So your trolling here isn't enough? ;)

@tb I enjoy waiting under bridges for billy-goats.

@robjohn In that case, beware the big one... :)

@tb Now it's been detracted. :)

retracted*

well, I still don't understand the fuss. Anyway, 5 more upvotes and André will have a brilliant reputation score.

@robjohn :)

3 more now.

too late :(

@tb Darn! he was accepted and passed 33333

Oy, yesterday I complained and today I beat Dylan by 1 second! @Dylan sorry about that, I saw it only now.

@tb That was close!

and I can see them both hee hee

@t.b.: seems like KCd could use your help here...

@JM Yeah, I saw it already, thanks. The detour is huge and somewhat painful to work out in detail in such a way that it becomes plausible... It's essentially projective duality (hence polarity) implemented via the Legendre transform. Applying this to n-ary form this boils down to writing some partial differential operators that were used by Aronhold. Now for quadratic forms this comes down to the observation that applying these operators essentially extract the Hessian, ie. the binary form

So... Polarenprozess is Hilbert's doing?

I'm not sure I have both the stamina and interest to make this comprehensible, readable and what not

I think I'll bump it up; it looks to me that it should have a more "mathematical" tag other than the three tags it already has... I wonder what.

multilinear-algebra I suppose?

@JM No, somewhat earlier by Gordan and Clebsch in their work on invariant theory. Inspired mainly by Sylvester, Cayley and Aronhold on the form side, the geometry I can't tell.

@JM Why not, and maybe quadratic-forms, too.

Done. Hopefully somebody with good mathematical German responds to KCd's plea.

Good morning

Good morning.

@Jonas: how are feeling? ready for the battle? didn't the fog discourage you?

good afternoon/morning/evening

good night!

Good morning to both of you.

@Gortaur Not ready yet. I like fog!

nevermind

@Nikhil: make that "afternoon" :)

@JM: yeah afternoon :)

I was wondering if someone had read the purported proof of odd perfect number conjecture posted at arxiv

Segue: I found this while combing through meta.SO and was reminded of some recent questions...

here is the link for odd perfect number conjecture proof.

arxiv.org/abs/hep-th/0401052

"if on closer inspection the conversation is all towards the shallow end of the pool, with moderately difficult questions going unanswered, then a Help Vampire infestation is likely."

@JM I will go make a tea and read that freaking story sometimes looking at the fog outside the window

Help help, we're being infested!

@NikhilBellarykar Why is a number theory paper in hep-th?

@JM strange indeed. But the abstract looked sane enough, hence my question. I am currently at page 3 of the paper.

@NikhilBellarykar Given that it is 8 years old and not mentioned here (Pace Nielsen is known for being serious about this stuff) and I haven't heard of the resolution of that problem I'm doubtful it's worth the pains, to be honest.

@t.b. Thanks for the info. I will keep reading until either a mistake is found or I get bored.

@Gortaur: good morning!

@robjohn good night, Rob

@Jonas: good morning to you, too!

@Gortaur Thanks :-)

Thanks :-). MSc in 5 hours!

@JonasTeuwen tfu-tfu-tfu

@JonasTeuwen ceremony?

No, that is only in march, I just finish everything including my thesis.

@JonasTeuwen Have you had your defense?

@JonasTeuwen will you also drink Champagne?

@robjohn That is in 3,5 hours :-).

@JonasTeuwen Ah, well then, good luck!

Thanks.

@Gortaur As long as it's after the proceedings, of course. ;)

@JM I'm just sitting in front of coffee room. whenever someone is defended, I always hear how the bottle shoots

We don't have fancy things like champagne.

But I would go in to get some champagne...

@JonasTeuwen don't forget ;)

@JM: this one was pretty easy ;-)

@Gortaur No I won't :D.

@rob: the comment upvote you got was mine... ;)

@JM Thanks!

@JM: why?

On that note, I haven't seen the "fi" ligature in quite a while...

I mean, that's more about probability than about probability distributions. The guy clearly cannot see the difference between discrete and continuous r.v.

I was about to put both, but since you did... :)

Does someone have a nice image of annuli for me? (Splitting R^2 in annuli).

@JM :-p

@JonasTeuwen Can't find anything you like in Google Images?

I want a vector image.

@Gortaur Why answer? good question. Perhaps it should go on the main page :-D

Plus there is nothing suitable there. Or I'm unable to find it.

@robjohn what? ))

one property, that could be broken out to three: monotonically increases from 0 to 1.

@robjohn No, he was wondering why I set the tag to probability-distributions...

@JM Ah...

@robjohn yeah, find 2 properties of CDF is a bit weird question )

@JM I got the Organizer badge today. I guess I had never set a tag before.

