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Calculus is just a field in mathematics. MathOverflow is just for research level mathematics. This would be about mathematics at any level, encompassing all the different fields of math. – Dan Dumitru Jun 3 '10 at 23:18

This is desperately needed. MathOverflow is brutal about kicking off questions that do not meet their exacting standards, and there needs to be a home for such questions. – Robert Harvey Jun 3 '10 at 23:34

How will this site deal with homework questions? MathOverflow has it easy: if it's easy enough to be homework, it's too easy to count as interesting to research mathematicians. I'm very much in favour of a second mathematics StackExchange, but I feel this question needs to have a lot of thought put into it. – Scott Morrison Jun 4 '10 at 14:22

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49 Example Questions (11 closed)

active newest votes

up vote 22 down vote

added by Dan Dumitru Jun 3 '10 at 23:07

This is a math question a software developer might have – Dan Dumitru Jun 3 '10 at 23:08

up vote 22 down vote

added by Dan Dumitru Jun 3 '10 at 23:28

	This is actually quite difficult, it has to consider the Earth's almost-spherical shape. – Dan Dumitru Jun 3 '10 at 23:31
	A commonly duplicated question on SO, also. – ire_and_curses Jun 4 '10 at 22:15
	Should say "shortest distance" here to be a "good question". – Master Of Disaster Jun 8 '10 at 23:20
	Ambiguous: straight line, or the arc along the surface. – Charles Stewart Jun 9 '10 at 8:46
	@Kiopiko - You're right, fixed it. @Charles - Well, this is a real world question, and it goes without saying that it's the arc along the surface, and not digging a tunnel through Earth to get from one city to the other. – Dan Dumitru Jun 9 '10 at 10:17

show 5 more improvement suggestions

up vote 21 down vote

added by Nathan Osman Jun 4 '10 at 5:15

up vote 20 down vote

added by Chris W. Rea Jun 5 '10 at 1:59

up vote 20 down vote

added by Simon Nickerson Jun 9 '10 at 6:11

up vote 17 down vote

added by Chris W. Rea Jun 5 '10 at 2:00

up vote 8 down vote

added by KennyTM Jun 4 '10 at 7:47

Taken from stackoverflow.com/questions/2840593/… – KennyTM Jun 4 '10 at 7:47

up vote 8 down vote

added by Simon Nickerson Jun 9 '10 at 6:07

up vote 7 down vote

added by Chris W. Rea Jun 5 '10 at 1:57

up vote 6 down vote

added by Michel de Ruiter Jun 15 '10 at 20:30

up vote 5 down vote

added by KennyTM Jun 6 '10 at 19:15

up vote 5 down vote

added by Charles Stewart Jun 7 '10 at 11:48

up vote 5 down vote

added by Michel de Ruiter Jun 15 '10 at 20:26

I don't thing subjective and argumentative questions should be encouraged. Plus I had no major problems grasping complex numbers and I don't understand how anyone with a decent grasp of maths would have any problem with the basics – Yacoby Jun 17 '10 at 13:22

up vote 4 down vote

added by derobert Jun 17 '10 at 3:29

up vote 3 down vote

added by percent20 Jun 4 '10 at 0:51

up vote 3 down vote

added by Amos Jun 11 '10 at 9:48

These questions could bring professional math teachers to the site, which would probably be a good thing. – derobert Jun 17 '10 at 3:20

up vote 3 down vote

added by Lucas Jun 16 '10 at 16:38

Surely division by zero is going to be a common beginners question, making this a good example – cindi Jun 17 '10 at 10:30

up vote 3 down vote

added by HoLyVieR Jun 18 '10 at 12:33

up vote 2 down vote

added by Casebash Jun 4 '10 at 2:24

There are some hard programming questions on SO, I think hard mathematic ones wouldn't hurt the Math site. – Dan Dumitru Jun 4 '10 at 5:42

I still don't know though if this would be an exemplary on-topic question, but it could be OK to decide on setting/not-setting some borders. – Dan Dumitru Jun 4 '10 at 5:43

@Dan: Setting borders is the whole point of this exercise. BTW, qu1 is rarely hard for the APMO – Casebash Jun 5 '10 at 4:16

