Portal talk:Mathematics/Archive2005

Integration of the pages needing attention in mathematics

Is there a good way to integrate Wikipedia:Pages needing attention/Mathematics into the portal, so that we have a division of labour with the COTW? Perhaps the way to look at it, is that the Mathematics Requested Articles page already does plenty of heavy lifting, in producing wanted articles; and that the Pages Needing Attention is relatively neglected. Promoting selected pages from either of those, selectively, to the COTW Candidates, would be a good thing. But the Portal ought to give a full picture. Charles Matthews 07:54, 17 Feb 2005 (UTC)

I agree. I've made a first attempt at incorporating both pages into the portal page, by adding them to the "Things you can do" section of the portal page. I think we should also mention those lists as possible sources for the COTW probably on that page. What do you think? Paul August ☎ 15:44, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC)

Well I guess User:Ral315 didn't like my changes and has since reverted them. Paul August ☎ 18:46, Feb 17, 2005 (UTC)

Program to plot functions

I just found a freeware program to draw functions. It can be found at http://www.geonext.de/ It can also be started as an Java Applet at http://geonext.uni-bayreuth.de/data/start.html Stern 03:03, 24 Feb 2005 (UTC)

There are a number of inexpensive (some free) and expensive (Mathematica) visualization tools. Would someone care to create a "Tools" section of the Mathematics page with a discussion of the more useful and affordable ones? And URL links to them? FrankFerguson 28 Sept. 2006

Erm - I'm working on a program to create high-quality plots of functions (and inequalities too) that are nicely anti-aliased to the BG-2 / BG-3 level. Would a (GFDLed) consistent collection of such plots be a useful addition to Wikipedia? And if so, what would be the best way to proceed? Chris, 20:46, 20 Nov 2006 (UTC)

Negative numbers

Hi there! I've been wondering about something and couldn't find it in WP, and this seemed like an appropriate place to ask... when (and by who) as the concept of negative numbers invented? Sounds like interesting historical trivia. Radiant_* 14:01, Apr 11, 2005 (UTC)

Negative and non-negative numbers says Brahmagupta. Double-entry book-keeping and plus and minus signs also have relevant history. Charles Matthews 15:15, 11 Apr 2005 (UTC)

VfD

Someone has listed Pearson distribution for deletion:

• Wikipedia:Votes for deletion/Pearson distribution

For some reason this is picking up mainly delete votes, and I don't understand why. It's not my field but I know this is a fairly popular distribution nowadays. Any help with cleanup, keep votes, etc, welcome. --Tony Sidaway|Talk 00:49, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)

Random Mathematics page?

I'm not sure if this is possible, but I would like to see a "Random Mathematics page" link on the portal, ideally with an url attached to it (this would be my ideal home page!). Anyone know if you can add any useful arguments to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Randompage?

I think that's a great idea, but I have no clue on how to do it... I guess one could tag each math page and use the same function the random page uses, but limit to those pages that are tagged. This could be expanded to any tag... and would be pretty interesting. Goldencako 01:14, 22 October 2007 (UTC)

I proposed this in general proposals, preferable it would work with any critiria, but I had mathematics in mind. I have no idea how to implement it though. --Macbi 18:54, 9 November 2007 (UTC)

Apparently nothing came from it. Thanks for proposing it though, I don't/didn't know how to do that. Anways, I checked the http://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Help:Special_page for the random article, and I found out that adding another namespace like this: Special:Randompage/Talk or Special:Randompage/Category, one generates a random page that fits that namespace. However, I tried Special:Randompage/Category:Mathematics, and that didn't work. -> Goldencako 02:11, 10 February 2008 (UTC)

Math Collaboration

The article that is the current math collaboration should have a message box at the top stating this, similar to, for example, the box at the top of general COTW articles, Stone Age >>. This would at least tell peopele that the article is the collboration. Phoenix2 22:40, 5 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Customization

Now that the Math portal is no longer using the PortalPage template, you have an opportunity to further customize the portal. Take a look at how Philosophy has use that opportunity to good effect. -- Fplay 20:54, 22 December 2005 (UTC)

I undid Fplay's edits, they don't make any sense. When people disagree, they should discuss rather than fork things. Oleg Alexandrov (talk) 01:24, 23 December 2005 (UTC)