« first day (4423 days earlier)      last day (894 days later) » 

00:24
Hello.
Isn't standard linear form of -kx=mx" x''+kx/m=0?
Leading coefficient should be 1.
why is it x"m+kx=0?
Because mass times acceleration? What’s the big deal?
Mathematically, they are the same unless $m=0$
Massless Newtonian physics?
Mathematically
@Unknownx how are you defining the order of convergence?
never mind, I read the post which has an image of the definition
00:53
@Unknownx: the post received a downvote and a close vote. I imagine it is because the definition is given in an image. If possible, it would be best to convert the content of the image to MathJax. A link to an image is fine for verification, but MathJax is more easily readable and can be searched.
01:19
@TedShifrin I don't understand what you mean.
01:42
This is Newton’s second law. This is how it naturally shows up. Who cares about standard form?
02:11
Do you know a name for multisets with finite but possibly negative multiplicities?
1
Q: What is the name of this multiset-like object?

Akiva WeinbergerMy understanding is that a multiset (roughly, a set where we care about multiplicity) can be modeled as a function $V\to\Bbb{Card}$ with set-sized support, where $V$ is the class of all sets, $\Bbb{Card}$ is the class of all cardinalities, and set-sized support means the class of sets on which th...

It feels like such a natural concept that it should have a name already but I don't think I've ever seen one
i haven't heard of one.
02:28
If $f:\mathbb{R} \to \mathbb{R}$ is two times differentiable and such that $f(x)=1$ for any $x \ge 1$ and $f'(x)=-1$ for any $x \le -1$, can I conclude that there exists $c \in (-1,1)$ such that $f''(c)=0$ using the mean value theorem or I must use Rolle's theorem?
03:08
Negative multiplicities? Yikes.
Rolle is a special cass of MVT.
Do you have a typo in the question, @ZaWarudo?
It’s false as stated.
Oh, I misread. It is correct. Rolle is fine, after a little work.
There is no product rule for derivatives in several variables calculus?
I ask because I never saw one.
03:29
If it makes sense, there is. It’s in my book.
A disk 2 inches in diameter is thrown at random on a tiled floor, where each tile
is a square with sides 4 inches in length. Let C be the event that the disk will land
entirely on one tile. In order to assign a value to P(C), consider the center of the disk.
In what region must the center lie to ensure that the disk lies entirely on one tile?
If you draw a picture, it should be clear that the center must lie within a square
having sides of length 2 and with its center coincident with the center of a tile.
I don't think it is necessary that center concides
And I don't understand why P(C)=4/16. It doesn't make sense.
What you say is clear seems wrong to me.
the product rule is $\partial^{\alpha}(fg)=\sum_{\beta+\gamma=\alpha}{\alpha\choose\beta,\gamma}\partial^{\beta}f\cdot\partial^{\gamma}g$, where the greek letters are multi-indices
or, if you mean the total differential, there is $d(fg)=df\cdot g+f\cdot dg$
@TedShifrin thank you.
No, it’s right. I was thinking about the corners wrong.
03:49
@NotTfue By symmetry it has to. Just put the center at least one unit from all the edges.
@TedShifrin Oh yes my bad. The book is right I see a square now inside the square.
04:09
Cool. Pictures help.
Hey, I've been lurking around a while but was curious about something: ever since undergrad I've been interested in going to grad school for math that's more on the abstract side. I've been in the industry for more than 3 years now and I'm wondering what I should do if I want to plan to go back to grad school in the next few years :) does anyone have advice?
What pure math courses did you take in undergrad and how did you do?
Unfortunately, I have a cs degree and I'm not sure which professor would take someone who came from industry with no graduate math course experience besides complex analysis. I've thought about doing a masters but haven't found any programs for "non-applied math", i.e. I don't want to take applied math courses as a means to an end to find a career, but rather just to understand things from a more general perspective
Unsure what defines as "pure", but I went to UCLA, took terrence tao's (or rather, his postdoc's) real analysis honors course, his graduate complex analysis, honors linear algebra, probability theory & stochastic processes (but not from a measure theoretic perspective, so I wonder if this can be considered pure), computability theory
You need to learn basic analysis, algebra, topology quite well.
I've gotten some basic topology & analysis from my undergrad experience, but not so much algebra
04:14
Have you done solid proof-based linear algebra?
I've been overextending a bit in the analysis side, currently learning measure theory (as a means to an end to understand stochastic calculus to e.g. price options at work). Do you have suggestions on what's the most effective way to get started on algebra?
yes, the honors series is always focused on proofs: math.ucla.edu/~totaro/115ah.1.15f (I didn't take specifically this professor's course, but the syllabus should be uniform)
You need to read and do lots, lots of proof problems, as well as play with many concrete examples.
I understand. What do you recommend as a starter text that's heavy on proof exercises?
Get Artin’s Algebra if you want an interesting treatment.
2
There are plenty of easier books, but that won’t help.
Nice, I just ordered it on amazon. When it comes to "interesting", what do you mean? The author has a sense of humor? Their approach is aggressive in how general it attempts to be at the start? Writing style(terseness, etc) or a mix of all of the above?
04:21
Linear algebra integrated, interesting things in math as a whole. Farthest thing from just symbol pushing.
you want lang for maximal aggression in how general it attempts to be at the start. and middle, and end. (you do not want lang)
Great! Thanks for the recommendation :) I'm really excited to read it when I have the chance
Have you done something like Rudin?
Yeah Rudin was a required text
It was a bit dry but it got the job done
Very dry, but for grad school ….
04:24
compared to typical grad school texts it's not dry?
In real analysis honors I also read Metric Spaces, Cambridge University Press, by E. T. Copson which I found to be much more enjoyable
