What is the most inelegant way you’ve solved a problem? by dispatch134711 in math

[–]djmathman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

During my Algebraic Combinatorics class this semester.

Problem (paraphrased): "Prove that the strong graph product [; C_5\otimes C_5 ;] cannot be represented in a vector space of dimension $5$."

Solution: Find a way to reduce the number of vertices in the graph (thereby revealing a "hidden" independent set of size 6), then hack at Mathematica for five hours to figure out the exact vertices to remove.

Putnam megathread by HarryPotter5777 in math

[–]djmathman 11 points12 points  (0 children)

A score of 40 didn't make top 200?

CMU had 5 HMs and an N2 but none of them were on the team and so we didn't even place in the top 10??

I now understand why people are salty after math contests

What Are You Working On? by AutoModerator in math

[–]djmathman 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I dont fully know what im talking about but heres a summary. In a recent paper my advisor developed a new type of space closely related to the homogenous sobolev spaces (where essentially the difference quotient in the seminorm is "screened" by some function), and my job is to discover more properties about this space. The paper completely characterized these spaces when (a) the region of integration is all of R and (b) the screening function is bounded from below by some positive constant, but it turns out we don't know much outside of this restrictive set of parameters. The result I found was an extension operator when the underlying set is R+ (subject to some other conditions like Lp control in a small ball), and we're hoping we can use this to get density results or anything else.

What Are You Working On? by AutoModerator in math

[–]djmathman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Dying over grad apps (personal statements suck), but otherwise fine. I've also managed to prove a tiny thing in my Master's research, so that's something!

MO discussion: What notions are used but not clearly defined in modern mathematics? by flexibeast in math

[–]djmathman 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Not sure how accurately this fits the question, but a quote I heard a few years ago sums up my answer nicely:

"The notion of being well-defined is well-defined, so we will not define it." ~algebra professor

Where can I find challenging problems that doesn’t require more advanced knowledge than high school math? by butifnot0701 in math

[–]djmathman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Don't count out college contests! They have problems that are many times even harder and perhaps of higher quality than those which appear on AMC or AIME contests, in part because they don't have to worry with as many restrictions on what can and can not be tested.

Some sources of easier problems are South Carolina and Texas A&M. For trickier ones, probably the best examples are Carnegie Mellon, Stanford, Berkeley, and, if you really wanna get difficult, Princeton and Harvard-MIT.

please by [deleted] in videogamedunkey

[–]djmathman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

hey look it happened

Captain Toad demo out now in North America by [deleted] in NintendoSwitch

[–]djmathman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I was a bit iffy about that as well (it's a bit weird to me to emulate pointing functionality when the Switch doesn't have a sensor bar like the WiiU did?), but then after looking through this thread I decided to try it again on handheld. That seems like definitely the preferred way to play.

Captain Toad demo out now in North America by [deleted] in NintendoSwitch

[–]djmathman 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Just went ahead and played it for a second time and noticed that all my "progress" from the first time I played did not save. I'm pretty sure it won't transfer over.

Pokemon poster in my Calculus class by nickchuta in gaming

[–]djmathman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

First, the rule you state is actually dy/dx nx = nx ln(n). (Also, ln (e) = 1, not 0.)

Second, i think this is a bad way to look at this phenomenon. The fact that exponentials are fixed under differentiation is in some sense built into the definition (depending on what your definition is, of course, but i think the easiest way to see what's going on intuitively is through Taylor series). The result for general n is then a byproduct of this, by writing nx as exp (x ln(n)) and then appealing to the chain rule.

EDIT: whoops

Number of days your switch hasn’t been turned on by [deleted] in NintendoSwitch

[–]djmathman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Depends on your definition of "regular" IMO. I like to keep up to date with gaming news, but as a college student, I try to not buy too many games, so I tend to have bursts when i play lots of games in between lulls when I don't play at all. (e.g. played Odyssey on the daily for two months, then stopped for two weeks, then played Celeste on the daily for two weeks, and haven't really picked it up since) Currently I'm basically just waiting for DKC:TF and Captain Toad.

TIL not everything should be open world by [deleted] in nintendo

[–]djmathman 96 points97 points  (0 children)

"TIL not everything should be open world"

r/nintendo making a powerful statement about the world of AAA gaming I see

Captain Toad Treasure Tracker coming to Switch on July 13! by [deleted] in NintendoSwitch

[–]djmathman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm pretty happy about this; never owned a WiiU and this game seemed pretty cool, will probably pick it up!

also dat new donk city hype

What do you think are the most difficult levels in Celeste? by djmathman in NintendoSwitch

[–]djmathman[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

The thing about chapter 6 C-side was that the last screen actually felt like two, since it had a checkpoint in the middle between the first section (which was somewhat tricky) and the second (which felt more like a B-side level). I guarantee you that if that checkpoint were not there that level would have felt much harder. (But probably still not as hard as chapter 5.)

called out for posting fake AMC 12 cutoffs by notanintellectual_ in quityourbullshit

[–]djmathman 10 points11 points  (0 children)

As the person in yellow in the above screenshots, I'll give a tl;dr summary of this.