Apparently so; it's a one-time badge...

@JM Unless I can do something for the first time more than once...

Hah, why?

... what?

O.M.G. Now they gave me an overhead projector but the mirror doesn't want to stay up.

Loose screw I reckon...

Yep.

And I'm not allowed to handle a screw driver here.

I'm not part of the support staff.

We crossed 1000 questions tagged general-topology math.stackexchange.com/questions/tagged/general-topology

Reason to celebrate, isn't it?

@robjohn Are you there? If so, could you shortly tell me why we usually take a straight cone and not say a parabolic one (such that it is non-tangential)?

@MartinSleziak Neat!

Maybe merging topology and general-topology contributed to the post count, but anyway it's nice. meta.math.stackexchange.com/questions/1363/…

The lions! In 1 hour and 20 minutes! Oh no!

Dude.

@JonasTeuwen yes

@JonasTeuwen Dude

I apologies if I appear to be a troll/lion but this quotation appeared on Cantors PhD paper and I would like to find out your opinion(s)

I'm not sure what he means.

Me niether

thanks for answering

I am looking for intellegent disscussion

Not again...

always

again please accept my apologies if I appear to be a troll

this quotation appeared on Cantor's PhD paper

In mathematics the art of asking questions is more valuable than solving problems.

This is what happens when one neglects to specify which formal system one wants answers to use.

@Rob it's so vague you should ask people who wrote it :)

it could be as simple as 'be picky about what problems you pursue or else you'll waste a lot of time'

@AlexeiAverchenko I agree it is vague

or it could be about the actual investigation of problems

@AlexeiAverchenko Thank you! I never thought about it that way

at school the questioning process is always handed down to the students... but in the real world this process is "what its all about"

the art of asking questions

don't mention it :)

:-)

@Rob I'm looking for deja vu pills

Is looking for "intelligent discussion" a bad thing Gortaur?

:-)

oh, by the way

@JonasTeuwen If the approach regions are tangential, the limits no longer hold a.e.

Finally I know what user lhf's letter mix stands for...

That makes you the sixth guy to come to those terms this week... :D

only i don't

i know \lhf is the same as \lefttriangle

but what LHF stands for is beyond me

@Jonas: springerlink.com/content/x761286035258411/fulltext.pdf

That URL might be restricted to licensees.

Jonas -> MSc!

Congrats!

Did you get interesting questions from the committee?

Yes. And I got a 9/10!

@JonasTeuwen Congrats!

@Jonas: take a look at that PDF, if you have access. It might shed some light on the approach question.

@JonasTeuwen NOW you can drink... skol!

So, did you get someone from the audience to hold the mirror up during your presentation?

Skol?

PORQUE?!

@JonasTeuwen Cool! You the Master

@Jonas: Congrats!

@JonasTeuwen Congratulations and enjoy the party!

If somebody could have a look at the source of my answer here and identify the reason for the ugly spacing after the displayed formula and before the "By (3)" here:

I'd be immensely grateful.

@t.b.: Check now.

@JM: Very good, what did you do?

I separated the terminal $$ and "By" with just a space...

@JM: wonderful, thanks a lot. But that's rather bizarre.

@JM I see you changed it, too. I removed the two blanks before the linebreak and got the same thing.

I know; I wanted to see what happened with a relatively extreme spacing tweak... luckily it turned out fine.

I don't know whether the two blanks were spaces or tabs or non-breaking spaces, but removing them fixed it. The linebreak doesn't seem to have any effect.

but removing it won't hurt anything.

Ah, I see. I had two blank spaces after the double dollar signs which introduced a further hard line break resulting in a blank line.

That'd do it :-)

Geez... Pete Clark's answer keeps gaining upvotes.

It's concise, but outsourced. It must have some appeal that I am not getting.

The appeal is just Pete's local and MO fame, I guess. Many of his answers are just commented links to some notes of his. If you want you can earn him a gold badge by upvoting Martin's answer.

@robjohn I was #32. =)

@tb How would upvoting Martin's answer earn Pete a badge?

I remember some: Twice the next best answer+10 votes... // Checking.

@Srivatsan Don't get me wrong, the answer is nice. He has done a course on the subject, and referenced the notes from that course. I am just amazed at the number of upvotes.

@Srivatsan populist

Populist, you mean...

yep.

Never even knew that existed. Interesting.

@robjohn Er, sorry, I didn't convey it correctly. I thought you were surprised that the answer got one more upvote since yesterday (after so many days since the question was asked). I am saying that the upvote would be from me.

@Srivatsan I noticed it was more than a couple of days ago, when it was in the high 20's I think, so that is amazing as well.

