Mathematics Stack Exchange
Mathematics Stack Exchange

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1500 questions
273
votes
6 answers

What is the practical difference between a differential and a derivative?

I ask because, as a first-year calculus student, I am running into the fact that I didn't quite get this down when understanding the derivative: So, a derivative is the rate of change of a function with respect to changes in its variable, this much…
Faqa
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271
votes
6 answers

In (relatively) simple words: What is an inverse limit?

I am a set theorist in my orientation, and while I did take a few courses that brushed upon categorical and algebraic constructions, one has always eluded me. The inverse limit. I tried to ask one of the guys in my office, and despite a very shady…
Asaf Karagila
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270
votes
40 answers

Fun but serious mathematics books to gift advanced undergraduates.

I am looking for fun, interesting mathematics textbooks which would make good studious holiday gifts for advanced mathematics undergraduates or beginning graduate students. They should be serious but also readable. In particular, I am looking for…
Samuel Handwich
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268
votes
28 answers

Too old to start math

I'm sorry if this question goes against the meta for posting questions - I attached all the "beware, this is a soft-question" tags I could. This is a question I've been asking myself now for some time. In most areas, there's a "cut off age" to be…
Thomas Nesbitt
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266
votes
10 answers

Derivative of sigmoid function $\sigma (x) = \frac{1}{1+e^{-x}}$

In my AI textbook there is this paragraph, without any explanation. The sigmoid function is defined as follows $$\sigma (x) = \frac{1}{1+e^{-x}}.$$ This function is easy to differentiate because $$\frac{d\sigma (x)}{d(x)} = \sigma (x)\cdot…
Bryan Glazer
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266
votes
4 answers

What is the maximum volume that can be contained by a sheet of paper?

I was writing some exercises about the AM-GM inequality and I got carried away by the following (pretty nontrivial, I believe) question: Q: By properly folding a common $210mm\times 297mm$ sheet of paper, what is the maximum amount of water such…
Jack D'Aurizio
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265
votes
7 answers

Eigenvectors of real symmetric matrices are orthogonal

Can someone point me to a paper, or show here, why symmetric matrices have orthogonal eigenvectors? In particular, I'd like to see proof that for a symmetric matrix $A$ there exists decomposition $A = Q\Lambda Q^{-1} = Q\Lambda Q^{T}$ where…
Phonon
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265
votes
10 answers

How to read a book in mathematics?

How is it that you read a mathematics book? Do you keep a notebook of definitions? What about theorems? Do you do all the exercises? Focus on or ignore the proofs? I have been reading Munkres, Artin, Halmos, etc. but I get a bit lost usually around…
Pax
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264
votes
9 answers

Evaluating $\lim\limits_{n\to\infty} e^{-n} \sum\limits_{k=0}^{n} \frac{n^k}{k!}$

I'm supposed to calculate: $$\lim_{n\to\infty} e^{-n} \sum_{k=0}^{n} \frac{n^k}{k!}$$ By using WolframAlpha, I might guess that the limit is $\frac{1}{2}$, which is a pretty interesting and nice result. I wonder in which ways we may approach it.
user 1591719
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261
votes
15 answers

"Which answer in this list is the correct answer to this question?"

I received this question from my mathematics professor as a leisure-time logic quiz, and although I thought I answered it right, he denied. Can someone explain the reasoning behind the correct solution? Which answer in this list is the correct…
Bora M. Alper
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260
votes
2 answers

Meaning of Rays in Polar Plot of Prime Numbers

I recently began experimenting with gnuplot and I quickly made an interesting discovery. I plotted all of the prime numbers beneath 1 million in polar coordinates such that for every prime $p$, $(r,\theta) = (p,p)$. I was not expecting anything in…
dwymark
  • 2,613
259
votes
30 answers

Your favourite application of the Baire Category Theorem

I think I remember reading somewhere that the Baire Category Theorem is supposedly quite powerful. Whether that is true or not, it's my favourite theorem (so far) and I'd love to see some applications that confirm its neatness and/or power. Here's…
Rudy the Reindeer
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256
votes
1 answer

Why are rings called rings?

I've done some search in Internet and other sources about this question. Why the name ring to this particular object? Just curiosity. Thanks.
leo
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254
votes
26 answers

Does the square or the circle have the greater perimeter? A surprisingly hard problem for high schoolers

An exam for high school students had the following problem: Let the point $E$ be the midpoint of the line segment $AD$ on the square $ABCD$. Then let a circle be determined by the points $E$, $B$ and $C$ as shown on the diagram. Which of the…
Sid
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253
votes
7 answers

Why do we care about dual spaces?

When I first took linear algebra, we never learned about dual spaces. Today in lecture we discussed them and I understand what they are, but I don't really understand why we want to study them within linear algebra. I was wondering if anyone knew a…
WWright
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