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01:00 - 20:0020:00 - 22:00

01:39
I hate needles. I hate them so much
02:34
@copper.hat only if you're a 49er fan
@user85795 i'm a square fan
Be cool, don’t be square?
You have to be cruel to be kind.
I do my best.
02:52
Too much spoon feeding leaves only the memory of the shape of the spoon.
03:37
Where was spoon feeding in the discussion?
i don't remember. i just remember a round shape. somewhat like a paraboloid. or maybe it was an ellipsoid.
it had lambda-systems and generators
Hyperboloids of one sheet resemble not spoons.
@TedShifrin Oh, no... Xander was number 49; that is a square.
i'm assuming the systems have to do with the fact that those things are ruled surfaces?
Doubly ruled, in fact.
03:41
@TedShifrin spoons that I don't think would be useful for soup
Maybe a soup with reverse magnetism.
Iron enriched
Kale for the win?
What is happening?
For non-integers, it”s using the gamma function.
Try $(1/2)!$.
03:48
0.886226925453
Yup. $\sqrt\pi/2$.
$\binom{1}{1/2}=\frac4\pi$
I only use integers for the lower coefficient
This was factorial. No binomials.
I know, but it can be extended
Yes, of course, but confuzling.
03:50
interesting
is there one that equals $-{1 \over 12}$?
“How did you like the sweetbreads?” “Interesting.”
Stupid $-1/12$.
never got into innards for food
I can reframe for you, copper.
“How did you like the haggis?” “Yuck.”
yep, would pass on haggis, once is enough
03:55
So much for heritage.
not mine
Close.
I thought about trying haggis once when I went to the Tam'O'Shanter. Then I came to my senses.
tripe & drisheen if you want some Irish innards
@TedShifrin I didn't really have anything to add other than "interesting"
04:02
I’ve had tripe in France, not elsewhere.
OK @Cotton
@CottonHeadedNinnymuggins You could have added all the positive integers to get $-\frac1{12}$
generally not a fan of parts, we had a lot of liver & kidney growing up, but i am happy to leave that, along with intestines, tendons, pig's feet & brain behind me
and chicken feet
and frogs
give me potatoes or give me death
death au gratin
LOL
Or Death Anna
sweet death doesn't convey the potato connection
04:07
How to show that a holomorphic function can't be radial?
What does that mean?
this is also in ahlfors.
presumably a function of radius only?
$f(z)=g(|z|)$
presumably that f(z) depends only on |z|.
04:08
A radial function F on $R^2$ means that it is constant on every circle centered at 0.
@leslietownes ohh
Look at C-R in polar.
pick your toolkit, really, but C-R definitely jumps out as the low tech way to do this.
Ah, that's what I thought!
i want to use the open mapping theorem
@robjohn I saw a Numberphile video on that a while ago, and then Mathologer dunking on them
04:10
@robjohn and this too. I said that with this f has to be real valued so can't be holomorphic unless it's a constant.
I realize that it is wrong.
why does the $f$ have to be real valued?
I do need polar here
Or playing with $1$-forms works nicely.
@Koro It might be easier to show that if a holomorphic function is radial, then it is constant.
show that $z \mapsto f(e^z)$ is 'independent' of '$y$'.
04:19
That’s good, copper.
The mean of a harmonic function over $|z|=r$ is its value at $0$, so if a harmonic function is radial, it is constant.
the real and imaginary parts of a holomorphic function are harmonic
I used CR to get: $u_r=v_r=0$
where $f(r,\theta)= u+iv= F(r)$, where u=Re F(r), v= Im F(r)
@copper.hat why is it so? $f(e^z)= f(e^x. e^{iy})$
@Koro what is $|e^z|$ in terms of $x,y$ where $z=x+iy$.
$f$ is independent of phase.
$|e^z|=e^x$
so $f(e^z)$ is 'independent' of $y$. Hence constant.
04:29
$f(e^z)=|f(e^z) |e^{i \theta}$
the idea is that the range of $f$ is 'one dimensional'
@Koro nooooooo
ohh
here $\tan \theta= q/p,$ where q= Im f(e^z), p= Re (f(e^z))
do you want to say that $f(e^z)=f(e^x)$
?
