Wednesday 27 October 2010

Maths fail

The question is, can you spot the moment where I realise (a) just how many pages of summation convention algebra I will have to do and (b) the number of  biros I will wear out to get to the answer?
   And yes, I am aware that "bla bla bla ⇒ result"  does not constitute rigorous mathematical proof. 

BluuurrrrghghghhHGhghGHGHGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH.

EDIT Sorry, I now realise this isn't in the slightest bit funny. Long periods in the library tend to warp what I find amusing.
I love skipping.
I solemnly swear not to write about summation convention ever again. Especially not in the context of trying to be funny.

I am so ashamed.

4 comments:

  1. I've done pretty much the same thing before, but with "Tedious algebra => result". If you pretend you're doing it because the maths is so trivial and not because you're lazy or tired, it makes you feel really clever!

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  2. Indeed! I mean, I knew I could do it, I just reasoned that the c. 1 hour of my time it would take wasn't worth it for learning nothing.

    But yes, next time I shall just write "Trivial!", state the result and move on :-)

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  3. Reminds me of the remarkable P.T.Johnstone proof of Fermat's Last Theorem:

    There is a trivial bijection between the set of elliptic curves and the set of modular forms. The result follows.

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  4. Ahahaha! I had completely forgotten about that!

    I did not enjoy his numbers and sets course... It was all 'trivial' bijections between things...

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