if se chats enable searching with a qualifier like "from:ted has:pdf". discord has a ton of useful features like that.
under: more a gripe about people who complain about the 'rigor' of a proof involving sin(t) that uses triangles. :D
 
4:29 AM
Oh, ok lol
 
it's just not a very well-founded question. if someone pops up and says, here are my axioms, here's my definition of sin(t), is this is a proof from those axioms and definition that some limit exists, OK, you can answer that yes or no. and sometimes the answer would be no for something involving triangles.
but there's such a longstanding tradition of not working at that level of granularity when these limits are first introduced, it seems silly to fault people for not playing a logic game that they didn't even know they were playing, or not following rules that they didn't have.
 
Dang, I got the search to work. You mentioned Spivak so many times @Ted ;-;
 
it's like the galaxy brain meme. normal brain is whatever you think a real number is in 9th grade. the glowy brain is maybe a real number being something in a complete ordered field. the slightly more glowy brain is crap about set theory axioms and dedekind cuts or cauchy sequences. then the galaxy brain is a real number is whatever you thought it was in 9th grade.
 
Ha lol
 
i could post that on twitter and get likes, i bet. math twitter would go for that.
 
4:37 AM
I didn't know there was a math twitter.
Maybe I'll finally make an account.
 
What is Hilbert space?
Is it just vector space $\mathbb R^n$ over field of complex numbers $\mathbb C$?
with inner product as "dot product".
 
koro: a complete inner product space. could be over R or C, not necessarily finite dimensional. the finite dimensional ones look like R^n or C^n
 
Oh, I see. Thanks.
 
some folks use 'hilbert space' to explicitly mean infinite dimensional (+ complex scalars), or even infinite dimensional + countable orthonormal basis (+ complex scalars).
real infinite dimensional hilbert spaces get a big thumbs down from me.
 
4:53 AM
Bigot.
 
i won't apologize. you gotta draw the line somewhere.
 
5:52 AM
polarising again
 
 
1 hour later…
6:56 AM
@UnderMathUate You mean this?
 
 
2 hours later…
8:29 AM
Hi
Any hint for calculate the following integral? $$\int\limits_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2}e^{a\sin x}\cos^2 xdx$$
 
i can't think of anything. is it possible that whatever question you have about these integrals can be answered without a formula?
 
8:45 AM
@leslietownes hi. I didn't understand. I think since $x\mapsto e^{a\sin x}\cos^{2}x$ is well defined and continuous on $[-\pi/2,\pi/2]$ so the integral convergent.
I was trying with integration by parts but it doesn't work.
 
did you try using Feynmann's trick?
 
Hi @Koro the differentiation under the integral sign a
I didn't try it
what would the parameterized integral be like?
 
\begin{array}{l}
I( a) =\int e^{a\sin x}\cos^{2} x\ dx\\
I'( a) =\int e^{a\sin x}\sin x\cos^{2} x\ dx
\end{array}
But that doesn't seem to work so you may ignore that please.
 
:-(
 
Do you have a reason to believe it should have a closed form?
 
9:00 AM
Wolfram seems to give approximations for the definite integral. I've been doing some numerical tests varying $a$ and we have convergence.
 
It is convergent for sure but having a closed form is not guaranteed. So it may not have a closed form. That's why I ask if you have a reason to believe that the closed form exists.
 
 
2 hours later…
10:41 AM
have you tried substituting $x = \sin^{-1}(u)$ ?
Alternatively, $I$ satisfies a differential equation in $a$ which you can compute
ignore that second message
Looks like it's linked to a Bessel function
 
11:03 AM
In fact if you compute $(a\partial_a^2+3\partial_a-a)e^{a\sin x}\cos^2(x)$ you'll find the $x$-derivative of $-a^2\cos^3(x)e^{a\sin(x)}$ @Alex
The differential operator is the annihilating operator of $I_1(a)/a$, but you can derive it directly from the integrand, assuming you have the time/a computer to do it for you
Then you want to compute it and its derivative for specific values of a and compare that to a basis of solutions of $a\partial_a^2+3\partial_a-a$ (ie $I_1(a)/a$ and $K_1(a)/a$ if I'm not mistaken)
 