Yes, indeed we have to decide on borders. I for one don't think though that we should have a superior border. – Dan Dumitru Jun 5 '10 at 18:43

up vote 2 down vote

added by sth Jun 4 '10 at 13:04

Stack Overflow itself has an anti-homework stance. I'd strongly encourage people to consider this question as off-topic. For one, you'll alienate potential mathematics faculty users (i.e. qualified answerers!) if the site is obviously helping people "cheat". – Scott Morrison Jun 4 '10 at 14:23

@Scott: If this question didn't have the word "homework" in brackets, it might not be so clear. It's pretty hard to decide whether this should be okay based on the title. With a title like this, it's entirely possible that the body of the question demonstrates a good deal of effort on the part of the asker, in which case I can't imagine anybody objecting. – Anton Geraschenko Jun 4 '10 at 15:18

Replace [homework] by [problem]? – KennyTM Jun 5 '10 at 6:06

My intention was to have a homework question where the OP did put in effort, but needs help. Imaging the body of the post containing calculations/... that lead to a wrong result, for reasons the OP can't figure out by himself. Are homework questions generally discouraged, even if it's not a do-my-work-for-me question? Or is it OK to ask and get some hints in the right direction? – sth Jun 8 '10 at 0:25

If they can show the step by step process they've gone through then the point at which they've made the mistake can be identified. If it's obvious they've made an effort then a general step by step example of how to do that type of problem could be shown. If they make no effort at all then it becomes an off-topic question. They may need prompting however if they are to produce an on topic question. – Amos Jun 11 '10 at 9:36

show 2 more improvement suggestions

up vote 2 down vote

added by Simon Nickerson Jun 9 '10 at 6:09

This is related to how floating works on the calculator. It's specific for each calculator and the answer to this kind of question would be to explain how float are stored. This kind of answer would be more appropriate on SO. – HoLyVieR Jun 19 '10 at 3:54

This kind of question would be better served by a computer science of (even better) an electrical engineering/computer engineering site. – nkassis Jun 19 '10 at 4:52

up vote 2 down vote

added by Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 17:56

This is a question aimed at trying to decide if we allow Graph Theory (Theoretical Computer Science) questions. – Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 18:02

Graph Theory has applications in Computer science but is a mathematical topic in its' own right. I remember studying it without recourse to a computer when I did my Maths degree. Computers merely make it easier to solve complex problems or test the efficacy og various algorithms. – Amos Jun 15 '10 at 21:12

@Amos Agreed. All the example questions I have posed are taken from the applied sections of A level maths courses. – Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 22:20

Ummm, computer science /is/ mathematics. – derobert Jun 17 '10 at 3:15

@derobert Depends on your definition of CS. There are some sections taught in a CS course that is not maths and has very little relation to maths. – Yacoby Jun 17 '10 at 11:55

up vote 2 down vote

added by Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 18:01

This is a question aimed at trying to decide if we allow Statistics related questions. – Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 18:01

I vote to let stats in – sixtyfootersdude Jun 15 '10 at 21:07

Statistics has a separate proposal (area51.stackexchange.com/proposals/33/…) which is getting more support than this one. – Simon Nickerson Jun 16 '10 at 17:44

up vote 1 down vote

added by Simon Nickerson Jun 10 '10 at 19:15

closed as off topic by Stefan Schmidt, Matthew Simoneau, Wilhelm, Douglas S. Stones, Lucas Jun 18 '10 at 12:07

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	IMO, this isn't directly about Math, but about using a program (Matlab), so I guess it's off-topic. – Dan Dumitru Jun 10 '10 at 19:49
	I'd expect to see this on Stack Overflow. – Matthew Simoneau Jun 17 '10 at 21:23
	This kind of question would be good to address here instead of stack overflow. Many students will use Mathematica and Maple most likely in classes such as numerical methods and symbolic algebra with computer systems... They are bound to have questions about functionalities of these programs and such which are not software development related questions. – nkassis Jun 19 '10 at 4:49

up vote 1 down vote

added by Amos Jun 11 '10 at 9:50

	I am fairly sure this is on topic, however it may make more sense to have a large single question of good resources for common topics. – Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 22:24
	If I'm teaching Integration by Parts to a group of 16 year old high fliers in Maths then I need a totally different set of resources to those I would need when teaching transformations to 11 year olds with below average ability in Maths. Both of these situations occur in my normal weeks work. – Amos Jun 15 '10 at 22:34

up vote 1 down vote

added by Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 17:59

closed as off topic by Michel de Ruiter, dsolimano, Pete Hodgson, HoLyVieR, Justin L. Jun 19 '10 at 9:28