@robjohn I think I read those comments yesterday. =)

@Srivatsan am I repeating myself? Ick. Sorry.

Reminds me of the joke: "My mom cannot read very fast. So I am writing my letter to her slowly."

@robjohn I wouldn't be surprised if you were. =)

Interesting that Steven's answer for the Tetris question still has so many upvotes.

Looks like I was the last one to downvote. =)

...and Steven got a Populist to boot...

@JM I guess that badge is aptly named... =)

Wow, exactly 28k questions at the moment...

these two stars are as inexplicable to me as many of the highly upvoted answers :)

: )

...and the last item on the front page was touched two hours ago. Eep.

@tb I use the star board also as a notice board. I think this is nice enough to tell people about...

Well, the fun is over, Sunni has posted one more of these very well motivated questions...

Yeah, if we take the analogy of this room as a "faculty lounge/pub", the stars would be the push pins...

@tb ...clearly you can still gain rep even without explaining yourself so much.

@tb I recall someone saying that upvote/downvote on meta could mean almost anything. To a lesser extent, but it probably applies to main site as well.

@Martin: I think for many people upvote = "I like this topic and I understood the answer, thus I didn't really have to think about it and thus could confirm my own cleverness."

@MartinSleziak That's sort of the side effect of shoehorning discussion into the SE engine...

@tb Paraphrasing my mentor from many years back.

Whenever a paper says "This result is of independent interest", I just assume that it is of no interest.

Let's rephrase: the interest is independent of potential readers... :D

From that time on, if I see some ill-motivated problem, I take it to be of independent interest. =)

[just kidding]

Is he using M.SE as an AoPS? // I imagine his problems would generate more interest there.

@Srivatsan Now that you've brought it up... yes, it does seem like it.

@Srivatsan I'm not sure what you mean. Do you mean that they are competition-like questions?

@MartinSleziak By that I mean two things: (1.) competition type problems, yes. But this itself isn't so much the issue. (2.) The OP is not showing any motivation/work beyond posting the problems.

I also noticed that AoPS has tons of questions about inequalities. (And very good solvers of such questions.)

@Srivatsan Um, who?

This is probably my bias talking, but... I've somehow felt that AoPS questions look way too obvious as contest problems instead of something that might "naturally" pop up...

@HenningMakholm This question: math.stackexchange.com/questions/83095.

I think that the problems that appear in College Playground subforum are quite similar to problems that appear here. artofproblemsolving.com/Forum/viewforum.php?f=218

@JM Yes. Look at the titles: "Prove this inequality", "What is this maximum?", "A plausible max/min" - shows their origins as competition type problems. =)

I'm not even looking at the title. The math looks... unnatural. If I were less kind... "contrived".

I do like that kind of math, and I imagine I am not alone. Just that it bothers me that the OP has made a habit of asking questions with no motivation, no work. That doesn't suit this site IMO.

Not just your opinion, I'd say. I've always found it a matter of professional courtesy to explain where you're coming from with a problem.

(Can you guys indulge me a little bragging? Yesterday I managed to buy this beauty for about $6.00... :D The book was still shrink-wrapped!)

I've always noticed that when you have one item on a shelf and then you put another identical item on the shelf next to it, there are more items on the shelf. Is there some mathematical basis for 1+1>1? :-D

</impassioned speech>

@robjohn Ow, my brain.

@JM How did you manage it? // I wish I can get books that cheap.

Now to find an appropriate tag ;-)

@Srivatsan The used-book store sold it for that price. Apparently they sell Springer books cheap.

@JM 10% list price, good deal.

@JM I guess I'll have to move to the Phillipines for the books. But I'll sorely miss the olive oil and the chocolate (well, the latter not so much but I mention it just to rub it in...) :)

@tb Heh. :)

@tb What's to rub in about chocolate? Is it banned in Phillipines? =)

@Srivatsan It is not as common there as elsewhere, I hear.

@Srivatsan The upshot is that I needed to dig through a pile of romance novels, as it was buried under those...

@JM: I assume there is olive oil and chocolate and much more interesting stuff to eat in the Phillipines. Can you confirm that?

@JM not much for organization there?

@Srivatsan Nah, he knows I love Swiss chocolates, and yes, they're hard to come by...

@robjohn It's a used-book store; sorting stuff is extra overhead... :D

@Matt Well, olive oil is expensive, yes...

@JM The used bookstores I have been to here have things pretty well sorted. Perhaps we are spoiled here.

@rob: Oh, yes. I've been used-book places in New York. Quite nice!

@JM I went to a used book store once in the US (2 months back), and I ended up buying a Crapo and Rota for $30.