currently reading another cambridge press book by David Williams (probability theory & martingales) and really liking the presentation style and humor
I want to speed run undergrad probability in a week...
roll a lot of dice.
Korner’s Fourier Analysis is another gorgeous book.
2
ted may have been implying that in grad school, 'very dry' is about as good as it gets. many textbooks act like there's a law against motivation, and when you're reading papers, you're at the very dry mercy of people who are generally not as good writers as rudin.
i love korner's fourier analysis book.
oh no :(
04:28
that is how a mathematician learn probability but not students
Why is this the case? Why can't authors just add a bit of personality into their texts to make things more entertaining for the reader? Maximizing utility can't be the only objective here
i think that some authors don't want to stand in the way of their work reaching the largest possible audience, and worry that if they throw in anything too specific (whether to personality, or to one application) they will lose audience.
at the grad level there may also be a concern of, if i present this result too much as a machine for working in one context, it may prevent someone with a completely different perspective from realizing that it is applicable in some other context i haven't even thought of.
hmm I see
also i think many mathematicians are at least somewhat afraid of looking foolish in public, and if they ventilate too much of how they think about stuff, they worry that they will look foolish. "i always think of this as just a trick, i learned it in 1985 but it is still just a magic trick" would be helpful to know, but someone's gonna respond with some paper on how it isn't a trick and is the fundamental theorem of something-or-other.
better just to march through definition, theorem, proof. then nobody's cards are on the table.
2
I'm only curious about pure math as a means of peeling back the onion on the applied layers. If the grad text authors approach it by separating the two (fear of presenting it as a machine for one applied context) it sounds demotivating
04:39
there is also an element of efficiency. grad school would be impossible if you had to learn the origin and historical development of every idea that you might end up using. to truly stand on the shoulders of giants, it sometimes helps just to jump up on those shoulders.
2
and that often means not elaborating on at least some of the motivation.
i guess it depends on how abstract you wanna go. certainly in applied areas there are folks who are more than happy, and not shy, about stressing one application, or a set of related applications.
bioinformatics comes to mind.
When you say it's impossible, is it under some certain time frame?
Are you expected to have been presented with Every Big Idea TM at the end of the first two/three years
well no, but, the basic grad curriculum (to the extent one exists) is a pretty huge toolkit all by itself. and the history and motivations of that would be its own subject matter almost.
2
Ah ok understood.
UCLA would have given you a solid background in a lot of it. as far as 'selling yourself' to a grad program, who knows. note that in math it is fairly common to have to sell yourself to a department/program before specializing to a particular person. although i guess if you had the say-so of someone with a big grant in a department reading your application that would help.
or if you had external funding, that would also help. i think that is pretty rare though.
I see. I'm not even sure which grad programs I would be interested in. I'm not opposed to going back to UCLA since some of the professors still remember me from back then
I've saved up quite a bit slaving for quant finance, so I was hoping I could alleviate some of that funding pressure with that
04:47
i found it fairly freeing that the math application process didn't require a relationship (or proposed relationship) with a specific person at the school. i know it isn't like this in other areas (and not even in math, in other countries)
i.e. I don't really care if the professors pay me while I stay there
i was thinking more that a department would see/use the existence of external funding as a kind of proxy for vetting your potential for success in the program. not so much that the money would matter.
what's wrong with slaving for quant finance? you're moving in the wrong direction, money wise.
Nothing wrong, I just don't care about money
(as much)
i get that.
Everything at work, works great due to the simplicity of the ideas and the execution. I'm a little bored of all the approximations we have to do to do things practically
I want to dig a little deeper to understand why things really work and not just "we see this pattern", "oh ya just assume brownian motion and use ito's lemma", or "shrink that estimator"
it's like listening to 3 songs in your spotify playlist on repeat for the rest of your life
04:51
but i love shrink that estimator. i have all their records.
oh then you'd do great in manhattan!
anyways, thanks for the context, I really appreciate it :) see you guys around
05:09
Horrific to see how many people like Rudin as a writer
I know this is an unpopular opinion but good god i hated that blue rag he wrote
no, that's the popular opinion that everyone thinks is an unpopular opinion.
The minority is vocal
i didn't mean to promote rudin to the status of good writer above, i just meant to say that the average quality of published papers is lower than that
2
That is true and also says a lot
at least with rudin there's the possibility of a cult member pointing to all the clues rudin left you for how the proof explains the theorem. it's sufficiently structured that this kind of argument is possible.
and the default for publication is, not unstructured mess, but less than that
05:16
Ive often thought there should be another proof writing class you have to take later in grad school that emphasizes exposition
the 'teaching statement' of the academic job search could be replaced with a representative sample of expository work
06:02
I think part of the goal of writing proofs is just that little tweak that is obvious in retrospective but generates angst and insecurity on the first 20 readings.
2
 
