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11:27 PM
was the mold made of cheese?
 
Did I miss the punnery call?
I think every pure mathematician should have more than the basic graduate algebra, just like they should have more than basic analysis. Topology, etc., goes without saying.
AG + alg NT, for sure.
 
i skipped AG + NT. all i was saying above was, good luck if you are AG-adjacent and don't know your commutative algebra.
 
Why did so many people dislike @Xander?
I did never take any NT. I sorta regret it now.
I even made my one PhD student take functional analysis. Certainly not needed for her thesis work.
And not the world's gift to teaching, either.
 
@TedShifrin I love func-y anal!
 
Well, of course you do. It is useful for your area to some degree.
 
11:36 PM
i think more lie groups people should take functional analysis. this is based on a sample size of three people i have seen who, when hearing about something in functional analysis, proposed something objectively wrong based on their understanding of lie groups.
don't take it to do research in it. take it to know that it's out there.
 
I don't disagree.
I am a big proponent of mathematical breadth, but most advisers do not work that way.
 
@TedShifrin hash tag me also
 
so if someone says "the unitary group of ___" you don't just wander in as if there aren't semesters of classes people take on particulars of that stuff that don't pop up in your special case.
 
Well, if we're talking about the classical groups ($O(n)$, $U(n)$, etc.), then I don't see the functional analysis.
 
#enderson
 
11:38 PM
It really pissed me off when UCR dropped the qual requirement from 4 to 2, and made it possible to complete a phd without ever taking either analysis or algebra (as much as I don't care for algebra, everybody should take it).
 
I would have argued strenuously against that.
 
ted: there is none. but if you're talking about an infinite dimensional context, maybe helpful to know that there is an infinite dimensional context.
 
UGA kept switching back and forth between separate exams for real and complex which weren't truly separate and a combined exam.
 
@TedShifrin My advisor did, as did a lot of the old guard, as did a few of us grad students.
But we lost.
 
well, that sucks.
 
11:39 PM
Interestingly, I had a NT student in my grad diff geo the first time I taught it at UGA. And then a few AG students the second time. In both cases, their advisers told them it was a waste of their time (because I required homework done if a student wanted an A).
The students overruled their advisers, interestingly.
 
@TedShifrin The horror.
 
Nominal amounts of homework, mind you, but enough to show that you've learned stuff.
I did write a lot of good exercises, but relatively few were required to get the A.
Yeah, I was pretty pissed at these colleagues.
I haven't found @robjohn's microaggressive puns yet.
Speaking of aggressions, is munchkin getting ready for a new-year volley of anger?
 
@TedShifrin Evidently, they're subconscious, and targeting Xander
 
Well, odd that he singled you out, @robjohn. A number of us are guilty of evil punnery.
 
mine are especially bad, I guess
 
11:44 PM
Hey guys, I'm trying to prove that the following sequence of functions uniformly converges in $x \in [0, 1]$:
$$\begin{align} f_0 (x) \equiv 1, f_n (x) &= \sqrt{x f_{n-1}(x)} \\ \therefore f_n (x) &= x^{(1-\frac{1}{2^n})} \end{align}$$

It was pretty simple to show that this sequnce of functions approaches $f(x) = x$ in the given interval. To show the sequence uniformly converges, I wanted to prove the sequence is uniformly Cauchy. I wasn't sure if my following argument was correct...

Consider the following inequality:
 
I couldn't find smoked salmon "in bulk" (i.e., what's usually called "lox trimmings" and doesn't cost $30+ a pound), so I'm gonna try using smoked herring in my cream cheese, green onion caper, sour cream appetizer.
Where did $2$'s come from if we're on the unit interval?
I would assume the only question is near $x=0$.
Where did that inequality come from?
 
ted are we already preparing for new years eve?
 
Where is the maximum of $|f_m-f_n|$ attained?
 
I just came up with it, but it did feel like I pulled it out of thin air
 
No, I'm preparing for post-Xmas dinner tomorrow night. The stuffed cabbage is in the oven and I'm getting ready to make the apple cake.
 
11:47 PM
oh. OK.
 
