h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Well...I'm definitely out of my league here!

NM

It would help to know what 'i' was, ooh and possibly theta as well Then I may have a chance of following it
BCNU - Crescent

It would be nice if I knew what ANY of that was!!!LOL
NM

*grin* I was three quarters of the way through before realising that 'i' is the imaginary, ie the square root of minus one. Theta is simply any angle. When you realise this, things start to make some sense... assuming you've got a fairly comprehensive background in maths, of course

Incidentally, I'm here because I'm the sub-ed who's got to work out what to do with this mess

Actually, I think it's a great article... marred only by the fact that very few people will understand it. I'm going to have to bring up the point of whether we can accept articles which require a pretty specialised background to understand...

Watch this space

26199

Duh......watching, but compleatly confused!!!

NM

It lost me in the last paragraph (and I did a degree in Physics!), however the main problem is lack of explanation of terms and skipping through the algebra too quickly. More words would be nice because this is a fundamentally pretty equation, but it does need some background information to understand it even partially. There must be enough mathematicians around here to write articles on i, calculus, Argand diagrams and the like? The articles will be accepted, I bet (especially if I'm editing them ).

Yep, there are a few things which could use explaining... I reckon what'll probably happen is we'll accept this article (possibly adding a few footnotes and the like) and hope someone gets around to writing articles to fill in the gaps...

Actually, I wouldn't mind writing a few - nothing like reiterating something you've learned in the last few months as if you've been an expert on it all your life

26199

Since I wrote this one, I can write some of the others as well if you want. Just give me a list and me and my mathematical friends at school will compile some nice definistions for you

Also, the last paragraph is shaky at best. I can see the connection but I can't explain it to you properly. I am only doing A level Further Maths and it just isn't in the syllabus while this (albeit in a reduced form) is. I wrote this article partly because of an h2g2 forum on Pi and partly because my friends and I are fascinated by the relation.

I have written a (brief) intro to the imaginary number here http://www.h2g2.com/A316739 for anyone who wants to know. I will try and write some articles on complex arithmetic and the argand diagram because there are certain clever rules to let you take shortcuts.

Firstly, good entry. Very ambitious, well done.
My thoughts...in no particular order
I think that parts of the last paragraph could do with an entry all to themselves.
I read it, but I don't have enough mathematical background to know what hyperbolic forms are different to hyperbolic functions, you're getting to an incredibly high level there.
I had heard of the Taniyama-Shimura theorum, but only vaguely while watching a tv program about proving Fermat's last theorum. (note, is there an entry on that? if not, you could write one) So I've no idea in the slightest what it is.
I know that this isn't possible, but a picture of two mutually perpendicular planes which don't share axes would also be helpful, I can't imagine it....
You might also consider putting the steps of algebra which you have said are "rearranged slightly" in as a footnote. I know I hate when my lecturers don't that, because I can't really tell if I think they've come to the correct result.


I hope you find this helpful not insulting in any way.