Questions tagged [scope]

The tag has no usage guidance.

Filter by
Sorted by
Tagged with
21 votes
3 answers
932 views

Is there a consensus on whether history of mathematics questions are acceptable on MO?

I recently stumbled across an old meta discussion in which some people suggested that history of mathematics questions were off-topic for MO. This took me by surprise and I would like to ask for ...
21 votes
4 answers
2k views

Publicizing conjectures on MO

This question Positive integers written as $\binom{w}2+\binom{x}4+\binom{y}6+\binom{z}8$ with $w,x,y,z\in\{2,3,\ldots\}$ is basically just a statement of a few conjectures by the asker. The "...
-8 votes
3 answers
1k views

Why does mathoverflow encourage only research level questions while stackoverflow encourages ANY questions?

Why does mathoverflow encourage only "research-level" questions while stack overflow encourages "all-level" questions? I understand that the two communities seem to have different mentalities towards ...
20 votes
2 answers
2k views

Any other site besides mathoverflow and mathematics stackexchange?

I know the differences between mathoverflow and math-stack but I have been wondering: Are there legitimate mathematical questions that would not get answered at math-stack because there is no ...
17 votes
3 answers
771 views

Are well-posed questions about the mathematics job search on topic at MO?

When MO was young, it quickly became the dominant forum for mathematical discussions. At the time, the scope was pretty much "anything that is on-topic at a department Tea". For example, we had ...
13 votes
1 answer
997 views

Humans, Go, Computers, Math

This is the meta thread for What advantage humans have over computers in mathematics? It was closed, got reopened and reclosed, and reopened again. In an effort to close the barn before the horse ...
23 votes
4 answers
2k views

Appropriateness of recent LIGO question for MO

There had been numerous comments under the question Recent observation of gravitational waves that discuss whether it is appropriate for MathOverflow. That discussion is properly a concern of MO meta, ...
12 votes
1 answer
917 views

Research-level mathematics

I recently asked two questions: Simultaneous coset spaces and Manifolds as simultaneous coset spaces which appear to be quite similar. The first was closed as 'not research-level mathematics' while ...
1 vote
1 answer
361 views

Can there be a MathOverflow Careers?

SO has a Careers site* for finding a programming-related job. Would a Careers site be feasible on MO? $^*$ When you are on StackOverflow, the top menu looks like this...
8 votes
1 answer
391 views

Is asking question from graduate books allowed

Is it ok to ask questions from books like Probabilistic Method by Noga Alon, the * marked ones, since they are tough questions but not exactly research level questions. I had already asked this ...
-4 votes
1 answer
309 views

Should my question be closed?

See the question "On the number of $n$-perfect numbers". Some people claimed that it should be closed because I know the answer while I don't simply because they are hard open problems in number ...
6 votes
1 answer
397 views

Are interdisciplinary questions about mathematics of musical instruments on-topic here?

I have some mathematical questions that lie between music and mathematics, particularly applications of mathematics in building musical instruments. As an example see this paper: The Mathematics of ...
18 votes
4 answers
1k views

What areas/aspects of mathematics are underrepresented on MO?

The question: What areas/aspects of mathematics are underrepresented on MO?
32 votes
2 answers
2k views

early graduate level questions: MO or Math.SE?

When I first began on this site MathOverflow took questions at all levels. Then Math.SE was created and the level of MO has crept up steadily with Math.SE not necessarily absorbing the remainder ...
26 votes
1 answer
841 views

Should I start posting my questions on MO?

I have been a member of MO and of math.SE for a long time now. My participation in MO has been mainly lurking because I am not a researcher but a student who aims to become one. So, logically, I have ...
22 votes
5 answers
2k views

What should be the policy on "open problems" on MO?

The subject of this discussion are questions on "open problems" on MO. There is an existing policy on "open problems" reproduced from the (old) FAQs, which involves an open-problem tag. The ...