Recent content by qspeechc

Yes, I know, I wrote that for the benefit of anyone else who may be interested in this problem, because it's a standard problem with the standard solution I wrote above. I only answered in this thread after reading all the huffing and puffing (no offence, happens to all of us).

(x-a)2 = x2-2ax+a2 Right? So you want to make x² - 3x of the above form, and it is missing the constant term on the end, you need to add that to both sides. (In case anyone is still interested in this problem.)

How important is Graph Theory and Combinatorics to a mathematician? I'm sure it depends on the field, but let's say the main fields, algebra, analysis, geometry, number theory, etc.?

I'm still not convinced. It would be easy to explain why one face was different from another, you could say one person has a bigger nose or whatever. Recognising faces would be driven by evolution, and so the lack of it in autistic persons would, presumably, have been an evolutionary...

Hello everyone. [Firstly, I didn't know if this belongs here or in General; please move if appropriate]. <Moderator's note: moved to GD> I was reading this paper on the AKS primality test (undergraduates can understand it, highly recommended!), and on page 7 the author brings up the story of...

Unfortunately, you can count on one hand the books that cover basic mathematics rigorously, and the trend for the past few decades has been to not give answers or solutions in textbooks, so I'm afraid you're stuck in that regard. My suggestion would be to learn proofs and basic maths (algebra...

That's the actual problem with things like Bitcoin, the vast majority of users don't understand it at all, they just like the gains (I'm not claiming I undestand it either). Anyway, do you work for the NSA?

The block-chain can't be hacked, per se, there's currently too much computing power behind it (I'm no expert, I'm just typing based on my limited knowledge), so I don't understand your question. If you have control over your own wallet, there's no way it can be "hacked", the problem is when...

The exchanges got hacked, not the block-chain itself. The problem is that people let these third parties, the exchanges, keep their crypto for them. The original idea of block-chain was actually to get out of the criminal financial sector, so it's a bit funny to read that crypto is mainly used...

"Applied Maths" is really a broad term, it can mean many things, depending on the department. It can mean anything from Industrial Mathematics, to Numerical Analysis, to Mathematical Physics, etc.

I'm about to start writing a textbook myself, and I found this very helpful, so thank you for taking the time to write this Orodruin! Btw, how close was the book to what you had originally planned? Do you wish you could have spent more time on it, or is it pretty close to what you wanted?

I'm about to bore young students with some simple advice, but sometimes we need to repeat the simple stuff. If you want to excel at anything you have to go above and beyond what is expected of you. Doing things like, working through problems that weren't assigned in class, and going over old...

In case anyone else reads this, I found "An Introduction to the Mathematics of Money: Saving and Investing" by Lovelock, Mendel and Wright. I've just found it, so I haven't gone through it yet, but the chapters are: Simple Interest Compound Interest Inflation and Taxes Annuities Loans and Risks...

It doesn't matter what the job is, as far as I can see, everything has the same interview process, like I said. Maybe only 1/3 is checking your technical competence, the rest is HR, psychometric tests, personality tests. Yeah, but it's literally just a consequence of me getting older, there...

Lots of good answers, but basically what I'm doing to get over it is not the kind of thing you can put on your CV with a bullet point, like joining Toastmasters, it's literally as boring as "I'm less nervous talking to people", "I'm not as quiet as I used to be" etc. Since that's not verifiable...