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00:01
Nowadays they are playing the older recordings of the same Christmas songs. =)
@Srivatsan Ah. Both answers are nice, but they are from different directions with respect to how things are to be broken up. One breaks up the function, the other breaks up the set. I think the method that breaks up the set is more easily generalizable, but that is a matter of opinion.
@robjohn I like yours better [but that's partly to do with the fact I could figure out Zarrax's approach, but not yours].
So because mine was more complicated, you liked it better? :-S
No, not to do with the complication. I knew there's a proof that keeps the function as it is and approximates the set. I couldn't figure out the details.
My motivation is this: can you prove the following generalization:
For a reasonably well-behaved (quantify this) phi:[0,1] -> R, we have:
lim int_F phi( sin nx ) dx = average value of phi(sin x).
The trouble is, phi could be in C^\infty, and yet its Taylor series might not converge to the function. So Zarrax's approach will not work here [unless I am making a mistake somewhere].
@robjohn So, am I making sense, or no? =)
00:18
@Srivatsan You are, and this is why I said that the breaking up of the set was more easily generalizable.
However, I think that with some work, the other method might be generalized, but it may be quite harder depending on the function.
Ok. May be you can include such a statement as an addendum to your answer =) ... I would very much like to see that.
And I think the OP will also appreciate that; they seemed to like my guess at the answer. Such a statement will make the guessing part even more transparent.
G.M., @JM.
Good morning to you and y'all. :)
(The transcript is surprisingly short... ;) )
00:37
@JM The answer starts off like It: (equation) =)
@Srivatsan By such a statement, are you thinking of lim int_F phi( sin nx ) dx = average value of phi(sin x).
Yes, such that statement =) . I think I missed the dependence on mu(F). I was implicitly taking it to be 1.
@JM Yeah. I somewhat understand it when you're writing on a board, but on a computer I don't think you save any time.
@DylanMoreland - what doesn't save any time?
Unless you have the most special of keyboards.
00:51
@Srivatsan You know, I was thinking...
Maybe the guy just wants to get the Editor badge
And if I changed the bookmark in my browsers from "active" to "newest" questions, then it would cease to bother me.
Or worse yet, the Excavator badge.
@TheChaz Sure, that might work. =)
I subconsciously take steps towards gold badges... can't blame the guy.
Of course, the one that I am most proud of (Great Answer, aux account) was on accident!
I did take steps for the Fanatic badge. I don't know why I am still hanging around in this site though. =)
@TheChaz Ok, try it and see if that stops bothering you. I am not that bothered personally. The first one to break will storm meta, I guess... =)
My Fanatic was just a reward for my compulsive behavior disorder...
Well, on closer inspection, he isn't always the first to bump a question.
Might be me. He did pick up on a few bumped up threads and make edits.
00:57
5
Q: Solving an equation with $e^x$

InsomaniacalI recently took my Honors Pre-Calc. exam. Wanting to get as many points as I possibly could, I circled and skipped several problems. However, I forgot to do this one, and wanted to know if I'm on the right track, because the answer I get for x doesn't work correctly. I've come up with a separate ...

Your comment was funny =)
I've seen plenty of upper-echelon users doing it. I guess it was just the combination of how insignificant most of them were was bothering me.
I upvoted to counter the comment before mine.
Did you see my comment on the f(x + 1) = f(x) + 1 edit you made
I don't know about others, but I dig up posts for two reasons: (1) to answer an unanswered question, (2) to meddle with the tags.
:evilgrin:
And MaX's recent activity is chocked full of revisions.
I've said my piece, though.
@TheChaz But I hope you agree that there's a difference in digging up a post and editing a post that's already bumped up.
I can't see what objection you might have regarding the latter. =)
01:02
Indeed. And somewhere along the way, I lost track of which he was doing. All in all, it's not a big deal. I would like to be a substantial contributor to this site one day, so I will not discourage helps that only irritate me.
@TheChaz I just saw that comment. I am glad my edit was helpful. =)
X =/= x !
(I thought I saw "X" changed to "x" in the edit...)
x -> $x$
01:04
Ah
What time zone are you in?
I'm -6
US East [EST]. I don't quite remember how this relates to GMT.