I guess not.
If $g(z) = f(e^z)$, what is $g_y$?
as ahlfors would say, 'the argument is harmonic whenever it can be uniquely defined'
have you used that line in court?
04:35
$g_y(z)= f_y(e^z) e^x (i e^{iy})$
koro this is on the same set of pages as the earlier stuff in ahlfors, if you have that
@Koro no, $g_y = 0$.
ohh
the idea is that the $e^z$ part 'straightens out' the range of $f$ in some way.
Using CRE, we get: $u_r=v_r=0$ so $f'(z_0)= 0$ at every $z_0$ and hence f must be constant.
04:37
i am sure there is some manifold mumbo jumbo terminology for that
@Koro yep
:-)
I still don't understand your approach though. I'll think about it.
what mapping would you use to locally straighten out radial graph paper?
conformal mappings are pure magic
folks used to conformal mappings to solve static flow problems
ah, I'm yet to study conformal maps 😬
04:53
for me, using this stuff in an engineering setting (radiation patterns, smith charts, etc) helped considerably with developing some intuition
I see :-).
That's great. I also want to apply my mathematical understanding to engineering.
:-)
 
1 hour later…
06:07
Please suggest reference to study Quasi cauchy sequence in details.
 
1 hour later…
07:21
Let
$E ⊂ (0, 1)$
be the set of all real numbers with decimal representation using
only the digits $1$ and $0$:
$E := \{ x ∈ (0, 1) : ∀j ∈ N, ∃d_{−j} ∈ \{1, 0\} \text{ such that } x = 0.d_{−1}d{−2} . . .\}$.
$f : E → ℘(N) \text{ s.t if }
x ∈ E, x = 0.d_{−1}d_{−2} . . .,
f(x) = \{j ∈ N : d_{−j} = 1\}$.
@Koro If it were you how would you prove the bijection of this? Just curious because I feel like my proof doesn't feel that nice.
The one I posted earlier.
07:33
What does it mean for two algebras defined over the same space to be independent? is it literally just that they share the least amount of elements possible (i.e. only share the same identity...and the non-element)?
 
3 hours later…
10:19
I'd say the contrapositive statement will be easier to prove.
10:38
@NotTfue of what?
oh, your question
@NotTfue what is $f$? (and why not use MathJax?)
my phone can't render math Jax unfortunately
@robjohn $f(x) = \{j ∈ N : d_{−j} = 1\}$
It produce natural number if d_{-j} is 1 from decimal expansion.
I don't know if this is logical sound but I think if x=x' implies that f(x)=/=f(x') because you can say element of f(x) will not occur in f(x) and vice versa.
10:45
@NotTfue you've installed ChatJax? what kind of phone?
@robjohn I use Samsung browser. Very old phone. Galaxy mini.
I can't say for your particular phone, but most phones run ChatJax
@robjohn have you seen proof of this kind I am very curious how other wrote the proof of bijection between power set and real number in (0,1).
I will try again to install chatjax. It is nightmare.
Well still doesn't work. Works on pc flawlessly.
Anyway I think I can render latex using my imagination.
11:14
how about subjection? define take any $y\in f(x) x=\sum_{n\in y}1/10^n+1111.... 'so$ f(x)=y $
I wish I was at least gifted with little amount of mathematical intelligence so it won't take me 4 days to just think about particular proof ;_;
@Vicfred best of luck
11:50
@NotTfue we already discussed this. Didn't we?
12:26
1
Q: $\sin(\frac{\pi}{p}) $ not expressible by positive radicals and $\sin(\frac{\pi}{q_i})$ ??

mickWe have the following identities: $\sin(\frac{\pi}{1})=0$ $\sin(\frac{\pi}{2})=1$ $\sin(\frac{\pi}{3})=\frac{\sqrt{3}}{2}$ $\sin(\frac{\pi}{4})=\frac{1}{2}$ Lets start with a definition. Rules for construction : We start with the set of positive integers and we extend with a finite set $A$ of alg...

