Help talk:Using Wikipedia for mathematics self-study

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Work in progress

I added a point: Wikipedia is a work in progress. I think some of the comments from new readers show they don't realize that most our articles are still under development. — Carl (CBM · talk) 15:45, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Other sites

What to include? I thought the Springer Encyclopedia, MathWorld, PlanetMath at least. I participate in MathOverflow, but it is right at the top end of the scale of our readers. Is there a good resource for those with no more than school mathematics? I suspect we have a real problem with access when it comes to readers with no college mathematics at all. Charles Matthews (talk) 16:04, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

These are all reference works. Maybe we should mention them... but the thrust of what we are saying is that sometimes textbooks are more useful. Are there any good, online, general mathematics textbooks? Yaris678 (talk) 16:51, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Not really. There are some good lecture notes for the standard introductory graduate-level courses, but which ones are good is very much a matter of taste. The same goes for print textbooks; people go around in circles for ages about which ones are better than others. — Carl (CBM · talk) 21:28, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

You know what would be really useful? A site with reviews of a wide range of maths text books. Yaris678 (talk) 23:12, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Categorising what we are doing here

Are we writing an essay? Can we stick it in a category such as Category:How-to essays or Category:Wikipedia essays giving advice. Yaris678 (talk) 16:43, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

"Essay" is loosely defined, I believe. Category:Wikipedia essays giving advice would probably be fine. Charles Matthews (talk) 16:49, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Cool. I have added that category and the {{essay}} tag. Yaris678 (talk) 17:07, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Just added a banner to the talk page too. Yaris678 (talk) 17:23, 14 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Examples

Is it worth giving examples of the sort of questions people might have and where to take them? e.g.

What is algebra? - Read Algebra.
What does the mathematical analysis article mean when it says "nearness"? - Ask at Talk:Mathematical analysis
What does it mean when a variable has a squiggly line on top? - Ask at Wikipedia:Reference desk/Mathematics

Yaris678 (talk) 12:20, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Maybe we need a FAC (frequently asked questions)? Perhaps at the Mathematics Portal? JRSpriggs (talk) 15:46, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]

Proofs

If we mention them (it's not obvious to me we should - most "customers" are likely to be more interested in formulae and algorithms) we have to explain why proofs are not generally included. So it's somewhat of a can of worms. We do have that other page where proofs and their inclusion are discussed; it would probably be better to confine the worms there. Charles Matthews (talk) 17:49, 16 July 2010 (UTC)[reply]