1 hour later…
07:02
I am curious if it is normal that most math students have hard time socializing.
2
That doesn't sound normal or true to me
I'm preparing an hour-long workshop for a group of gifted primary school-children... do you think a session on infinities (comparing cardinalities of $\Z$, $\Q$, and $\R$, looking at bijections, hilbert's hotel, etc...) would be suitable?
The past few of these workshops have covered have included modular arithmetic, invariants/colouring, proofs and they've been received very well.
 
3 hours later…
10:30
I suppose, clever reading is a thing. You can't just read, you need to read, consider possibilities of what people mean. Understand them right. It's hard to do
2
maybe textbooks that don't just grab you by the hand with all the arguments, are a good step in that direction. It's a negative for your time, but it might benefit you in the future
Well it's not like anyone has a choice
 
1 hour later…
11:51
Probability is hard to swallow stuff.
Haven't even finished chapter 1 today lol
And makes me tired
 
1 hour later…
13:05
I am curious how can you derive a equation of collection of events given all the pairwise independence equation
For ex: P(A_1 intersect A_2 intersect A_3)=P(A_1)P(A_2)P(A_3)
given P(A_1 intersect A_2)=P(A_1)P(A_2)
P(A_2 intersect A_3)=...
and ...
At 33:23 I didn't understand both the intutive definition and proof of mathematical definition
sorry not proof I mean I couldn't derive it
 
3 hours later…
15:42
How come in probability, we count every single outcome even when it seems like two may be equivalent? For example, if you are tasked with randomly selecting 2 out of 3 electronic items, with one being defective, what's the probability that you select the defective one?