I'm central... which I think is -6 ;)
UTC-5. (Says the clock.)
@Srivatsan I will add that when I get back home tonight.
Thanks, @robjohn. I will be fully satisfied then.
01:12
How has the bookmark been holding up?
Ok, I need to get dinner. See you all.
@Srivatsan I was trying to get him to factor $1+u^3$ in the comments so he'll remember, but he's accepted and moved on...
@Srivatsan See you.
@JM Ya, I guess it would've been nice if the OP understood and posted an answer.
But I guess we should dream of more realistic things. =)
That's the Professor's dream
01:16
Yeah. Somehow there are people who don't have the patience for the Socratic approach, tho.
Those over 50 (60?), according to Hardy's "Apology"
...actually, it's more of a problem with kids today. I've had better old students than young ones...
Oh I thought you meant that "there are [teachers] who don't have the patience..."
But you seem to be talking about Plato's, not Socrates's...
Ah, yes. It seems I've conflated the student and the teacher.
I appreciate older students.
01:23
Me too. Just for being there, for one.
That all of them (in my limited experience) pay their own way through college makes them a lot more motivated. And less likely to skip/be flaky.
When I interact with high school students, they are skeptical of everything I say.
@TheChaz I was once a snotty, skeptical kid, so I understand... :)
<-- (still)
;)
I gain credibility with the youngsters by mental mathemagic
@JM: Would there be a relevant statement about the "Ham sandwich theorem" in answer to this question? math.stackexchange.com/q/88938/7850
01:54
@TheChaz Sorry, I was editing an MO answer. Anyway, I think that's more measure theory than differential geometry proper.
Well, if there is, I would be interested to read it. The Ham Sandwich Theorem is new and interesting to me, but I don't know if it even applies.
^simul-typing!
(Thanks)
02:15
@TheChaz I think it's very important to have the first word of every question capitalized...
Yes, but how important? :)
(I assume we're talking about resurrecting old questions.)
/afk
@TheChaz Not at all. I was annoyed as well. Completely irrelevant edits that added nothing but resurrecting old ghosts. And what's more, they ware almost all completely uninteresting questions (to me)
QED
QED
Hi
hello.
QED
QED
I might be too lazy to do mathematics
02:27
I thought that first statement might have been facetious! Indeed, I weigh the "let it lie" factor as more valuable than the "one character should be changed for aesthetics" factor.
QED
QED
Hopefully not
@TheChaz Well, I've done a lot of rather gratuitous editing, but I believe not that superfluous...
I'll give you the benefit of the doubt.
Thanks :)
@tb w.r.t. your name change, are you generally discrete about your personal life when interacting with people on MSE/MO ?
I am tempted to ask typical "get to know you" questions, but those have widely varying receptions.
e.g. "Are you teaching this semester?"
02:34
What personal life? Seriously: My main concern was to reduce the number of unsolicited email I receive and I succeeded in that respect. SE and MO are the only sites I participate in that can be connected to me in any way. I feel pretty uneasy about broadcasting personal stuff on the internet.
No. I'm not teaching apart from my SE activity.
Oh, you don't have to answer! I was just curious about this season of your life, but that can be an intrusive question (line of questions) to ask.
Well, I used to be at ETH mostly for the past 14 years, studying, completing my Ph.D. and doing a lot of teaching. At the moment I'm taking a break and try to figure out what's to come next.
Understood.
I find this rather funny. Make a big fuss about irrelevant TeX-issues, not knowing the first thing about markdown...
A style manual is a tad too much methinks...
02:44
I don't really follow the \mbox issue and the parentheses thing is simply too irrelevant to make a fuss about, IMO.
And somebody could tell him that \; before the dx in integrals makes too big a space...
02:57
@tb :)
Do you know what \mbox is meant to be used for?
Scratch that. Now I know what it does.
@Srivatsan I think it's a LaTeX 2.09 gadget to enclose text.
I think it's been superseded by \text, \DeclareMathOperator and the like.
03:12
Apparently \mbox{humpty dumpty} prevents line break from splitting the text.
Oh my god. =)
Oh, cardinal... :)
@Srivatsan view history
I never imagined this. Why would Michael not mention such an important bit of information?
