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Mathematics Project‑class | ||||||||||
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Frequently asked questions To view an explanation to the answer, click on the [show] link to the right of the question. Are Wikipedia's mathematics articles targeted at professional mathematicians?
No, we target our articles at an
appropriate audience. Usually this is an interested layman. However, this is not always possible. Some advanced topics require substantial mathematical background to understand. This is no different from other specialized fields such as law and medical science. If you believe that an article is too advanced, please leave a detailed comment on the article's talk page. If you understand the article and believe you can make it simpler, you are also welcome to improve it, in the framework of the
BOLD, revert, discuss cycle. Why is it so difficult to learn mathematics from Wikipedia articles?
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia,
not a textbook. Wikipedia articles are not supposed to be pedagogic treatments of their topics. Readers who are interested in learning a subject should consult a textbook listed in the article's references. If the article does not have references, ask for some on the article's talk page or at
Wikipedia:Reference desk/Mathematics. Wikipedia's sister projects
Wikibooks which hosts textbooks, and
Wikiversity which hosts collaborative learning projects, may be additional resources to consider. See also: Using Wikipedia for mathematics self-study Why are Wikipedia mathematics articles so abstract?
Abstraction is a fundamental part of mathematics. Even the concept of a number is an abstraction. Comprehensive articles may be forced to use abstract language because that language is the only language available to give a correct and thorough description of their topic. Because of this, some parts of some articles may not be accessible to readers without a lot of mathematical background. If you believe that an article is overly abstract, then please leave a detailed comment on the talk page. If you can provide a more down-to-earth exposition, then you are welcome to add that to the article. Why don't Wikipedia's mathematics articles define or link all of the terms they use?
Sometimes editors leave out definitions or links that they believe will distract the reader. If you believe that a mathematics article would be more clear with an additional definition or link, please add to the article. If you are not able to do so yourself, ask for assistance on the article's talk page. Why don't many mathematics articles start with a definition?
We try to make mathematics articles as accessible to the largest likely audience as possible. In order to achieve this, often an intuitive explanation of something precedes a rigorous definition. The first few paragraphs of an article (called the
lead) are supposed to provide an accessible summary of the article appropriate to the target audience. Depending on the target audience, it may or may not be appropriate to include any formal details in the lead, and these are often put into a dedicated section of the article. If you believe that the article would benefit from having more formal details in the lead, please add them or discuss the matter on the article's talk page. Why don't mathematics articles include lists of prerequisites?
A well-written article should establish its context well enough that it does not need a separate list of prerequisites. Furthermore, directly addressing the reader breaks Wikipedia's encyclopedic tone. If you are unable to determine an article's context and prerequisites, please ask for help on the talk page. Why are Wikipedia's mathematics articles so hard to read?
We strive to make our articles comprehensive, technically correct and easy to read. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve all three. If you have trouble understanding an article, please post a specific question on the article's talk page. Why don't math pages rely more on helpful YouTube videos and media coverage of mathematical issues?
Mathematical content of YouTube videos is often unreliable (though some may be useful for pedagogical purposes rather than as references). Media reports are typically sensationalistic. This is why they are generally avoided. |
Hello, I am a mathematician from the German Wikipedia. There we had recently a user that basically "misused" the German Wikipedia to publish his own "research" (if you can call it even that...). Basically the user computed a LOT of things with Wolfram Alpha and published all his computations in the German Wikipedia to a point where the articles became unreadable. He even invented his own names for functions and the user - according to his own words - does not have a formal degree in mathematics. In my opinion most of the stuff was not even relevant for an encylopedia. In the end a lot of his entries were deleted and after a heated discussion the user got banned. Long story short the user was/is also active in the English Wikipedia (see Special:Contributions/Reformbenediktiner). I am not so familliar with the English Wikipedia policies but I know that original research is also not allowed, so I thought I should maybe notify people here and they could at least have a look at some of the affected articles like for example Theta function, Rogers–Ramanujan continued fraction, Fubini's theorem#Example Application, Jacobi elliptic functions, Rogers–Ramanujan identities etc. If you see some math in color, that was probably done by this user. In the German Wikipedia the user did not use any source material and just computed things with Wolfram Alpha. Whether it all was correct or not, I am not even sure. It would be good if people would have a look at the affected English articles as well and give their judgement.-- Tensorproduct ( talk) 19:42, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
I've removed a section of geometric series by this editor that was obvious offtopic original research. I looked at their edits to Fubini's theorem, which I consolidated into Fubini's theorem#Calculation examples and I don't feel very strongly about it (although it badly needs edits for style). Tito Omburo ( talk) 10:39, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
Note: It seems like @ A1E6: has had a lot of interactions with this editor in the past, and presumably could weigh in. Tito Omburo ( talk) 10:55, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
Hello, I think there was some vandalism on the Hodge conjecture. I tried to revert to what looked to be last good version of the article. However, I am not sure given the maths in the article. If someone can take a look at the diffs and content of the article that would be much appreciated! Classicwiki ( talk) If you reply here, please ping me. 22:03, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