 
3 hours later…
2:19 PM
You're a real one. @robjohn
 
3:12 PM
a real angry orange square
 
3:41 PM
@Alex That is $\frac\pi{a}I_1(a)$, where $I_1$ is a modified Bessel Function of the First Kind
$$\frac\pi2\sum_{k=0}^\infty\frac{a^{2n}}{2^{2n}n!(n+1)!}$$
you can use the Beta Integral $$
\begin{align}
\int_{-1}^1x^{2n}\sqrt{1-x^2}\,\mathrm{d}x
&=\int_0^1x^{n-1/2}\sqrt{1-x}\,\mathrm{d}x\\
&=\frac{\Gamma\!\left(n+\frac12\right)\Gamma\!\left(\frac32\right)}{\Gamma(n+2)}\\
&=\frac\pi2\frac{(2n)!}{2^n2^nn!(n+1)!}
\end{align}
$$
along with the series for $e^{ax}$ to get $$
\begin{align}
\int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2}e^{a\sin(x)}\cos^2(x)\,\mathrm{d}x
&=\int_{-\pi/2}^{\pi/2}e^{a\sin(x)}\cos(x)\,\mathrm{d}\sin(x)\\
&=\int_{-1}^1e^{au}\sqrt{1-u^2}\,\mathrm{d}u\\
&=\frac\pi2\sum_{k=0}^\infty\frac{a^{2n}}{2^{2n}n!(n+1)!}
\end{align}
$$
 
4:29 PM
Oh, son of a b---! I just figured out why I couldn't get the right formula for the determinant of a 2x2 matrix in lecture yesterday. Arg... I am so f'kin' dyslexic. In the last step of the Gauss-Jordan elimination, I flipped a fraction upside down. ARG!
I'll have to email the students.
 
:(
But why did you flip the fraction? Did you think the fraction $\frac pq$ to be such that p is in $i-$th row and $q$ to be in $i+1$th row of the same column? And all this was an accident because the bar between p and q was overlooked.
 
@Koro Because I am dyslexic.
I meant to apply the row operation $-\frac{b}{a}R_2 + R_1$, but wrote $-\frac{a}{b}R_2 + R_1$.
It was a stupid mechanical error---I just wrote the wrong thing down.
 
Ahh. One of my teachers would do such things to test if students are paying attention to him. I remember once he drew a container C1 with liquid in it with volume V and temperature T and then he transferred (in the picture) half the liquid into another container C2 and then wrote: So temperature and volume of liquid in C2 are T/2 and V/2 respectively.
One of my classmates nodded yes to that :P
Transferring a liquid to another container shouldn't change temperature under usual situations so he was declared as not paying attention in the class.
 
I mean, I am the kind of asshole who would do something like that, but I also have moderate dyscalculia, so I make those kinds of mistakes all by myself with great frequency.
Which is why I work out my notes ahead of time with great care.
But I lecture in a more improvisational style, so generally ignore my notes. And then I get into trouble.
 
4:48 PM
But usually students point out such typos/errata at least in the class where I'm a student currently.
 
@Koro Yeah, not so much here.
 
So nobody objected or asked a doubt as to why the fractions flipped?
 
:(
 
But getting them to interact AT ALL this semester has been difficult.
I think that there is some serious Zoom fatigue going on. :/
I think that my DFW rate this semester is going to be around 50%.
 
4:51 PM
Ahh, so offline classes have not yet started there?
 
@Koro Yes and no. I work at a place which serves a large, geographically disparate area. In the before-fore times, most classes were taught remotely (e.g. an instructor would be in a classroom on one campus, and there would be students in three or four other classrooms on other campuses).
So "offline" has not really been a thing here in 15+ years.
And before that, we had classes taught over the radio (the college owns four or five radio transmission towers).
 
@XanderHenderson over radio 😯. I never heard about that :)
One of my teachers makes it very clear before starting his lecture (online) that if he asks a question -everyone has to respond even if the response is wrong. If someone doesn't respond he'll make them exit class. So everyone responds in his class.
:)
 
@Koro Yeah, the problem that I have with that is there there is a lot of mixed modality going on. I have some students in WebEx (who can respond in chat), but other students in classrooms, who have difficulty responding individually (they are generally too small for me to distinguish on the screen).
In the spring, I am thinking about requiring those students to come to class with cleverphones, then setting up something like a discord server for that kind of instant feedback.
Or maybe polleverywhere.
or Kahoot!
or some other similar bit of nonsense.
 
just have them dump their questions on math.se
"what is xander on about?" [10 upvotes]
 
@leslietownes Oh, yeah. That would be a good idea. :D
 
5:06 PM
i have yet to see a question about a link to a live video stream, but maybe this can be the first
 
Hi math lovers. I have a small question about quotient vector space $V/W$. I know the defs and thms. But when I look to it closely I don't understand some things. Suppose $v_1,v_2\in V$ then by definition $v_1\sim v_2\iff v_1-v_2\in W$. I want to know is $v\sim 2v$? seemingly the answer is no, but it is weird to me that why these two very similar vectors are not in same class and produce different co-sets.
 
as per your own definition, $v\sim 2v$ if and only if $v-2v\in W$
 
I suppose it is not in $W$ for generic $v$.
Isn't this a bad stuff?
 
