DOC PREVIEW
SF State MATH 880 - Outline 28

This preview shows page 1 out of 2 pages.

Save
View full document
View full document
Premium Document
Do you want full access? Go Premium and unlock all 2 pages.
Access to all documents
Download any document
Ad free experience
Premium Document
Do you want full access? Go Premium and unlock all 2 pages.
Access to all documents
Download any document
Ad free experience

Unformatted text preview:

2008-04-08 14:28MATH 880 PROSEMINAR JT SMITHOUTLINE 28 SPRING 20081. Assignmenta. Are there further questions about the social organization of mathematics?b. Continue reading Gillman 1987 chapter 6.2. Gillman 1987 chapter 5. The class agreed that it would be most appropriate tofinish discussing Gillman before critiquing the sample term papers. So Ms. Wangled a discussion of its chapter 5.a. She commented that Gilmann seemed to be saying in some instances thatproblems arise that require ad-hoc common-sense solutions. Indeed so. Butthe point of rules is to minimize the number of such situations, so you canspend adequate effort on them!b. By avoiding unnecessary symbols, you avoid problems with them. For exam-ple, if an early occurrence was unnecessary, you might not remember it whenyou start using that symbol for something else; that confuses readers. Also,if you need to change that symbol to something else, you may not rememberto change the unnecessary occurrences. I call this defensive writing!11 22c. The ax + by convention, as opposed to the a x + a b convention, is notso easily extended to higher dimensions. Even in 3D you run out of letters.d. I try to use this convention for sets of increasing complexity: a 0 A 0 A .You’ll see the convention g 0 G, but unfortunately, some uppercase Greeksare indistinguishable from Latins. Geometers tend to use P,Q,... for points,g,h,... for lines, and e,z,... for planes, because the German words for thoseobjects are Punkt, Gerade, and Ebene. By using the exotic symbol 0 formembership you free up e for many other uses.e. See my blurb Typefaces I use in mathematics. That was the product of someeffort. Each typeface save the first resulted from serious compromise.i. I chose my text typeface around 1989, when I bought my first laserprinter. It’s easier to read and less crowded than some other standardones. (Times New Roman, for example, was designed to save space inthe London Times. It always seems cramped to me, and should neverhave become the computer standard it is.ii. My computer-code typeface is monospaced, not proportionally spaced,so that lines of text will align letter by letter. Unfortunately, it is notthe same size as my corresponding text font, so I have to adjust for that.iii. I had to search to find a script typeface all of whose letters are appropri-ately legible. This one suffers the same size problem as my code type-face.iv. My blackboard bold typeface is unsuitable because it doesn’t reflect whatmathematicians write on the blackboard. But it’s the closest I couldcome, for a complete alphabet.v. My German typeface also includes the letter sz (written ß in Roman)and the those with Umlauten: ß ä Ä ö Ö ü Ü. But its s is the form usedPage 2 MATH 880 SPRING 2008 OUTLINE 282008-04-08 14:28only at the ends of words. Another typeface includes the form of thatletter used in the middle: s. But at one time the makers of that typefacedidn’t license it to Adobe, so it wouldn’t come out right in *.pdf files.If this one does, the problem has gone away.vi. My Greek typeface does closely match my text typeface, but its heightis slightly wrong. Often, when Latin and Greek letters are juxtaposedin a formula, I have to make an adjustment.vii. Because of the difficulty of getting all details acceptable, I would changemy typeface standards only after major deliberation. More details onthese decisions, and a display of the macros I crafted years ago forsymbols, are found in the document WordPerfect symbols on my website.(I have to keep records like that in order to recall the reasons for mydecisions.)f. Notice: symbolic expressions are always separated from ordinary text by twospaces.g. Superscripted superscripts and subscripted subscripts are a pain, to be avoidedif at all possible. Pieri used them inline, and thus I had to, in the translation,chapter 3 of Marchisotto and Smith 2007. That required jiggling line breaksand interword spacing to avoid collisions of letters on neighboring lines. Avoidthat


View Full Document

SF State MATH 880 - Outline 28

Download Outline 28
Our administrator received your request to download this document. We will send you the file to your email shortly.
Loading Unlocking...
Login

Join to view Outline 28 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or
We will never post anything without your permission.
Don't have an account?
Sign Up

Join to view Outline 28 2 2 and access 3M+ class-specific study document.

or

By creating an account you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms Of Use

Already a member?