tea.mathoverflow.net - Discussion Feed (What are some metaphors or simile that helps understand concepts better?)

Scott Carnahan comments on "What are some metaphors or simile that helps understand concepts better?" (18199)

Scott Carnahan — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 17:18:13 -0800

Your question is not vague, but it does not appear to have much mathematical content.

At any rate, your list is missing the term "gallery", which refers to a sequence of chambers connected by walls.

Zeeshan Mahmud comments on "What are some metaphors or simile that helps understand concepts better?" (18187)

Zeeshan Mahmud — Sun, 29 Jan 2012 12:13:00 -0800

@Anton

I have been thinking about it and I wonder if a question in the following line is acceptable:

What are some examples of architectural terms used by Bourbaki and Tits in Theory of Buildings?

Or is it still too broad and vague? (My motivation was a CW question). Other than apartments, cells, buildings, chambers, I only found carrefour.

Mariano comments on "What are some metaphors or simile that helps understand concepts better?" (18029)

Mariano — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 01:04:59 -0800

@Anton, you should add the depth example to the FAQ so we can easily point to it in a place where everyone should have read it.

Zeeshan Mahmud comments on "What are some metaphors or simile that helps understand concepts better?" (18028)

Zeeshan Mahmud — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 19:44:40 -0800

@Anton Geraschenko

Thank you for the clarification. (That alone deserves a badge!)

Anton Geraschenko comments on "What are some metaphors or simile that helps understand concepts better?" (18020)

Anton Geraschenko — Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:02:52 -0800

Because it is so broad, this question lacks a sense of urgency. It doesn't have a specific goal. Instead, it has the flavor "tell me stuff and maybe I'll learn something," which I don't think is a good approach for a question.

However, if you have a specific concept that you've been trying to wrap your head around for some reason, asking for metaphors or intuition about it can make for an awesome question. Just make sure to do some background work and make clear what you already understand and what you're hoping to get out of an answer. For example, "what is the meaning of depth of a ring?" looks almost like you're asking for the definition. Instead of asking that, you'd read the wikipedia page and explain why it doesn't answer your question. Something like this would be an improvement: "I'm happy with dimension, and in good (Cohen-Macaulay) cases, depth agrees with dimension. In general, is there a good geometric interpretation of depth? Is there an intuitive geometric criterion to test if a ring is Cohen-Macaulay?"

dan petersen comments on "What are some metaphors or simile that helps understand concepts better?" (18017)

dan petersen — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 20:26:17 -0800

I would vote to close this question.

Zeeshan Mahmud comments on "What are some metaphors or simile that helps understand concepts better?" (18016)

Zeeshan Mahmud — Wed, 11 Jan 2012 16:53:51 -0800

It is probably in the same spirit of 'colorful language in mathematics' thread but I was wondering what could a big list of similes that illuminate abstract concepts: such as sheaf, fiber, cohomology (Betti was a chemist), snake lemma... Since English is not my mother tongue people who are privy to etymologies perhaps may see the connections between abstract and the metaphor faster.

If it is acceptable I will refine or expand it further.

Thank you.