5:23 PM
@C.F.G In the concrete world, you can think of an inner product on $V$ and $V/W$ is isomorphic to $W^\perp\subset V$.
Now think about your question.
 
@C.F.G You greet everyone else in the room, but not me?
 
It's true. One must allow for math hater Xander.
 
@TedShifrin I'm not a math hater. But I'm not in love, either.
We're just friends.
 
@XanderHenderson You mean you are not a math lover?
 
(with benefits)
 
5:27 PM
Why someone shouldn't a lover of beauty?
 
@C.F.G As I said, we're just friends.
 
@TedShifrin so ... . I know that $V/W=\{v+W| v\in V\}$. Your interpretation just say this?
@XanderHenderson Your reason? maybe I enter to friend circle instead of lovers?
 
@C.F.G We just don't feel "that way" about each other.
And why ruin a good thing?
 
surely its mathS lovers, anyway?
 
CFG: if you haven't seen the inner product interpretation it might be a little bit of a detour, but even without the formalism, the idea is that in V/W, everything that's in W becomes equivalent to 0, and things that are 'perpendicular' to W (think non-rigorously if necessary) do not become identified with other things perpendicular to W
CFG: for maybe a concrete example, try V = R^2 and W = {(0,y): y in R}
 
5:41 PM
that's your quotient of wisdom for the morning...
 
@copper.hat I am not polyamorous, though I suppose that others here might be.
 
what do you have against pollies?
just had my teeth cleaned, some dental adjustment and some other work done in a 45f office, and am still defrosting.
 
@copper.hat Nothing at all. I was just reemphasizing how I was left out of the original greeting.
 
:-)
 
I wonder what problem @C.F.G has with aro folk... :/
 
5:47 PM
aro?
 
@copper.hat Aromantic.
It describes a person who does not feel romantic feelings, e.g. "love".
 
very greek of you
 
this morning the regular chat has been replaced with folger's crystals
 
I didn't even notice!
 
i think i am going to starmucks for a warming chai. i am past the 30mins i am supposed to wait and need to see other life forms.
in a comment to a probability question i answered, the op asked what does $(\frac {5}{6})^{k-4}$ mean. not quite sure how to respond.
 
5:50 PM
🎵The best part of waking up! 🎵🎵Is Folger's in your cup! 🎵
 
@leslietownes I know that and that example is easy to handle. my question is why $v$ and $2v$ are in different classes. I am asking this because of I have some issue in De Rham cohomology. i.e. why a diff form $\omega$ and $2\omega$ may fall into two distinct cohomology classes? isn't this produce many classes and make that group a infinite dim?
i.e. $[v],[2v],[3.5v], ...$?
 
CFG: in general, v and 2v are in the same class in V/W if only if v is in W. otherwise, they are different. but the fact that they might represent different vectors doesn't change the fact that they're scalar multiples of each other
R contains infinitely many different numbers and is still a 1-dimensional vector space over R
 
@leslietownes so all of these classes fall into one class? But definition doesn't say this? $v-2v\notin V$. It is?
 
i don't understand the question
in any vector space, the different multiples of a nonzero vector are different vectors
if x is in a vector space, then x and 2x are not the same unless x is the zero element of the vector space
v + W and 2v + W will not be the same vector in V/W unless v + W is the zero element of V/W, i.e., unless v + W = W, i.e. unless v is in W.
 
@C.F.G Two answers. One is that cohomology classes are characterized by integration over oriented compact submanifolds of the correct dimension. If $\int_Z \omega = \int_Z 2\omega$ for every $Z$, then $\int_Z \omega = 0$ for every $Z$. Do you know what this says? Alternatively, if $\omega\sim 2\omega$, then $2\omega-\omega = \omega = d\eta$ for some form $\eta$, which says that $\omega$ had to be exact to start with, i.e., represents the zero class.
 