12:49
@Koro Yeah but I thought if there are other way that looks much cleaner.
13:33
@TedShifrin haha, that's neat
I also realized as I've been thinking through it again a couple days ago that the omission of why this "division" works is a more significant gap than I thought
cause that's actually the only part of the argument that doesn't work anymore in higher codimension
14:13
in Helpful Commentary, 20 mins ago, by Shaun
Please would someone give some feedback on the following?
-1
A: Union of two affine varieties equals to the product of the varieties

ShaunHint: $k$ is a field and so has no zero divisors.

14:25
@NotTfue what is pre-image of the empty set, $\emptyset\in P(\mathbb N)$?
 
1 hour later…
15:34
0
Q: $f: D\to \mathbb C$ is holomorphic such that $diam f(D)=d$, then $|f'(0)|=d/2\implies f$ is linear.

Koro$f: D\to \mathbb C$ is holomorphic such that $\sup_{u,v\in D}|f(v)-f(u)|=d$, then $|f'(0)|=d/2\implies f$ is linear. Here, let's suppose that $D$ is a closed unit disk. By Cauchy's integral formula, since $f(z)$ and $f(-z)$ are both holomorphic, we have for every circle $C_r$ centered at $0$ and ...

iteration of:
z = z^2 + 1/(1/z + 1/Conjugate[z]) + Zeta[N[z]]
Found this on Twitter
I got 45°
Is there any papers or articles related to the numbers $n$ satisfying: digit sum of $n^2$= $($digit sum of $n)^2$?
16:03
Is it correct?
16:19
Hi guys, I'm going a little crazy here.
I'm attempting this questions. The answer comes out to $diag(0.5,0.5,0)$
But, how does that work? P is not made from the eigenvectors of A?
So how is this being diaganolised?
e.g. by looking here I can see that P isn't the matrix symbolab says should diagonalise it
yet it happens anyway
@Jake You're just wrong. That's why :) There are lots of $P$'s that work. Lots.
wait. So you can diagonalise a matrix without its eigenvectors?
I thought the columns of P had to be the eigenvectors of A?
The ones symbolab gives aren't even multiples...
@冥王Hades it's making me go nuts
I'm stuck on a matrices problem too
16:37
@TedShifrin surely, P has to be made of eigenvectors right?
Because you can rearrange to $AP = BP$ and deduce from there
@Jake Since two of the eigenvalues are equal, what can we say about the two associated eigenvectors?
degenerate?
@Jake Yes, that's correct. That's why I said you were wrong earlier.
what can you say about any linear combination of the two eigenvectors?
also an eigenvector
16:42
yes, so there are many eigenvectors.
is that only the case for the degenerate case?
Degenerate is very much the wrong word.
It happens for $\begin{bmatrix}\frac12&0&0\\0&\frac12&0\\0&0&1\end{bmatrix}$ also
When you have a repeated eigenvalue, you may or may not have enough corresponding eigenvectors. The words algebraic and geometric multiplicity are relevant.
I'm a physicist :)
Degenerate is our favourite word
16:45
(they all are) ;-)
@robjohn so could this be done for one without repeated eigenvalues?
@Jake If you don't have repeated eigenvalues, the eigenvectors are distinct (up to scalar multiples), they do not form a plane of eigenvectors.
ahhh I see
This article explains it well
This was highly annoying – I'm only tutoring some university student and had my entire math abilities brought to crumbling point
To me the degenerate situation is a repeated eigenvalue with only one (independent) eigenvector.
$\begin{bmatrix}\frac12&1&0\\0&\frac12&0\\0&0&1\end{bmatrix}$
16:53
That’ll do nicely, thanks.
It was easy to copy/paste and change one value
hello @robjohn
Easy unless on an ipad or phone, yes.
@TedShifrin Copy paste is not too difficult on my iPhone. There is a way to select a block of text.