I just deleted some technical proofs in the Coppersmith's attack article, because they were pretty much copy-pasted from some of the sources with a few words changed. Given the article is not about most of the proofs, they're probably better deleted anyways, but I was wondering what the policy was on proofs in articles and how similar they're allowed to be, because obviously Wikipedia can't have its own proof of every subject, but I think it's a copyright violation if you copy-paste (even with a few words changed) the exact wording. Does anyone know if that's correct? I looked for any policy pages but could not find them. Mrfoogles ( talk) 00:56, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
I have nominated 0.999... for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" in regards to the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. voorts ( talk/ contributions) 20:58, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
The Emmy Noether article has been at featured article review for a couple months now. If anyone wants to take a look, most of the issues seem to have been fixed but the contributions to mathematics and physics section would likely benefit from a couple more citations and a quick survey (including of the typsetting) by someone more qualified than I am. Sgubaldo ( talk) 15:20, 16 April 2024 (UTC)
Does it really make sense for " Logical connective", " Boolean function", and " Truth function" to all be separate articles? If I were more sure, I wouldn't be asking. I get how " Logic gate" is a separate article, but the other ones seem to cover the same territory, although I'm not sure which one(s) should be merged into which. Thiagovscoelho ( talk) 12:21, 17 April 2024 (UTC)
References
Can someone here take a look at the recent changes at Newton's method and discussion at talk:Newton's method, and maybe help resolve the edit war there? user:Fangong00 insists on a substantial rewrite, especially of the first few sections, which I think makes the article significantly worse, most importantly rendering it, in my opinion, almost completely illegible to most of the intended audience. They don't seem too interested in having a discussion about the trade-offs involved in of various possible choices of scope/focus for the article or its early sections, but I don't really want to spend all day revert warring. Maybe someone else can phrase concerns about this in a way that gets through? – jacobolus (t) 02:23, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
I think that people searching for "Adjoint functor theorem" are looking for explanations about the Freyd's adjoint functor theorem, so I suggest changing the redirect target to the Formal criteria for adjoint functors. SilverMatsu ( talk) 15:35, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Basic Math (video game)#Requested move 24 April 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. RodRabelo7 ( talk) 05:33, 28 April 2024 (UTC)
Main page | Discussion | Content | Assessment | Participants | Resources |
Mathematics Project‑class | ||||||||||
|
Frequently asked questions To view an explanation to the answer, click on the [show] link to the right of the question. Are Wikipedia's mathematics articles targeted at professional mathematicians?
No, we target our articles at an
appropriate audience. Usually this is an interested layman. However, this is not always possible. Some advanced topics require substantial mathematical background to understand. This is no different from other specialized fields such as law and medical science. If you believe that an article is too advanced, please leave a detailed comment on the article's talk page. If you understand the article and believe you can make it simpler, you are also welcome to improve it, in the framework of the
BOLD, revert, discuss cycle. Why is it so difficult to learn mathematics from Wikipedia articles?
Wikipedia is an encyclopedia,
not a textbook. Wikipedia articles are not supposed to be pedagogic treatments of their topics. Readers who are interested in learning a subject should consult a textbook listed in the article's references. If the article does not have references, ask for some on the article's talk page or at
Wikipedia:Reference desk/Mathematics. Wikipedia's sister projects
Wikibooks which hosts textbooks, and
Wikiversity which hosts collaborative learning projects, may be additional resources to consider. See also: Using Wikipedia for mathematics self-study Why are Wikipedia mathematics articles so abstract?
Abstraction is a fundamental part of mathematics. Even the concept of a number is an abstraction. Comprehensive articles may be forced to use abstract language because that language is the only language available to give a correct and thorough description of their topic. Because of this, some parts of some articles may not be accessible to readers without a lot of mathematical background. If you believe that an article is overly abstract, then please leave a detailed comment on the talk page. If you can provide a more down-to-earth exposition, then you are welcome to add that to the article. Why don't Wikipedia's mathematics articles define or link all of the terms they use?
Sometimes editors leave out definitions or links that they believe will distract the reader. If you believe that a mathematics article would be more clear with an additional definition or link, please add to the article. If you are not able to do so yourself, ask for assistance on the article's talk page. Why don't many mathematics articles start with a definition?
We try to make mathematics articles as accessible to the largest likely audience as possible. In order to achieve this, often an intuitive explanation of something precedes a rigorous definition. The first few paragraphs of an article (called the
lead) are supposed to provide an accessible summary of the article appropriate to the target audience. Depending on the target audience, it may or may not be appropriate to include any formal details in the lead, and these are often put into a dedicated section of the article. If you believe that the article would benefit from having more formal details in the lead, please add them or discuss the matter on the article's talk page. Why don't mathematics articles include lists of prerequisites?
A well-written article should establish its context well enough that it does not need a separate list of prerequisites. Furthermore, directly addressing the reader breaks Wikipedia's encyclopedic tone. If you are unable to determine an article's context and prerequisites, please ask for help on the talk page. Why are Wikipedia's mathematics articles so hard to read?