6:02 PM
@TedShifrin Yes
 
Of course you should understand that for all scalars $k$, $k[\omega] = [k\omega]$ are different classes unless $[\omega]=0$.
When you say $H^n(M) \cong\Bbb R$, doesn't that mean you have infinitely many classes?
The issue is the dimension as $\Bbb R$ vector space.
 
@TedShifrin So that cohomology version is different from vector space case or something I missed it?
 
No, it's the same. $V$ is closed forms, $W$ is exact forms.
I think you need to learn some basics.
 
@TedShifrin I am good in high math but so bad in basics. !! How is that possible I don't know! but this building will be destroyed as it has weak basic. isn't?
 
that's a good analogy. a prof i had once said something like, if there is a crack in the foundation, eventually something will fall right through it. and maybe not eventually but sooner rather than later.
 
6:06 PM
Well, you can go back and understand quotient groups, quotient rings, quotient vector spaces. It's all the same notion — groups being the hardest because of non-commutativity. But if you really understand differential forms and duality, then my comments are pretty direct.
Yeah, my personal belief is that one cannot actually understand the "advanced" stuff without having mastered the basics.
 
that was wu, incidentally. i am paraphrasing.
 
It comes back to learning math without doing examples. Understanding and computing examples is critical for understanding math.
 
my misunderstanding was this that I considered $<[\omega]>=\Bbb R$ district from $<2[\omega]>$
 
Wu is a smart man. I hope he's still alive and healthy.
What does that notation even mean, @C.F.G?
 
@TedShifrin I know him by his papers. very special thoughts.
 
6:09 PM
Damn <> again.
 
generated by?
 
Might be different Wu.
What does generated by mean?
 
Wu, UC berkeley?
 
OK, same Wu.
 
@TedShifrin generator in group theory.
 
6:10 PM
Tell me exactly what this means.
 
$k.a$ where $k$ is in field.
 
i haven't heard otherwise, but i haven't heard from him in a while. i invited him to my wedding a few years ago and he said that he no longer travels in the summer (he used to summer in the LA area). which might have just been a nice way of saying no thanks. i hate weddings.
 
Aha. Is $2$ in your field?
I went out to dinner with him and Kunikho when I visited Berkeley 5 years ago or so. Haven't been in touch since. :(
 
@TedShifrin: I think I mean different wu. Wu-Yi Hsiang
or maybe Wu-Chung Hsiang
 
wu who
 
6:14 PM
Yes, Wu-Yi is Wu-Yi. Different person for sure. Here's your problem, @C.F.G. You wrote $\langle[\omega]\rangle = \Bbb R$. You should be talking about $[\omega]$ and $[2\omega]$ as elements of $\Bbb R$.
Wu-Chung used to be at Princeton. I assume long since dead.
 
I read a paper about dimension of isometry group of exotic spheres or something like that of he.
 
Well, Wu-Yi had some papers that people contended were incorrect. I lost track of which and how it turned out.
Anyhow, if you're reading such mathematics, you'd better understand what is going on here with basics of quotients.
 
@TedShifrin it published in Ann math. is it incorect?!!!
 
I am not saying that. I am saying there were issues regarding some published papers. But this was 40+ years ago and I do not remember.
 
@TedShifrin I just read for grasping Ideas but washout details.
 
6:18 PM
Anyhow, get back to the basics here. Both $\omega$ and $2\omega$ generate the same one-dimensional vector subspace. That does not make them the same class.
 
@TedShifrin exactly this part confused me.
 
The vectors $(1,1)$ and $(2,2)$ generate the same line in $\Bbb R^2$. Does that make them equal vectors?
 
No obviously. we are talking about equivalent not equal. in this case [(1,1)] and [(2,2)] are in one class. but our [v] and [2v] are not in one class because $v-2v\notin V$
 
No, they are not in one class. They generate the same subspace. You are saying nonsense.
The equivalence classes in $V/W$ are NOT what your issue actually is.
And you mean $v-2v\notin W$, not $V$.
 
That two words are different? one class and generate same subspace?
 
6:24 PM
Take my two vectors in $\Bbb R^2$ and consider the quotient by the subspace generated by $(0,1)$.
 
[ ] might be doing double duty as "span" and "equivalence class in quotient space"
 
No, he was using <> for span.
 
@C.F.G i was trying to make sense of this.
 
If I consider $\Bbb R^2 = V$, $\langle (0,1)\rangle = W$, then consider $[(1,1)]$ and $[(2,2)]$ in $V/W$. This is precisely the situation.
 
@TedShifrin Ok both produce all lines parallel to (0,1).
 
