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I would like to ask a question to mathematica.stackexchange comunity about examples of harnessing Mathematica to serious research problems.

In my opinion it is really interesting, since I don't know many impressive scientific results relying on Mathematica using (e.g in pure mathematics) although I've been interested in it for quite a long time. Would such a question be appropriate for mathematica.stackexchange ?

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  • "serious research problems"... as opposed to non-serious research? ;) – rm -rf♦ Jan 24 '12 at 22:52
  • Yes. I mean sometimes we do not really need such a comprehensive system as M for research in mathematics. I know, for exaple in physics there is a lot of instances showing how we can use computer algebra systems. But to my knowledge, there are not really many examples in mathematical research. For example, on wolfram.com I couldn't find anything interesting in this subject. – Artes Jan 24 '12 at 23:44
  • @R.M To specify what I mean, look at the wolfram.com/solutions . There are many interesting examples (without details though) of using M in Engineering, Industry, Biotechnology, Finance, Data Mining, however in my honest opinion no interesting examples of M-using in true mathematical research. – Artes Jan 25 '12 at 0:47
  • Why not try asking your actual problem on main, and then we can decide appropriately? – J. M.'s ennui♦ Jan 25 '12 at 3:21
  • It seems there's no interest, everyone knows enough ! – Artes Jan 25 '12 at 14:05
  • I would be interested to know how and in what way scientists of Wolfram publish their work. – nilo de roock Feb 6 '12 at 21:45
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This might go against the rules in the faq

I'd suggest we change the FAQ then. Mathematica is not only a programming language one might enjoy, or an integral/equation/numerics solver. I think it would be of good interest to the community (both the locals and those coming from search engines) to see it applied in current research, since that is precisely what the program is intended to be used for.

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  • There will be no necessity for changing the faq rules if there are more people interested in instances of current research with Mathematica with an emphasis on techiques of its using therein. – Artes Jan 25 '12 at 0:37
  • This particular part of the FAQ is not editable. It's part of what gives the SE network its identity. If you'd like to see it changed, you can bring it up on Meta Stack Exchange, but if the SE team were going to consider changing it I imagine they would have some time in the past ~3 years. – David Z Jan 26 '12 at 8:14
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It might be better if you frame the question about a specific hard research problem or field, e.g. "How could I use Mathematica to analyse [theoretical mathematical field or issue]?" as the question title, and asking for examples in the body of the question. I think that would be in the spirit of the StackExchange Q&A model and the FAQ.

If you don't want to tie yourself down to a particular question or field, you could always also ask for examples of results in other subfields, if these could enlighten the reader about how to attack research problems in the subfield mentioned in the title. For example, something like, "If there aren't any existing results in field X, are there any results in other fields such as Y or Z that could provide a starting point in how to go about work in X?".

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  • Thank you for a good advice. Nevertheless I'm not sure if I can take advantage of it. I have to think about it. For example if I choose, say, Riemann zeta function I find difficult to duscuss mathematical concepts concerning it and their software incarnations if we cannot talk directly to each other, since there is a little probability we can understand well. – Artes Jan 25 '12 at 1:49
  • Rather, I believe I might benefit of given some remarks about where I can find a good Mathematia code in theoretical mathematics research. – Artes Jan 25 '12 at 1:54
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This might go against the rules in the faq:

What kind of questions should I not ask here?

You should only ask practical, answerable questions based on actual problems that you face. Chatty, open-ended questions diminish the usefulness of our site and push other questions off the front page.

Your questions should be reasonably scoped. If you can imagine an entire book that answers your question, you’re asking too much.

If your motivation for asking the question is “I would like to participate in a discussion about _”, then you should not be asking here. However, if your motivation is “I would like others to explain _ to me”, then you are probably OK. (Discussions are of course welcome in our real time web chat.)

Asking for examples might be considered chatty, open-ended etc. It's also a subjective one. What do you mean by serious research?

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  • @ Sjoerd, by serious research (how could I substitute an appropriate term by whatever else?)I meant a great intelectual effort of approaching the truth of the Real World. I know this sounds funny. I meant for example truth in mathematics. Let's say there were some important discoveries in mathematics gained with computer methods (four color map theorem, chaos in Lorentz equations etc.) which appeard almost impossible without computers. The question is : what mathematical theorems were reached with Mathematica ? – Artes Jan 24 '12 at 23:27
  • I know : strictly whatever one gets with Mathematica one can get also with a Turing machine. But there are subtleties, like e.g. which specifically Mathematica capabilities, make this system especially useful in Mathematics ? – Artes Jan 24 '12 at 23:31
  • I wouldn't like make such a question to be a justification for subjective memoirs or reflections, but rather a kind of report on special results in mathematics which Mathematica helped to reach. – Artes Jan 24 '12 at 23:36

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