With a problem like this, why aren't the outcomes D1 N1 and N1 D1 equivalent? With D1 being the defective item and N1 being the "first" non-defective item.
When I do problems like this, it makes it seem as if the order matters when in reality, I don't see why it would.
here it seems the notion of "equivalent" will glue together different selections of 2 items from 3 items.
but the selection process itself is still potentially sensitive to distinctions that you don't know about while you do the selecting.
very loose analogy but it might help to consider tossing a coin 10 times and counting the number of heads. it should be clear that there's 10 ways you can get exactly one head, but more ways of getting exactly two heads. it's not like "two heads either happens or it doesn't." you do need to think about the flip sequences that will get you there.
even if you can ultimately replace the space in which all head-tail sequences are equally probable with a different space in which all observed numbers of heads have potentially different probabilities.
in these examples if you focus too much on the observable thing "defective or not", "heads or tails" you miss that you're choosing from a bag where you don't know what the observable thing is. thinking of two sequences of draws or coin flips as 'the same' is gluing together distinct events (in my toy example, of equal probability).
Hm...I see how that makes sense, then. I've never heard it explained that way before.
properly counting the number of events often requires enforcing distinctions between things that, when you observe whatever you're observing, vanish. "one head" doesn't care which head it is. but it matters that the event "one head" arises only in ten ways.
same with "two heads."
seems like a lot of probability problems implicitly involve a choice between a vast event space (e.g. all sequences, all draws from a bag) with simple probabilities (e.g. all things are equally probable or close to it), or a small event space (e.g. all categories of observable outcomes) with complex probabilities (where you have to do math or counting to figure out how likely something is).
So what about when something like "order doesn't matter" is stated? Is it then ok to ignore these distinctions or are the situations the same?
15:58
'order doesn't matter' for me often suggests that you are evaluating some function for which order doesn't matter, on a conceivable set of possible outcomes that might be more easily modeled in a way where order does matter.
e.g. X = {all sequences of H and T}, and f(x) = number of heads. "order doesn't matter" for the thing i care about, but if i model the problem on X for a fair coin, all sequences are equally likely.
Could you expand a little more on what you mean by that?
I guess X is the sample space, so you're saying every possible ordering has to be in there, which is why the ordering matters.
By if you're counting the number of heads, you can conflate the two events HT and TH?
@TedShifrin yeah, I proved it using Chain Rule.
I tend to think of things a little differently: the sample space consists of all possible outcomes. If we are flipping a coin 10 times, and are interested in only the counts of heads and tails, then there are actually two different sample spaces we could use to model what's happening: there is a sample space which contains all $2^{10}$ possible sequences of tosses, and there is a sample space which contains only the numbers $0$ through $10$ (i.e. the number of possible heads).
The advantage of the second sample space is that it is smaller. The example of the first is that all of the outcomes are equiprobable.
Like, how do you assign probabilities to the second sample space?
