Math 3

https://arbital.com/p/math3

by Eliezer Yudkowsky Jan 26 2016 updated Jul 9 2016

Can you read the sort of things that professional mathematicians read, aka LaTeX formulas with a minimum of explanation?


A reader at the Math 3 level can read the sorts of things that a research-level mathematician could — if you're Math 3, it's okay to throw LaTeX formulas straight at you, using standard notation, with a minimum of handholding.

At the Math 3 level, different schools of mathematics may have their own standard notation, so somebody who is Math 3 in one discipline or subject may not necessarily be Math 3 in another.

Writing for a Math 3 audience

When writing for a Math 3 audience, all bets are off on readability. You can use as much formal notation as you like in order to define your point properly and clearly.


Comments

Eric Rogstad

Would be great to have an example of the kind of formula one might expect to see.

Jason Gross

Might one of the following examples work?

The Riemann hypothesis asserts that the real part of every non-trivial zero of the Riemann zeta function $~$\zeta(s) = \sum_{n=1}^\infty \frac{1}{n^s}$~$ is equal to $~$\frac{1}{2}$~$.

(Stealing from Wikipedia): A sequence of groups and group homomorphisms $~$G_0 \xrightarrow{f_1} G_1 \xrightarrow{f_2} G_2 \xrightarrow{f_3} \cdots \xrightarrow{f_n} G_n$~$ is called exact if $~$\text{im}(f_k) = \text{ker}(f_{k+1})$~$ for $~$0 \le k < n$~$.

(Also paraphrased from Wikipedia): Given an $~$n\times n$~$ matrix $~$A$~$ whose elements are $~$a_{i,j}$~$, we can define the determinant $~$\det(A) = \sum_{\sigma\in S_n}\text{sgn}(\sigma) \prod_{i=1}^n a_{i,\sigma_i}$~$ where $~$S_n$~$ is the symmetric group on $~$n$~$ elements.

I'm a bit worried, though, that "standard research notation" in one discipline is foreign to mathematicians in other disciplines.

Patrick LaVictoire

I suggest we can assume that almost everyone in Math 3 is familiar with either calculus concepts or discrete math concepts, but we can't assume abstract algebra or number theory or real analysis, etc.

So the zeta function equation would be a fair example (one might want to state that $~$s$~$ is complex), but the other two would not. Another fair example might be L'Hopital's Rule or the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus.

Joe Zeng

Made a page of examples here. Tell me what you think.

Mark Chimes

Patrick LaVictoire I think that's a fair assumption for the moment. Later as Arbital grows the requisites can be refined to Calculus 0, 1, 2, 3; abstract algebra 0, 1, 2, 3 etc. Or else pages can just make use of specific pages as requisites (e.g. do you know what a 'group homomorphism' is).