@tb Thanks. I was fumbling around.
Hidden agendum?
Face lost. Case lost.
03:17
...I can't believe it; I'm siding with Phira here! :D
Me, too :)
But the info that Wikipedia starts using MathJaX is good news. finally!
3
But why 'not a real question'? Off-topic, maybe, but NARQ?
And what does this have to do with (abstract-algebra) and (algebraic-geometry)?
Don't know. I didn't vote; I think it's okay...
But I've deleted those tags.
Thanks.
Why is it so conventional to write $Hom$? Shouldn't we write $\operatorname{Hom}$?
I think many people are simply not aware of this.
And (AMS?)TeX only provides the ugly $\hom$
03:32
@tb Nope, not AMS
Or: aware but too lazy to bother.
Second one's more likely. ;)
@JM thanks
03:35
@JM What exactly are you saying?
busted
I like them, The.
@tb I'm thinking there ought to be some nice real-life application of Gauss-Bonnet, but all I'm coming up is the stuff with triangles...
The question is slightly ... ill-posed
Sure, if he just wanted the answer, then now is as good a time as any for him to learn about W|A
It isn't as "real-life" as I like, compared to the other answer I gave.
03:37
But if he actually wants to know how to do it... then it's Gerry and The Chaz to the rescue! (@Srivatsan)
@TheChaz Ya, I agree with you. I liked your comment, that's why I posted the link here.
@JM there is this thing of iron plates that get deformed by quick heating and cooling. but it's a bit nasty for me to formulate in proper English
The impetuous nature of my comments makes for a very interesting experience when I check my notifications in the morning...
I liked this one also (in fact, I upvoted this): math.stackexchange.com/questions/86250
03:40
@Srivatsan Well in the context of ridiculous, gratuitous revisions... yeah.
@tb Oh, quenching? Sounds good! :)
A verifiable **** storm ensued when I asked if a new answer to the monkey/hamlet question was "...written by a monkey?"
Please write it if you can.
Zev scolded me.
:-) I have seen this comment, yes.
03:43
@JM Sounds like that's it. Feel free to do it yourself. I'm really hesitant because I lack all the nice physics- and real-life terms.
The answer even has an upvote.
"Diophantine" doesn't mean what he thinks it means...
Inconceivable!
@JM By he, you mean Vassili or Paul?
@Srivatsan OP (after seeing his reply to Ross).
03:49
But the answer makes no sense, either.
@tb Okay; I'll need to think about writing it properly. Thanks for the example!
@Srivatsan Since you've been good at mind-reading so far today, let me ask another user-specific question.
Have you ever had the thought that someone would understand (user X)'s answers only if they already had mastered the material?
@TheChaz ah, that's the one where you were accused of being a chutzpah (I didn't see what that was before the edit).
Yup!
@TheChaz Bill fits the bit perfectly.
03:51
HAH!
Today is my favorite day.
I guess he is preparing for a higher level of understanding. =)
I was too embarrassed to ask for clarification a second time on one answer...
The string of equalities and logical operators was too much for my feeble mind.
I've always been leery of "pedagogically best" claims...
I'm somewhat torn. I basically like his answers, but I'm often stumped. I often don't see his way (what I was about to say is summarized well by J.M.)
Would one of you care to elaborate on the summary?
03:53
@JM Yes. Whenever I can understand the answer, I learn a lot. But sadly that's not too common a scenario. =)
I for one won't ever make the claim with my stuff, because I understand that people see stuff differently...
It's always "this worked for me"...
@JM Do you mean a claim that one method of teaching/demonstrating is better than another (or best)?
@JM And another point, who is to say that any such understanding will not be bettered? How long can something be "pedagogically best"?
@TheChaz Yep.
03:56
@Srivatsan You took the words right out of me. :D
That said, even stripping away such points of disagreements, his posts are very good. So I am glad to overlook these when I read them.
@Srivatsan If only they involved a little less TeX violence
@tb ${\rm Agreed.}$
That's another thing I never figured. Does he feel that the normal TeX is not good enough?
@Srivatsan Yes; I think he made two or three comments grumbling about the style of italic used by MathJax...