@TedShifrin we are cooking prime-rib for Boxing Day dinner
 
If you don't have a proof of your inequality, @DavidChoi, you'd better give one. I want to know the maximum of $|f_n(x)-x|$.
@robjohn You do like to do your beef :P
Well, there's beef and ground chicken in mine, so I can't complain too loudly.
@leslie I'm also doing an eggplant spread to put on crackers. This is my homage to my eastern European heritage, this meal.
 
@TedShifrin Last time we had prime rib was about this time last year, but yes, we do enjoy it.
 
I remembered you were responsible for grilling something other than turkey that last big family get-together, @robjohn. Thanks to omicron, our lives all hang in the balance again.
 
@TedShifrin On the bright side (?), AMS decided to "postpone" the Joint Meetings.
 
11:52 PM
@TedShifrin Oh, it was at a friend's Fourth of July party, and I grilled whatever they brought.
like 30+ people
 
@Xander: Oh, I haven't been in the loop forever. Not even on Zoom, eh?
@robjohn That's what you told me about. Right.
 
@TedShifrin The were so very insistent that it was going to run this year that they made no contingency plans. So, I think that the current plan is to go virtual in a couple of months.
 
Wow.
Yeah, there's been a lot of shortsightedness from the government on down.
 
morons.
 
11:54 PM
@DavidChoi: The max point of $|f_n(x)-x|$ tends to $x=1/e$, if you're interested.
 
So... I'm out about a thousand dollars in plane tickets, but otherwise glad that they canceled.
 
The Renaissance Faire has been sending out emails and selling tickets for this spring. They are planning on having the fair regardless, it seems.
 
i went to one exactly AMS-coorganized meeting. nothing nationwide, nothing general or even impacting a large number of people. just for one topic. the AMS support was nonexistent and the event succeeded because the coorganizers assumed that.
 
@XanderHenderson Ouch! no travel insurance?
 
rob: still a fare for the fair if there's no Faire?
 
11:55 PM
my wife insists on getting insurance on travel and vacation plans
 
@robjohn Because of the way in which tickets were purchased, travel insurance would have been close to $400. It hardly seemed worth it (and the last time I tried to take advantage of travel insurance, I spent hours on hold, and was denied).
 
@DavidChoi ... My conclusion is that the convergence is far from uniform.
 
\begin{align}
J(a)&=\int_{0}^{+\infty}\frac{\sin a x}{x}e^{-ax^{4}}{\rm d}x\\
&=\int_{0}^{+\infty}\color{blue}{x^{-1}}e^{-ax^{4}}\sin(ax){\rm d}x\\
&=\int_{0}^{+\infty}\left[\frac{1}{\Gamma(1)}\int_{0}^{+\infty}x^{1-1}e^{-ux}{\rm d}u\right]e^{-ax^{4}}\sin(ax){\rm d}x\\
&=\int_{0}^{+\infty}\left[\int_{0}^{+\infty}e^{-ux}{\rm d}u \right]e^{-ax^{4}}\sin(ax){\rm d}x\\
&=\int_{0}^{+\infty}\left[\int_{0}^{+\infty}e^{-ux-ax^{4}}{\rm d}u \right]\sin(ax){\rm d}x\\
&=\int_{0}^{+\infty}\left[\color{red}{\int_{0}^{+\infty}e^{-ux-ax^{4}}\sin(ax){\rm d}x}\right]{\rm d}u
 
@leslietownes My tickets are for the 2020 fair and they're good for this fair, too, but I had to send them in for new tickets last year.
 
robjohn: strikes me as unfair.
 
11:56 PM
Hello everyone
 
So, the travel insurance would have saved me about \$550, which isn't nothing, but that is only if they honor it.
 
you should open with "Hello everyone" and then the nightmare integrals.
 
In any event, now that the money is spent, maybe I'll take a trip over spring break.
My sister has offered to meet me in Alaska and take me out on the trail she built.
 
@leslietownes No, I only paid for the 2020 tickets and they were a lot less than the new tickets for this year, so I am sitting pretty.
 
@leslietownes Hi, sorry. I'm trying to double space but I don't know how.
 
11:58 PM
alex: i was kidding.
 
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