17:06
not sure how it suggests to respective form of Ax Ay and Az
geometry problem: what's the easiest way to convince someone that $(x(t),y(t))=(\cos t,\cos(t-\phi))$ traces out a diagonal ellipse for $0<\phi<\pi/2$
not sure why you're assuming that's directed at you
one way would be to plot it, either using software or by hand
if i do angle addition formula to expand i get $y= \cos t\cos \phi-\sin t\sin \phi\implies \cos t=x,\sin t =(x \cos\phi-y)/\sin \phi$
hence $x^2+(x\cos \phi -y)^2/\sin^2\phi =1$
which is definitely an ellipse but i dunno if it's obviously diagonal
if i replace $t\mapsto t+\phi/2$ then i guess i get $x,y=\cos t\cos (\phi/2)\pm \sin t\sin (\phi/2)$
so $x+y=2\cos t\cos(\phi/2)$, $x-y=2\sin t\sin(\phi/2)$. at which point i guess it's obvious that it's a diagonal ellipse
@Jake the usual case in physics where you run into degeneracy is in quantum mechanics, in which case you're usually dealing with Hermitian matrices
for which the spectral theorem applies and there's no difference between geometric/algebraic multiplicity of eigenvalues
17:25
@robjohn I agree ... when it works.
What is a diagonal ellipse, Semiclassic?
axes are $y=\pm x$
Ah.
You make up your own terminology :D
main reason i'm sticking to diagonal is that it's a 45-degree line segment when $\phi=0$
i.e., a diagonal line
Let $p$ be an odd prime. $S_p$ has order $p!$. So every Sylow p-subgroup is of order p. Let no. of Sylow p-subgroups be $n_p\equiv 1 \pmod p$. Each of these Sylow subgroups has p-1 elements of order p. So total no. of elements of order p in $S_p$ is $(p-1)n_p\equiv p-1 \pmod p$. But total no. of p-cycles in S_p is (p-1)!. So $n_p(p-1)=(p-1)!\equiv 1 (p-1) \pmod p\implies (p-1)!\equiv -1 \pmod p$. This proves Wilson's theorem. :-)
I'm heading off to get another Covid booster, @Semiclassic, but I'll look at it when I get back.
17:28
kk
can anyone help
29 mins ago, by Prateek Mourya
not sure how it suggests to respective form of Ax Ay and Az
18:13
@Semiclassical The relevant matrix is $\begin{bmatrix} 1 & -\cos\phi \\ -\cos\phi & 1\end{bmatrix}$, with eigenvalues $1\pm\cos\phi$ and, indeed, eigenvectors $(1,\pm1)$.
yeah
it's figuring how to make this accessible to students without going into the guts of that
i don't see a way around grappling with the rotation matrix, in some form or another, whether or not you write it down and say 'this is the rotation matrix.'
well, $t=\phi/2,\phi/2+\pi/2,\phi/2+\pi,\phi/2+3\pi/2$ gives the points on the semi-major/minor axes
and these do lie on the lines $y=\pm x$
i guess it's not exactly obvious that those are the right points tho
Well, high school precalculus used to teach the formula for the rotation of the axes by brute force, no linear algebra.
i do want to introduce the rotation matrix today if i can, so it's not entirely impossible
18:20
I would suggest that the "easier" alternative is to show symmetry about $y=\pm x$ by showing the equation is preserved by switching $x$ and $y$ up to sign.
but i don't think i have the luxury of doing the $v^\top A v=1$ form of an ellipse
@TedShifrin true. the way to do that $y=x$ part of that is to take $t\mapsto \phi-t$ so that $(\cos t,\cos(t-\phi))\mapsto (\cos(t-\phi),\cos t)$
actually, once you have one symmetry axis of an ellipse isn't that it? (assuming you know it's an ellipse)
Yes, if you know the axes of symmetry must be orthogonal (also linear algebra).
true
this is in the context of a very short lab activity, mind
so i have to be judicious about what stuff i include
my hs calc teacher assigned an extra credit problem once about finding the volume of a surface of revolution of a graph about the line y = x, and it broke the class. we had none of the prerequisites. i ended up getting a solution, but using stuff that we had not seen in the class.