Classic ^
04:00
here's one (comments to his answer)
@JM Hasn't he been posting in sci.math for ages? I would imagine he would be more tolerant.
@Srivatsan I know, right?
But there all was typeset in monospace, hence roman, fonts.
@tb Oh =).
@tb Should we be concerned that you were able to find that link so quickly?
(or maybe it took 3 minutes... couldn't tell !)
04:03
I knew what to look for (done that search once or twice already)
@TheChaz No; I tend to remember which users said what, too. :)
full disclosure: rahul bill roman site:math.stackexchange.com
Still impressive that you logged the other user...
Oh my goodness. I meant to type: Bill fits the bill perfectly, I don't know why I leave behind so many mistakes.
[Who starred it by the way?]
04:06
I remembered that Rahul asked something I wanted to ask for a long time :)
[Not me]
Me. I was just about to say that it would have been perfect if you had said "..."
Should I un-star it? I thought it would be a good starting point for the last 100, nay, 30 lines of dialogue.
No, I was just curious.
A missed opportunity. Quite a shame.
Let's see if I can come up with a query involving another user whose name is a homonym...
And speaking of great comments, it's a shame that my "Arturo: MSE :: Chuck Norris:the universe" (paraphrased) comment was deleted along with the question that prompted it.
do you know which user?
Maybe one of you bigwigs (10k+) can send me a screen shot
It was the question "how can I be like Arturo Magidin?"
04:14
No, I can't search for the question.
Gee, thanks!
Title was: How do I be like Arturo Magidin? [closed]
Wow, I didn't know C.N. sports a beard.
(ignore)
04:16
@Srivatsan Of course he does. ;)
He's got more rep with his beard than I'll ever have.
@JM Alright. I was thinking The Chaz was referring to Arturo having a beard. [Till I read the comment more carefully today.]
Anyone familiar with Bruce Schneier facts?
Yes. It's silly, but hilarious.
"Passpoem"... :D
@Srivatsan but he does
04:19
@tb Yes, I remember.
Many days back, you showed how wrong I had imagined all the faces.
@tb Sadly, I need to research before realizing the humor.
@TheChaz to put it simply: Bruce Schneier is to Crypto what Chuck is to the world.
And to the one who noticed the similarity of looks: chapeau!
Holy crap, I only realized now that Schneier has a beard too...
@JM You're of course aware that BS (never noticed the initials :)) is responsible for the pontifex card shuffling algorithm in Cryptonomicon?
04:26
Yep; I was fiddling with cards for weeks after that.
What is this guy talking about? math.stackexchange.com/questions/89134/…
@TheChaz Not sure either; I didn't dare touch his notation...
At first glance, I thought I had found the elusive low hanging fruit! But alas...
@TheChaz: That's a standard notation $U \circ V = \{(x,z) \,:\, \exists y : (x,y) \in U,\,(y,z) \in V\}$ this generalizes composition of functions.
I see.
wait... NOW I see! (I had forgotten about the mathjax compiler!)
tb: You might be interested in: math.stackexchange.com/questions/89137.
@JM The two lines around the row 0 0 0 appear to be thicker for me.
One line is thinner (the one immediately below 0 0 0)
@Srivatsan Among all the NARQs this guy has asked this is the least NARQ. I'm gonna be uncharacteristically lenient.
@TheChaz okay, no consensus here, apparently :)
04:32
@TheChaz I was hoping I'd finally find out the secret to thicker lines, but looking at the source was disappointing...
So has any of you done the Trivium? Are the problems meant to be done by every graduate or are they like challenge problems only the top few students can manage?
Note that after clicking "edit" (answer), all the horizontal lines are of equal width in the preview/compile. @JM
@TheChaz Yeah, I tried that. Bizarre.
(afk)
@Srivatsan I have no idea what you're talking about, so I guess my answer to the first question is "no".
@JM That's how it looks for me:
04:37
Yeah, that's what I saw. That's why seeing the source was disappointing for me...
@Srivatsan Ah, I didn't see the title of V's question, but the answer is still no. But why does this guy have to reach for (the) high(est)-hanging fruit? He'd rather learn some basics first. Learn to walk before trying to do rope-dancing and all that.
