@ProfKinyon@mathstodon.xyz avatar

ProfKinyon

@ProfKinyon@mathstodon.xyz

Mathematics professor at the University of Denver | research: quasigroups, semigroups, automated deduction | same username on other social media

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ProfKinyon, to random
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The purpose of a morning plenary conference talk is to give audience members time to prepare their afternoon talks

ProfKinyon, to random
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Creating slides for a half hour talk (25 minutes + 5 for questions). So 100 slides should do, right? 😁

ProfKinyon,
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I decided to use fewer slides, but to make sure they contain the same amount of information as before, I'm omitting all the vowels. Vwls r nncssry nywy.

ProfKinyon, to random
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Sometimes I think I should treat my job as if it were an adventure game, but then I remember that my colleagues probably wouldn't appreciate me taking all their stuff just because they left it lying around.

ProfKinyon, to random
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Started typing "is dark matter compatible with" and Google completed it to "windows 11".

ProfKinyon, to random
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It's an eerie feeling when I run across a Wikipedia page for a mathematician whom I know has died but no one other than bots has touched their page in years. After that feeling passes, I then feel obliged to edit it, assuming I can dig up an obituary.

Last night, it was Edward B. Curtis, probably best known for his paper "Simplicial homotopy theory" in Advances in Mathematics (vol 6, issue 2, 1971, pp 107-209).

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_B._Curtis

ProfKinyon, to random
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"...the advanced type system helps catch silly and profound mistakes."

Took me quite a while to realize that the author of the sentence probably meant this to refer to two different kinds of mistakes.

Joemoeller, to random
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This summer I'm starting a postdoc at CalTech! I'm working with the roboticist/control theorist Aaron Ames on using category theory to study stability of dynamical systems.

I got verbal confirmation a month ago, but I've been holding back on saying anything until I got bureaucratic confirmation.

ProfKinyon,
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@boarders @Joemoeller Just "CT for CT" should appeal to both audiences. :)

ProfKinyon, to random
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Saw an old paper of mine from 2012 and thought "oh yeah, I wrote that just a couple of years ago."

I'm sure you noticed the problem right away, but it took me nearly half a minute.

ProfKinyon, to random
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A mathematics paper without open problems is like... uh... a ma(th)stodon post without a punchline.

ProfKinyon, to random
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dear god no

ColinTheMathmo, to random
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Does this count as a "Trick Question"? Apparently nearly everyone gets it wrong:

================

If f(x)=x^2-10, find an equation of the tangent to the curve passing through the point (5, 1).

================

I didn't fall into the trap, and now that you've been warned possibly you won't either.

Be honest ... would you have?

ProfKinyon,
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@ColinTheMathmo The trap being: Trust the question creator didn't make a mistake and isn't trying to trick you? I might have fallen into it, it's hard to say.

When I edit old exams to make new ones, I often forget to change everything relevant. In the middle of the exam, the good students come to the front of the room and say "uh, Professor Kinyon, I think there's something wrong here," and then I put my head on the desk.

ProfKinyon,
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@ColinTheMathmo I was just agreeing that I certainly might have fallen into the trap if you hadn't said there was one.

ProfKinyon, to random
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Theorem: If N is a positive integer and is not a perfect square, then (\sqrt{N}) is irrational.

Proof: Suppose (\sqrt{N} = a/b) for positive integers (a,b) with no common factor greater than 1. Then (b/a = \sqrt{N}/N), and so (a/b = (bN)/a). Since the first fraction is in lowest terms, the numerator and denominator of the second fraction must be a common integer multiple, say (c), of the numerator and denominator of the first. Hence (a = cb), and therefore, (\sqrt{N} = c), that is, (N) is a perfect square. QED

I learned this proof from a one paragraph insert in the American Mathematical Monthly (vol. 115, June-July 2008, p. 524) written by Geoffrey C. Berresford. I just love it.

ProfKinyon,
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@bkim They show up on the web for this instance! I don't think any app can handle them yet.

ProfKinyon,
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@SvenGeier @bkim Oh neat, I had not heard of that one.

ProfKinyon, to random
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I really like using _ adjacent to describe things that are not quite _. Examples:

  • I am not a group theorist, but I am group theory adjacent.

  • Tomatoes are not vegetables, but they are vegetable adjacent fruits.

  • I wouldn't say I am a genius, rather I am genius adjacent.

ProfKinyon, to random
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When the official scan from the publisher looks more like a captcha prompt.

ProfKinyon, to random
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How to use automated theorem software to prove new theorems:

  1. Before you start, think carefully about how to encode the problem in the program you are going to use. For instance, can you replace a high level concept with an equivalent first order formulation so that it will run more efficiently?
  2. Type your input file. It's OK to recycle old ones from related projects to save some typing.
  3. Run the program. Sometimes these jobs have to run for quite some time, so go do something else for a while, such as getting a beverage of your choice.
  4. While you were away, the program found a proof. Enjoy the mutually supportive feelings of discovery and elation.
  5. Look at the proof output. In the very last line, the program derived something equivalent to "for all x,y, x=y". But you know there exist nontrivial examples. Suffer from the mutually supportive feelings of loss and despair.
  6. Look at the input file.
    If there is a typo, fix it and go back to step 3. If there is no typo, but you have misformulated something, go back to step 1.
  7. You will never get past step 6.
ProfKinyon, to random
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"Do I contradict myself?
Very well then I contradict myself,
(I am large, I contain multitudes.)”
― Walt Whitman, Sheaves of Grass, (1855)

ProfKinyon,
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@johncarlosbaez Whitman was ahead of his time

Joemoeller, to random
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Moving across the country again. Life of a postdoc.

ProfKinyon,
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@Joemoeller Where ya headed?

ProfKinyon,
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@Joemoeller Great! Congrats!

ProfKinyon, to random
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To celebrate my birthday, I have adopted the sexagesimal numeral system. I must say, though, my lower back hurts more than you would expect from a 10 year old.

ProfKinyon, to random
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Based on the number of times I have mistyped in the last few days, I have decided I should just admit that my mathematical interests are quasigorp thoery and semigorp thoery.

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