18:32
so...volume of a cone
oh
misread
i don't actually know how you'd do that without rotating
In mathematics, Pappus's centroid theorem (also known as the Guldinus theorem, Pappus–Guldinus theorem or Pappus's theorem) is either of two related theorems dealing with the surface areas and volumes of surfaces and solids of revolution. The theorems are attributed to Pappus of Alexandria and Paul Guldin. Pappus's statement of this theorem appears in print for the first time in 1659, but it was known before, by Kepler in 1615 and by Guldin in 1640. == The first theorem == The first theorem states that the surface area A of a surface of revolution generated by rotating a plane curve C about an...
that's what i was able to use (it was not in our textbook)
War of the Worlds: Attack of the Centroids
even shintuku must admit that the centroids leaked from a lab in alexandria
i'm too much of a ba'ath party fangirl to admit it sorry
@leslietownes i'd say they should burn it down to prevent any more leaks but i guess they already tried that
18:38
booo semiclassical. too soon!
one thing i do want to make hay about is the following curve: $(x,y)=(\cos t,\sin t)+ r(\cos (t-\phi),-\sin (t-\phi))$
if you take $(r,\phi)$ as polar coordinates in a $uv$-plane, then you get: $(u,v)=(1,0)$ gives a horizontal segment, $(-1,0)$ gives a vertical segment, $(0,0)$ gives a right-handed circle
points with $r=1$ gives line segments at angle of $\phi/2$ to the $+x$-axis
points with $\phi=0$ give ellipses with semi-axes $1\pm r$. etc
@leslietownes I've assigned this sort of thing as extra credit in Calc II for years. Doing the region between $y=x$ and $y=x^2$. I love the problem. The issue is that you can do it wrong and still get the right answer. Understanding this was a good exercise for me the first time it happened.
@TedShifrin the joy/horror of howlers
You don't need to rotate. You just need to slice perpendicular to $y=x$ and do a change of variables in the integral.
i forget what the other curve was in my case. i think it was a parabola, but not y = x^2. i think he used one where x was a function of y.
18:45
Probably $x=y^2$ :P
It actually is a great problem. We should give it to everyone here.
Can anyone suggest me some books or notes about inverse fourier transform on $L^1$? In the book, they discussed only on $\mathcal S(\mathbb R^n)$.
I forgot write please.
PNDas, i am 10+ years removed from specifics, but are you generally aware of the difficulties in characterizing the range of function spaces under the fourier transform or its inverse? i do not know in this specific case but know in general that knowing exactly what happens under X fourier transform on Y space (where X is empty or inverse) is difficult. and if you had more hypotheses that would definitely help.
ted: anyway, it's what you do if you want to find the one person in 30 people in 1996 who will go on and get a phd in math
Hola, math chat
@leslietownes I know how they define Fourier transform for $L^1,L^2,\mathcal S$ and their properties. I know the properties of inverse fourier transform on $\mathcal S$ and I found a lecture note where they define it for $L^1$. I want to know properties of IFT which holds on $L^1$ but not on $\mathcal S$ etc.
@leslietownes Over the years I had some good students (who did not go particularly far in mathematics) who solved it. There were enough challenging problems when I taught the Spivak course that I did not include this there — just in regular Calc II classes.
Hola @Rithaniel
18:53
at that level of generality i would just direct you to the general textbooks on harmonic analysis. e.g. katznelson who has at least a lot of the forward stuff in his dover-published book.
@TedShifrin ehh. rotation is just a change of variables itself, so i'm not sure if this is much different
i think ted meant a 1-d change of variable, i.e. at most interchanging x and a function of y.
$x^2\equiv -1(p)$ has a root iff $p\equiv 1 (4)$. Is this statement true? I don't think so.
if you have multivariable change of variable, game over.
koro can you time travel back to 1801 and tell us?
No, no, totally a different thing, @Semiclassic. You go $u$ units down the line $y=x$ and solve for the $x$-coordinate of the intersection of the perpendicular line with the curve $y=x^2$.