in the case of $f,g: U (\subset R^n)\to R^n$ being differentiable on non empty open set U. Then, the total derivative of $fg(t)=f(t).g(t)$ is $D(fg)_x$ defined as $D(fg)_xv=f(x).Dg_x (v)+g(x).Df_x(v), \, \forall v\in R^n$.
Oooh, with the smaller sample space things would be much more complicated. Because then you would have to consider things like what's the probability you get a heads on the 1st toss, 2nd toss, etc. Whereas with the first one, it's just # wanted outcomes/2^10 since they're equiprobable
16:15
@UnderMathUate No, the point of the smaller space is that you don't consider the order at all. But, again, you have no way of understanding the probabilities in that smaller space (at least, not without first dealing with the bigger space).
If the problem is modeled using the second space, an outcome is a number from $0$ to $10$. Where did this number come from? Who knows. It just appeared. What is the probability of any particular outcome? Uh... hard to say.
Oh, the smaller space is literally just numbers.
A similar problem would be to compare the space $\{HH, HT, TH, TT\}$ and $\{0,1,2\}$. In the first space, all outcomes are equiprobable. For the second space, I assign the probabilities $P(0) = P(2) = 1/4$ and $P(1) = 1/2$.
It turns out that either space can be used to answer the question "If a fair coin is tossed twice, what is the probability of getting two heads?"
In the first space, each outcome is equiprobable, there are four total outcomes, so each outcome occurs with probability $1/4$. There is only one outcome with two heads, so the probability of getting two heads is $1/4$.
In the second space, $P(2) = 1/4$. Where did that come from? Well... uh... by analyzing the first space.
Lol, ok I see
i love it, i was on a phone call and come back to dr. x saying (what i would have said less clearly).
And now I am teaching.
Bye.
16:26
that's why they pay him to do it
Bye. Thanks for the help @XanderHenderson
You too, @leslietownes
i added parentheticals above so it doesn't look like an insult
English syntax distinguishes between the two, and what you had is unambiguous. The problem is that most people abuse English syntax.
yeah! whoo! i love abusing english syntax
You love being abusive.
16:37
my daughter yelled at the cat this morning. the cat often vocalizes back when she knows you're talking to her, so i heard 'ahhh how could you do this' meow 'you ruined my puzzle' meow 'stay off my puzzle' meow it's a miracle i'm not more out of it than i am
I think Olivia is getting ready to take action.
16:51
$ch_{AB}(x)=ch_{BA}(x)$ proof for the case A,B have entries from C: If A is invertible, then we are done. So suppose that A is not invertible. Then, by Schur's lemma, A =$PUP^{-1}$, where U is an upper triangular matrix. U has atleast one zero on its diagonal. Let S= set of absolute values of all non zero diagonal entries of U. Choose $m\in \mathbb N$ such that 1/m < inf S. Define $U_m:= U+I/m$ and $A_m:= PU_m P^{-1}$.
Let's consider M_n (C) to be equipped with topology induced by operator norm.
Then, $|| A_m- A||= ||I/m||\le 1/m$, whence $\lim_{m\to \infty} A_m= A$
Since all $A_m$'s are invertible (because all entries on diagonal of U are non zero), it follows that $ch_{A_m B}(x)= ch_{BA_m}(x)$. Taking $\lim m\to \infty$ on both sides, noting that $ch_{PQ}(x):=det (xI-PQ)$, and continuity of the determinant, the desired result follows.
Note: It doesn't matter if S is empty because $\inf \emptyset= +\infty$
Is my proof correct? Thanks.
$ch_{A}(x)$ is notation for characteristic polynomial of matrix A.
17:48
I have to go teach another class, but, because it hurts my eyes: @Koro use \|, not ||. You could also use \Vert, I suppose. In either case, $\Vert$ or $\|$ is better than $||$. :D
Easy win
1
A: $f:[0,1)\to \mathbb{R}$ invertible and surjective (onto)?