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	This is a question aimed at trying to decide if we allow Mechanics related questions. – Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 18:01
	I think this is essentially a question about the derivative of a vector travelling in a circle so its a bad example of a mechanics question,ie a bad example of a bad example = good example – cindi Jun 18 '10 at 16:41

up vote 1 down vote

added by HoLyVieR Jun 19 '10 at 3:43

up vote 0 down vote

added by Charles Stewart Jun 7 '10 at 11:46

closed as off topic by KennyTM, Vortico, Amos, Yacoby, nkassis Jun 19 '10 at 4:34

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

This is a probability question; why is it off-topic (assuming a reasonable question body). – derobert Jun 17 '10 at 3:15

up vote 0 down vote

added by Charles Stewart Jun 7 '10 at 11:57

closed as off topic by Amos, sth, pbz1912, Maxim Zaslavsky, Beska Jun 9 '10 at 20:06

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	Why do people vote this as "great off-topic example"? – Dan Dumitru Jun 9 '10 at 10:32
	@Dan: Because there are a serious shortage of good off-topic examples. 7 examples have received off-topic votes. – Charles Stewart Jun 9 '10 at 10:37
	:) Well, the proposal is still at the beginning. I suppose that by the time we get to 60 followers we'll also have enough questions to chose from. Did you intend your question to be off-topic? – Dan Dumitru Jun 9 '10 at 10:47
	@Dan: "Did you intend your question to be off-topic?" Hah! I don't recall studying numerology as part of my Bachelor's. – Charles Stewart Jun 9 '10 at 12:34
	:) Well, excuse my ignorance, I actually didn't know what Numerology meant. From Wiki: "Numerology and numerological divination by systems such as isopsephy were popular among early mathematicians, such as Pythagoras, but are no longer considered part of mathematics and are regarded as pseudomathematics by modern scientists." – Dan Dumitru Jun 9 '10 at 20:04

up vote 0 down vote

added by sth Jun 8 '10 at 2:51

closed as off topic by Dan Dumitru, pbz1912, Maxim Zaslavsky, Simon Nickerson, interjay Jun 9 '10 at 18:03

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

up vote 0 down vote

added by Robert Harvey Jun 8 '10 at 4:05

closed as off topic by KennyTM, Amos, derobert, John Gietzen, HoLyVieR Jun 19 '10 at 3:57

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

Would this be more suited to MathOverflow, or possibly even StackOverflow depending on exactly what the poster wants to do. Therefore off-topic. – Amos Jun 11 '10 at 9:39

Definitely not MathOverflow, probably Stack Overflow, but is is on the line.... – John Gietzen Jun 14 '10 at 18:04

up vote 0 down vote

added by Simon Nickerson Jun 9 '10 at 6:07

closed as off topic by KennyTM, Charles Stewart, Beska, Vortico, chollida Jun 11 '10 at 15:25

This question does not relate to the topic of the proposal.
It was closed as part of an automated migration of off-topic to close votes on September 29, 2011.

	Off-topic as no real mathematical content? – Simon Nickerson Jun 9 '10 at 6:08
	Off-topic, just like "what's the formula for the position of an object, given its initial position and constant velocity?" – derobert Jun 17 '10 at 3:17

up vote 0 down vote

added by Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 17:52

	This is a question aimed at trying to decide if we allow Algorithms (Theoretical Computer Science) questions. – Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 18:02
	I think algorithms, computability and logic are all part of mathematics. – cindi Jun 18 '10 at 16:43

up vote 0 down vote

added by Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 22:05

This is a mechanics question, but it is fairly theoretical and the solution involves integration – Yacoby Jun 15 '10 at 22:12

Sounds like a physics question, not a math question. Now, if asked "How do I integrate F(x) over the interval [a,b]" that'd be OK. – derobert Jun 17 '10 at 3:21