Yes. In fact, we said something like that to Victor in chat today.
@JM In my browser, all the lines look similar.
@Srivatsan The mysteries of MathJax...
Yes, it seems to be browser dependent. That's how it looks in Safari:
I don't like how this question was shot down.
The third guy was out of line...
05:01
And little 'ole me over here, wondering what you could all be seeing!
btw, is there etiquette regarding the sharing of 10k+ material with 10- users?
I'm not aware of the existence of such an etiquette beyond what common sense dictates. It would certainly be okay for me to say that the third guy said "what's (some notation)? Seems to me you do not even understand your own question.", but it wouldn't be quite okay to say who that was, right?
I wouldn't know much about appropriate behavior.
Me neither.
That is remarkably comforting and amusing! I definitely appreciate your "down-to-earth" quality.
I read that the reason that things in complex analysis work out so nicely is because the Cauchy Riemann equations are the solution to a certain elliptic PDE. Where could I read about this further?
05:08
[2 minute warning]
Please guide me with this problem. math.stackexchange.com/questions/89140/…
@tb I follow that, too. I quote words, but not name names.
@Potato Seen this?
@JM I have not! Thanks.
Goodnight/day/etc. ciao
@Potato well, not a solution, they are the most basic elliptic PDE. I'd recommend Evans, for instance, look up Weyl's lemma, in particular.
@TheChaz whoops, I went boiling some coffee, too late, sorry :)
05:13
See you, Chaz.
(but thanks)
@Forte: please don't abuse chat to advertise your questions. This is the break room.
@Forte Patience, young grasshopper.
And for god's sake, you asked that question 17 minutes ago?
@JM to segue: if you edit in the review mode, does the preview work for you? Clicking show/hide preview several times doesn't seem to help
05:23
@tb Sort of spotty. Sometimes it does, sometimes it doesn't.
Yeah, same here. Most of the time it doesn't, though.
I must step out for now. See you all later!
@JM But i am stuck at this point since yesterday. Any kind of lead will be a great help.
QED
QED
@Forte, ah what is the point of this question?
@JM See you, J. M.
QED
QED
05:37
Can't we vote to close it? It's blatantly not anything to do with mathematics
Oh, well: basic and rather simple, yes. No math, not sure. Don't feel strongly about this.
QED
QED
Just take a mundane programing task and throw in the phrase "mathematical formula"
Yes, I agree. But the site is for maths on all levels, isn't it?
After all, it's not less "mathy" than many of the modular arithmetic questions we have with lots of votes.
QED
QED
I don't even have a close vote to cast anyway
05:53
@QED The point is to fetch a character out of an encrypted string without decrypting it.
 
1 hour later…
07:06
@Dylan: good morning
G'day. Still evening here.
I didn't know where you are, so I've started with random initial conditions
Yes! I'm not complaining. Just informing.
I need to figure out a way to avoid having my life taken over by calculus students at this time of year.
@DylanMoreland come to Europe ) though we also do have calculus students here
@Asaf I've found two probable pictures of you and they are quite contradicting
Tempting.
07:31
hi
@RajeshD good afternoon
Ah, you are saying random greetings.
Maybe invent some holidays.
@Dylan : was that for me ?
@RajeshD No, for Ilya.
07:48
@DylanMoreland nope, that time I knew that Rajesh is in India
he is right about afternoon.
08:05
@Srivatsan: No, they will be upset because I might wake them up when I go to bed. We live together in a normal flat, not in a dorm, like a married couple, just not married : )
I'm sleepy, but there's something bogus going on at the end of this post right?
Ah, he fixed it. Good.
What I really ought to do is get off this site and sleep. Goodnight, everyone. Pray for my calculus students—I think they might need it tomorrow.
Has to do both with the OP and the question, I presume.
Good night, @Dylan!
QED
QED
is he a horrible person
or something
I don't see any problems with the question
@Ilya It is possible, I was a hobbyist photographer. However it is also not too likely since I worked hard to remove my photographic footprint off the web.
Yes, hello.
QED
QED
I don't think that is an appropriate question
@tb Yeah, sarcastic remarks are his trademark.
@Asaf: I know, but he's even funnier when he loses patience.
@tb I know.

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