18:57
($\Rightarrow$) We have two cases: 1) p|(x-1), 2) p|(x+1). In case 1), we get: $x\equiv 1(p)$, i.e., $-1\equiv 1(p)\implies p|2$
Case 2 also gives the same result that $p|2$.
i.e., p=2
Koro: This is a famous result in every algebra book, even mine. One direction is a bit more challenging.
How is $x^2+1$ factoring, exactly? Geez. Pay attention.
take $p=5$. then $2^2+1=5$
koro it is OK not to approach every result in mathematics like a blank slate
@TedShifrin Ohhh :(
It's about 12:30 am here.
I don't know how I thought that to be $x^2-1$.
late night math
19:00
I don't know why I tend to do that. In my today's exam, I unconsciously wrote $1/(z-1)^2= \frac 1{z^2 (1-1/z^2)}$
i don't think it's particularly easy to prove that theorem by elementary means
During my review of my answer script before submission, I noted that and fixed it.
😅
beware the statement is only true for odd primes $p$
@leslietownes That's a thing I had to learn (but I also think it's a good rule of thumb to re-prove any lemmas/theorems you're using which you don't fully understand)
@Thorgott no?
x=1 is a solution if p=2.
19:02
last I checked 2 wasn't congruent to 1 modulo 4, though
$x=1$ doesn't imply $x^2=-1$
One direction is totally elementary. Wilson's Theorem.
The other needs some ring theory.
what's the simplest non-elementary way to do it, hmm
something something gaussian integers?
Gaussian integers and $\Bbb Z[i]/(p) \cong \Bbb Z_p[x]/(x^2+1)$
$1^2=1\equiv 1-2 (2)=-1(2)$ @Semiclassical
no?
19:03
ooo, nice
@Koro sure but how is that relevant
(,) means $\pmod ,$
I love this proof so much that I even remember the outline :D
@Semiclassical x=1 is a solution when p=2
*solution of $x^2=-1 (p)$
is it not?
oh. that's not what thorgott was getting at
Ohh
he meant the result that I wrote p== 1(4)
19:05
right
There should be an a priori assumption that $p$ is an odd prime. Geez.
i guess p=9 is the simplest test
Since $9$ is a well-known prime
Quick memory check. For a point on a surface, the gradient gives you the direction of steepest descent, right?
What are you talking about, Rithaniel?
Sloppy, sloppy statement/question.
Gradient of what?
19:06
it's a hairstyle in vogue i believe
Are there infinitely many primes of the form 111....1111? That is $\frac19(10^n-1)$?
the algebraic geometer inside of me (<- a complete fabrication of my deluded mind) says to simply draw Spec(Z[x]) and conclude visually
Conclude what visually?
Let me look up the solution manual now.
It's good that I have that.
the claim in question, but feel free to conclude anything else you want, too!
19:08
Sorry. It's been a hot minute since I did multivariable calculus, and I'm trying to remember terminology for the vector which, for a given point in the plane, tells you the direction of steepest descent. I'm just thinking in terms of a real valued function in two real variables (so, a "surface")
@PNDas How many have you tried?
No, you have to specify whether you're graphing a function or looking at a level surface.
If you graph $z=f(x,y)$, then $\nabla f$ gives the direction in the plane along which the surface goes up most quickly, yes. The negative will give you descent.
@TedShifrin Okay, this feels like what I'm remembering
19:10
It follows from understanding directional derivatives.
@PNDas that's always a multiple of 11 when n is even, so you'd need to restrict to odd n
Divisible by $3$ whenever $n$ is a multiple of $3$.
Directional derivatives are probably the thing I should review, in that case
@Semiclassical you mean even greater than 2
Obviously
19:13
yeah
Yes. Or you can watch a few minutes of the appropriate one of my videos :D
Geometry of the gradient is one of my favorite topics in multivariable calculus.
from mathematica, the first such n after n=2 seems to be n=19
If you see the quora link then the answerer mentioned first five such n's
@TedShifrin Send me a playlist and I'll put them on in the background while I make dinner
next n's are 23,317,1031
Actually the main problem is to prove or disprove infinitude of product-smith numbers pndasmathblog.wordpress.com/2023/03/01/product-smith-numbers
19:19
@Rithaniel The link is in my profile. Look at Day 26-27.