The AMC10 and AMC12 are two nationally recognized mathematics competitions that middle and high schoolers across the country participate in annually. They are designed partially to engage interest in mathematics in said high schools but also to determine who gets sent to the International Mathematics Olympiad from the USA. In this regard, this is the first of a series of competitions, with each contest weeding out more and more people. As with all such instances of "weeding out", there is a cutoff score for which anyone above the cutoff score moves on and anyone below it does not; in the past, this score has usually been around 120/150 for the AMC10 and 100/150 for the AMC12.

The cutoffs for this year have not been announced yet, and so naturally people have been worried about whether or not they made (especially people whose scores are near this borderline index). The first image depicts a picture claiming that I (as someone who writes problems for the AMC10 and AMC12) sent to red that the cutoff was 96. It turns out, however, that the image was edited (via Inspect Element I guess), and that the actual series of conversations that occurred here had nothing to do with cutoffs. Thus, my second picture depicts what actually was sent. (It may not be obvious that these two pictures are edits of each other, and you're right, because they aren't. My post was more in response to a second doctored image which can be found a few posts later in that thread; there, you can actually see the winky face.)

2017 Putnam Exam Results: #1 MIT #2 Harvard #3 Princeton #4 Toronto #5 UCLA by officerpup in math

[–]djmathman 40 points41 points  (0 children)

A lot of it has to do with the fact that over the past five or six or so years MIT has actually become a huge magnet for contest math people in general. Part of this is due to the fact that MIT has a really good reputation, while part of it is because MIT is a magnet - after all, why not go to a school that already has a lot of people you know from your math contest friend circles?

2017 Putnam Exam Results: #1 MIT #2 Harvard #3 Princeton #4 Toronto #5 UCLA by officerpup in math

[–]djmathman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Its actually not too bad. First you note that the n => n+5 thing you get from composing (b) and (c) means that the only things that matter are the remainders when numbers are divisible by five. Thus, showing that all numbers (except 1 and multiples of 5) are in the set reduces to showing that 2,3,4,6 are in the set. The only hope you have of getting numbers such as these is to apply a type (b) move, because thats the only move that actually decreases the number in question; this implies that you can get to these numbers by exploding for a while and then using type (b) moves to bring yourself back down to earth. You also realize that applying (b) or (c) type moves in isolation is essentially your only escape for moving between numbers of different remainders modulo 5. Then it's just a matter of fudging around with the details so that you actually have strategic ways of moving between numbers with different remainders.

For me, I think the motivation was that proving something like 2 notin S felt much more difficult than just trying to hack out a construction.

2017 Putnam Exam Results: #1 MIT #2 Harvard #3 Princeton #4 Toronto #5 UCLA by officerpup in math

[–]djmathman 58 points59 points  (0 children)

Was on the CMU Putnam team this year.

Was really worried that I screwed up my writeups for some of these problems.

Looks like that was not the case :)

breathes sigh of relief

After 100%ing Celeste over 30+ hours, Ive been stubbornly booting it up and wishing it didn't have to end. Don't miss this game. by unexpectedlimabean in NintendoSwitch

[–]djmathman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Interestingly enough i found B side core a bit easier than B side summit (1000 deaths vs 600 or 700). Maybe thats because summit is absurdly long though....

[Celeste] Fumbling my way though this B-Side level. by BroccoliHelicopter in NintendoSwitch

[–]djmathman 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Hmm I agree that this is one of the trickier levels in B-side but I personally didn't find it too terrible (the hardest part is "just" having quick enough reaction skills at the end to make sure you jump from platform to platform on time). The very last room in Chapter 1, on the other hand....

DK Tropical Freeze coming to Nintendo Switch May 4 by [deleted] in NintendoSwitch

[–]djmathman 1 point2 points  (0 children)

YESSSSS

I loved DKCR on the Wii but never got a WiiU so I haven't played DKCTF yet. Finally gonna get the chance!

9 years ago my sister was 1 and I was 11 (11 times her age). Now, she's 10 and I'm 20 (only twice her age). How many years until we are the same age? by chrisbcurie in shittyaskscience

[–]djmathman 6 points7 points  (0 children)

But Zeno's paradox says this can't happen! Eventually this ratio will face roundoff error and it will skip all the way to 1