Haven't opened it since. =)

*facepalm*

But yes, a good deal.

@JM Good deal - Really?

No comment about how things are sorted around here, but I know the joy of digging through a pile of Rosamunde Pilcher and Judith Lennox books and then locating a treasure like Silverman

@JM I was in one very nice used bookstore in Santa Barbara. I drove my wife to court in SB and found the bookstore while waiting.

@JM: Nata de coco in jelly is impossible to come by in Switzerland, so you may consider yourself lucky : )

@JM I enjoyed the book. The typesetting is putting me off. (Typewriter stuff.)

@Matt Oh, I know how to make my own. :) The microbes needed can be a bit hard to come by in another country I suppose...

@Srivatsan do some algebraic geometry and you'll get used to the joy of carefully crafted and literally copy-pasted typewriter stuff...

@JM BTW, since Rob has started visiting the room, @rob doesn't ping me, though I do see the highlighted address.

Once you have the microbes, all you need is coconut water, and scrupulously clean utensils and containers...

@robjohn Hmm, interesting...

@tb Elaborate? So what texts are you talking about?

@Srivatsan A lot of the old GTMs have "pasted in" mathematics...

If you look closely, you might find sections of tape that got photostatted in...

Man, if someone pays me just enough, I can convert the typewriter stuff to TeX.

@Srivatsan for example SGA

@JM: I'm impressed : )

@Srivatsan I don't understand this urge. Typewriter is as good as TeX and as easily readable if it's well done. TeXing the stuff is very likely to introduce tons of typos.

Just got this in an email. You'd think they could come up with some more interesting math.

@tb That's a big "if"... ;)

@robjohn You've seen the clock question on the main site, no?

@tb I don't quite agree. (kidding) Maybe it's just the generation gap. =)

@JM Look at the Séminaires Cartan, Brelot-Choquet-Deny, SGA, etc.

@JM No, I will have to look.

@tb Those are (relatively) pretty, I'll grant. :)

But sometimes the typesetting is... less than optimal.

@JM That was my question! @robjohn: You can find it in my list of questions: "Designing an irrational numbers wall clock."

At least the book I am holding in my hand, it's not unreadable, but I would much prefer tex. =)

I knew you'd chime in, @Mike. :)

@JM Good one. "Chime" in. :)

@MikeSpivey I just found it :-)

That \gamma is irrational is quite probable, but certainly unproved as of my knowledge.

@robjohn Any proof of that would probably be hard. Even the fastest algorithm for computing it is a relative slowpoke compared to methods for e or \pi...

It would be most interesting if it were rational or even algebraic, since \sum\frac{1}{k}-\log(n) is transcendental for each n

@tb Also, I guess it depends on the publisher. Springer stuff have pretty good typesetting most of the time. AP books are a bit of a mixed bag...

@robjohn Well, \sum \frac{1}{k!} - e is transcendental for every n. =)

@JM Years ago, I came up with a very elementary way to compute \gamma.

@Srivatsan okay... :-p

(@robjohn Sorry to be a spoilsport. =))

@JM but it is a pig compared to \pi or e

@robjohn Interesting, but the ASCII math makes my head hurt.

@robjohn Interesting... thanks for sharing! It does look sufficiently different from Brent-MacMillan...

@MikeSpivey Sorry, but that was what I was limited to on sci.math

And that wasn't so long ago... :D

@robjohn Understandable.

@JM three months ago according to my profile.

coming close to 4

@robjohn Too bad it isn't alternating; there are quite a number of fancy methods available to expedite the summation of alternating series...

@JM Let's not talk about Wiley and Elsevier then... There are quite a few beautiful German textbooks that got really mutilated by having some people typeset them into TeX (many of the Springer). GTMs are very good, most Springer Journals to, but the undergraduate texts are gruesome

@tb I like that clock a lot more!

@tb I purposely didn't mention Wiley. :D I suppose North-Holland and AP did deserve each other...

@tb Thanks. I must have missed that one. I wasn't as active over the summer.

@tb What's the issue with the TeXed versions? Typos?

but is 6.9999.... really 7 o'clock?

don't hit me! :-D

@robjohn No, only 6.999999...98

@tb A kalle clock. I would buy that... =)

Off to class. Bye all.

See you, @Sri!

@Srivatsan Typos for one thing but much worse: copy-paste errors (sometimes whole paragraphs repeated). Really bad TeX-crafting, etc.

See you Srivatsan

Bye, Srivatsan.

Byee!

e^{i2\pi} would be better for 1 o'clock IMO

@robjohn Well you could suggest that, and at the same time they could change the summation index for \sum 2^{-i} to n...

That would stop some potential confusion.