"are there finitely many n such that P(n)" is a format in elementary number theory that can either be easy or entirely intractable
This is a weird strategy to promote my blogs.
@PNDas one reason to not be surprised by the lack of progress is to note that the base-2 version is Mersenne primes
the fact that we don't fully understand the binary version is a pretty good reason to expect that the decimal version is entirely out of reach
@Semiclassical I think someone (probably Erdos) said something like : an Idiot can ask a question in number theory which is very hard.
I don't remember
sounds right
the ratio of question-difficulty to question-complexity can be absurdly high in number theory
19:28
I have no relation with number theory. These questions are just out of curiosity.
I wanted to go in number theory but I am bad at abstract algebra.
There are very analytic parts of number theory, but one does need at least a solid first-year graduate knowledge of algebra, regardless.
another unexplained downvote.
Let me go find a copper post to downvote :D
It's probably leslie making trouble, as usual.
Here's a fun proof that took me way too long to work out again:
There's a homomorphism $(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z})^{\times}\rightarrow\mathbb{Z}^{\times}$ given by sending $x\mapsto x^{(p-1)/2}$. The domain is a cyclic group of even order, from which it follows that the morphism is non-trivial, hence has kernel of index $2$, and that the set of squares is a subgroup of index $2$. The squares, however, are obviously contained in the kernel, so we have equality. Thus, $-1$ is a square mod $p$ iff $(-1)^{(p-1)/2}=1$ iff $p\equiv1\mod 4$.
this relies on knowing the cyclicity of $(\mathbb{Z}/p\mathbb{Z})^{\times}$, but I'd argue that's still elementary
I'm not sure it's all that much more elementary than the Gaussian integer approach, but it appears so to the outside observer.
I just like the Gaussian integers too much and writing $a^2+b^2 = (a+ib)(a-ib)$ seems a lot less abstract than the group theory result.
19:43
Gaussian integers feel very concrete to me
yeah, I wouldn't say more/less elementary, it's just two genuinely different proofs, which I think is nice
i feel like playing with elementary number theory is a decent way to prep one for learning abstract algebra
I think there are other reasons to argue for the Gaussian integer approach. Suppose we want to understand factorization of non-primes.
Imagine if voting required passing a calculus 3 test
@Semiclassic Indeed, even though I was never a fan of number theory, for pedagogical reasons I wrote my algebra text incorporating a lot of that from the outset.
@Hades I'd be satisfied if you made that calc 1. It would also be a prerequisite for members of congress, many of whom could never fulfill it.
19:47
@TedShifrin I'd be surprised if congress members could even pass basic trig
@Semiclassic I tried to teach my algebra students how to use intelligent exploration of examples to develop intuition and arrive at a proof. But it's not easy to convince a student to do something other than type a bunch of numbers into a calculator :D
@Hades Well, one of the dumbest even went to law school. I don't know what math he had to take for his college degree.
@TedShifrin I wouldn't trust them as my lawyers lol
Hell no.
I would happily take the big names from the impeachment proceedings as my lawyers, though. Schiff and Raskin are very impressive.
This question gets an award for worst title and heaviest disguise on a basic linear algebra question!
@TedShifrin That reminds me, you should've seen some of the congress hearings when they brought in Mark Suckerberg and even Sundar Pichai. The congress members asked them some of the stupidest questions I've ever heard. I don't like either of them, but I give them a lot of credit for not bursting out in laughter at those questions.
As far as I saw the congress members are tragically ignorant on tech. That shouldn't be the case
Zuckerberg has turned out to be quite the narcissist, too. Pichai I do not know.
19:55
@TedShifrin that's why I call him Suckerberg. Pichai is alright I guess. Point is, as mediocre as those two may be, I was feeling bad for them. That's how stupid the congress is
Senator: "How do you sustain a platform where users don't pay for the service?". Suckerberg: "Senator we run ads." Senator: "How many miles do they run?"
There are some very dumb senators. Was this hearing actually in the Senate or in the House? I didn't watch it.
01:00 - 20:0020:00 - 22:00

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