Questions designed to get an overview of a specific subject or body of results or to understand the relations among similar definitions, techniques or concepts appearing in different sub-fields of mathematics. While such questions by their very nature sometimes cannot be made very narrow and focused, it can be helpful to keep in mind that the design of MathOverflow does not make it a good fit for questions that are too broad.
Questions tagged [big-picture]
369 questions
23
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8 answers
Examples of intuition from fields other than Physics to solve math problems
This is a chaser for the examples of using physical intuition to solve math problems question.
Physical intuition seems to be used relatively frequently for solving math problems as well as stating new interesting ones. What would be examples of…
Michael
- 2,175
7
votes
2 answers
Is there a deep reason for the fecundity of involutions?
You might have come across the book of involutions in your travels. A colleague of mine asked whether there is a natural global reason (versus ad-hoc trickery) for considering involutions in mathematics. The above book provides many situations that…
Jon Bannon
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3 answers
Which constants are ambivalent and why?
This question is possibly a bit more philosophical $-$ compatible with the Christmas season, which is an appropriate moment to look at the world from a more universal angle... My last question with a similar flavor was a long time ago.
Some…
Wolfgang
- 13,193
3
votes
3 answers
Usefulness of symbolic devices
Each mathematician knows that good notation or symbolism – which seems to be irrelevant from a purely logical point of view – makes theorems more plausible and motivates results which would otherwise be overlooked. Examples abound. Let me only…
Johann Cigler
- 5,572
3
votes
2 answers
Theories requiring dual continuous and discrete constructs
Over the years there have been questions of a similar ilk on MO (e.g., Q1, Q2, Q3) concerning theories in which either continuous constructs or discrete constructs preceded the development of the other or in which one but not both are present.
I've…
Tom Copeland
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