Akiva WeinbergerHere is one example. Note that the graph has infinitely many pieces; in fact, this is necessary for this problem.

The key realization is that it must fail to be everywhere increasing.
18:05
We learned about rings in Abstract Algebra yesterday. We didn't get super far in the examples and stuff, but my professor presented one where the elements where matrices whose entries were commutative rings with identities.
It was at the end of class, so I didn't really get a chance to think about it until right now, but they made the statement that this new ring would now be a ring with identity, but not commutative. I don't know if I understand why, yet.
Entries were elements of a commutative ring ….
Just think about the matrices you know from linear algebra.
Oh, duh. Matrix multiplication.
@XanderHenderson 👍 noted. Thanks.
@TedShifrin Did I misunderstand? Are you saying the entries are elements of the ring, rather than rings themselves? I'll admit my notes are a little sloppily written...
Yes, your notes are sloppy !
18:11
Ha, lol
Suppose that f is defined on an open subset U of R^n and suppose that f is real valued.
Product of two non-zero linear maps is non-linear right?
In mathematics, a Colombeau algebra is an algebra of a certain kind containing the space of Schwartz distributions. While in classical distribution theory a general multiplication of distributions is not possible, Colombeau algebras provide a rigorous framework for this. Such a multiplication of distributions has long been believed to be impossible because of L. Schwartz' impossibility result, which basically states that there cannot be a differential algebra containing the space of distributions and preserving the product of continuous functions. However, if one only wants to preserve the product...
nvm, I got it.
Can anyone please explain the scwartz impossibility result?
Here he wanted to define product of two distributions
@Koro You could base a proof on the following: Start with $\begin{bmatrix} I & P \\ -Q & I \end{bmatrix}$. Premultiply by $\begin{bmatrix} I & 0 \\ Q & I \end{bmatrix}$. Postmultiply by $\begin{bmatrix} I & 0 \\ Q & I \end{bmatrix}$. Compute determinants to conclude that $\det (I+PQ) = \det (I + QP)$.
18:20
s.t TS(\phi)=T(\phi)S(\phi). But then TS may not be a distribution
@copper.hat I was too lazy to type this earlier, and I thought Koro was appreciating the density/continuity proofs :)
Ok, I got it.
@PNDas For example, the product of two delta distributions isn’t a distribution, is it?
That's what I was thinking.
I think what they want is to define product even if the product is not a distribution
and which satisfies some properties
and Scwartz shows that this is not possible
Colombeau shows that product is possible if we weaken some condition
19:02
Yes, that's precisely what is happening here
19:31
$\tanh\left(\tan\left(x\right)\right)\operatorname{sign}\left(\cos\left(x\right)\right)$
Fun graph
Copy/paste it into Desmos
19:46
Thanks for sharing 🙂
20:46
that mixed feeling you get when you spend all that time to write a good SE question for something you are struggling with, but then in doing so, you figure it out
@TedShifrin I would have been too lazy as well, but found it effective as a means of procrastinating from essential work.
that mixed feeling is called learning by clarifying your thoughts
AE Housman wrote that "Perfect understanding will sometimes almost extinguish pleasure."
> The art of asking questions is more valuable than solving problems.
21:31
You have to know the problem before you can solve it.
 
2 hours later…
23:26
Whelp... I have now had my Omicron booster. And a shiny new flu shot!
23:43
Also, it hailed very hard in the middle of my class today. I feel like I had to yell to be heard. :/
But the precip is nice.
Is there a symbol for "is a"?
I'm getting the booster Thursday, @Xander. I was supposed to meet two friends for dinner tonight, but one canceled because the booster yesterday knocked him on his a**.
@user51462 This doesn't sound mathematical. Context?
@TedShifrin Yeah, about halfway through my shots, I realized that I am going to feel like sh*t on Thursday.
And I have to teach until 9pm on Thursday.
Not my best moment.
But maybe I'll get lucky?
I came across the sentence "P ∧ (a contradiction) is a contradiction." I think I could use "implies" here but I was just wondering if there was a symbol for "is a", since I've been using ⟺ to say "is equivalent to".
23:59
In other news: I am frying tonight. I've got cod, I've got potatoes.
Well, maybe it'll be tomorrow you feel like sh*t, instead. I had no problems with my previous boosters, but who knows ...
It is nigh certain that I will end up with more batter than I need.
What else should I fry?

« first day (4423 days earlier)      last day (894 days later) »