We strive to make our articles comprehensive, technically correct and easy to read. Sometimes it is difficult to achieve all three. If you have trouble understanding an article, please post a specific question on the article's talk page. Why don't math pages rely more on helpful YouTube videos and media coverage of mathematical issues?
Mathematical content of YouTube videos is often unreliable (though some may be useful for pedagogical purposes rather than as references). Media reports are typically sensationalistic. This is why they are generally avoided. |
Hello, I am a mathematician from the German Wikipedia. There we had recently a user that basically "misused" the German Wikipedia to publish his own "research" (if you can call it even that...). Basically the user computed a LOT of things with Wolfram Alpha and published all his computations in the German Wikipedia to a point where the articles became unreadable. He even invented his own names for functions and the user - according to his own words - does not have a formal degree in mathematics. In my opinion most of the stuff was not even relevant for an encylopedia. In the end a lot of his entries were deleted and after a heated discussion the user got banned. Long story short the user was/is also active in the English Wikipedia (see Special:Contributions/Reformbenediktiner). I am not so familliar with the English Wikipedia policies but I know that original research is also not allowed, so I thought I should maybe notify people here and they could at least have a look at some of the affected articles like for example Theta function, Rogers–Ramanujan continued fraction, Fubini's theorem#Example Application, Jacobi elliptic functions, Rogers–Ramanujan identities etc. If you see some math in color, that was probably done by this user. In the German Wikipedia the user did not use any source material and just computed things with Wolfram Alpha. Whether it all was correct or not, I am not even sure. It would be good if people would have a look at the affected English articles as well and give their judgement.-- Tensorproduct ( talk) 19:42, 22 February 2024 (UTC)
I've removed a section of geometric series by this editor that was obvious offtopic original research. I looked at their edits to Fubini's theorem, which I consolidated into Fubini's theorem#Calculation examples and I don't feel very strongly about it (although it badly needs edits for style). Tito Omburo ( talk) 10:39, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
Note: It seems like @ A1E6: has had a lot of interactions with this editor in the past, and presumably could weigh in. Tito Omburo ( talk) 10:55, 4 April 2024 (UTC)
Hello, I think there was some vandalism on the Hodge conjecture. I tried to revert to what looked to be last good version of the article. However, I am not sure given the maths in the article. If someone can take a look at the diffs and content of the article that would be much appreciated! Classicwiki ( talk) If you reply here, please ping me. 22:03, 3 April 2024 (UTC)
I just deleted some technical proofs in the Coppersmith's attack article, because they were pretty much copy-pasted from some of the sources with a few words changed. Given the article is not about most of the proofs, they're probably better deleted anyways, but I was wondering what the policy was on proofs in articles and how similar they're allowed to be, because obviously Wikipedia can't have its own proof of every subject, but I think it's a copyright violation if you copy-paste (even with a few words changed) the exact wording. Does anyone know if that's correct? I looked for any policy pages but could not find them. Mrfoogles ( talk) 00:56, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
I have nominated 0.999... for a featured article review here. Please join the discussion on whether this article meets the featured article criteria. Articles are typically reviewed for two weeks. If substantial concerns are not addressed during the review period, the article will be moved to the Featured Article Removal Candidates list for a further period, where editors may declare "Keep" or "Delist" in regards to the article's featured status. The instructions for the review process are here. voorts ( talk/ contributions) 20:58, 11 April 2024 (UTC)
The Emmy Noether article has been at featured article review for a couple months now. If anyone wants to take a look, most of the issues seem to have been fixed but the contributions to mathematics and physics section would likely benefit from a couple more citations and a quick survey (including of the typsetting) by someone more qualified than I am. Sgubaldo ( talk) 15:20, 16 April 2024 (UTC)
Does it really make sense for " Logical connective", " Boolean function", and " Truth function" to all be separate articles? If I were more sure, I wouldn't be asking. I get how " Logic gate" is a separate article, but the other ones seem to cover the same territory, although I'm not sure which one(s) should be merged into which. Thiagovscoelho ( talk) 12:21, 17 April 2024 (UTC)
References
Can someone here take a look at the recent changes at Newton's method and discussion at talk:Newton's method, and maybe help resolve the edit war there? user:Fangong00 insists on a substantial rewrite, especially of the first few sections, which I think makes the article significantly worse, most importantly rendering it, in my opinion, almost completely illegible to most of the intended audience. They don't seem too interested in having a discussion about the trade-offs involved in of various possible choices of scope/focus for the article or its early sections, but I don't really want to spend all day revert warring. Maybe someone else can phrase concerns about this in a way that gets through? – jacobolus (t) 02:23, 21 April 2024 (UTC)
I think that people searching for "Adjoint functor theorem" are looking for explanations about the Freyd's adjoint functor theorem, so I suggest changing the redirect target to the Formal criteria for adjoint functors. SilverMatsu ( talk) 15:35, 24 April 2024 (UTC)
There is a requested move discussion at Talk:Basic Math (video game)#Requested move 24 April 2024 that may be of interest to members of this WikiProject. RodRabelo7 ( talk) 05:33, 28 April 2024 (UTC)