6:27 PM
Yes. The equivalence class (coset) is a line parallel to $(0,1)$. These are different lines, i.e., different equivalence classes.
Nevertheless, the two elements generate the same subspace of $V/W$.
(That's a silly statement here because $\dim V/W = 1$, but you should generalize to $\Bbb R^3$.)
@leslie I think we've fallen through the cracks now.
 
@TedShifrin I am still alive
@TedShifrin I don't understand diff between "same subspace" and "same class".
 
The word class is here because we're looking at equivalence classes. You're talking about the classes AND about the subspace generated by the classes. Think about our concrete example.
 
I can find a $s,t\in \Bbb R$ such that $[s(1,1)]=[t(2,2)]$
 
So the two classes generate the same one-dimensional subspace of the quotient space.
That does not make them the same class.
 
What is the def of class?
 
6:38 PM
Equivalence class. That's what your brackets mean.
 
sophia loren
oh, sorry, you mean in mathS
 
@copper Speaking not of Sophia, have you seen the movie A Touch of Class? Glenda Jackson instead of Sophia Loren. But a wonderfully funny movie.
 
$[v]=\{k.[v]=[kv] | k\in \Bbb R\}\neq ? \{k.[2v]=[2kv] | k\in \Bbb R\}$.
 
my earlier remark seems eerily prescient
 
NO. Now you are doing what leslie said. You are confusing $\langle [v]\rangle$ and $[v]$.
That is your entire problem. Leslie was right.
I concede that Leslie has won this battle. I resign.
 
6:43 PM
it was something of a wild guess at the time, but now that it has been confirmed, i meant it
 
@leslietownes where are you?
 
I think CFG needs to go study basic algebra again.
 
@TedShifrin I saw it some time ago. Entertaining.
 
cfg: geographically? in terms of vibes? smack dab in the middle of sagittarius season
 
@TedShifrin I was reading Linear Algebra taht this came to my mind.!!! I shoul go to school?
@leslietownes hahaha, No, I call you because Ted resigned.
 
6:45 PM
My favorite scene (well, there were lots) was George Segal trying to drive the little Renault with no knowledge of how a clutch works. @copper
 
@leslietownes can you explain this? "span" and "equivalence class in quotient space"
 
not too surprisingly, the line i remember is when he says to her, "you are holding my ball"
whoa @C.F.G, you need to do some revision
span is the smallest linear subspace containing a given set.
the quotient space consists of equivalence classes.
 
In my question both are 1-dim
so there should be no difference between span and
 
CFG: in any vector space, the span of a vector is a set of vectors. in a quotient space V/W, an equivalence class of an element v in V is a single vector in V/W.
 
ahah
you are right
 
6:53 PM
the span of an element in a quotient space is generally a set of equivalence classes, not a single one. ted's example, where equivalence classes are lines parallel to something, is a good one. the span of one of those equivalence classes is a set of lines, not one line.
 
Aha so [v] and [2v] are two different element but span same space. as Ted tried to say over and over.
 
yes. 'as Ted tried to say over and over' could be appended to almost anything in this chat.
 
Now we know why Ted retired from teaching at a young age.
 
:)
 
39! so young. at least he can enjoy his 40s.
 
6:54 PM
Although I did just hear from one of my star former students, who's back working on her doctoral dissertation at MIT now :)
 
@TedShifrin you don't want to continue teaching? :) one student like me will kill your all time of day. :)
 
Anyone want to suggest a good curve to sketch for an intro calc final?
 
Define "good."
 
For topologists, topologists sin
 
If it's a rational function, do you actually give them the derivative and second derivative because they'll never get the algebra right?
 
6:58 PM
@TedShifrin Something with enough interesting features to make the problem interesting, but without having to get into a lot of really gross and tedious computation.
 
Something like $f(x)=x^2+1/x$ has some nice simple features.
 
@TedShifrin Yeah, I don't want to give them a rational function, because they are going to mess up the algebra, but I feel like giving them the derivatives is too much of a hint.
 
how about a cubic with nice roots and nice turning points. to make it fun, have a negative coefficient on x^3.
 
@TedShifrin Yup, that's exactly the one I put on the midterm.
 
maybe that's too easy.
 
6:59 PM
Well, I got to the point of giving the derivative and second derivative so that I could test them on the analysis and synthesis. That is the point, after all.
 
@C.F.G i find it best to have a concrete model of the equivalence space. thinking of the span of equivalence classes is a bit much for my simple mind. in the above case you can take a representative point where the equivalence class intersects the $x$ axis.
 
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