Comment by ngcc_hk
16 hours ago
Basic … that kind of word give me nightmare in my mind when you talked about maths … still remember a book called “elementary set theory” …
16 hours ago
Basic … that kind of word give me nightmare in my mind when you talked about maths … still remember a book called “elementary set theory” …
My favorite example is https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basic_Number_Theory
"The title is the same as that of a very well-known book by Professor L. E. Dickson (with which ours has little in common). We proposed at one time to change it to 'An introduction to arithmetic', a more novel and in some ways a more appropriate title; but it was pointed out that this might lead to misunderstandings about the content of the book."
"The word `basic’ in the title is closer in meaning to `foundational’ rather than `elementary’ [...]" (quoted from that same wikipedia page).
The one math majors joke about is Serra’s A Course in Arithmetic, which is definitely not for young children.
I remember a joke along the lines of "elementary" meaning that someone somewhere has solved it before.
"Any question in maths is either unsolved or obvious."