Re: Refute an alleged proof of the Riemann Hypothesis was Re: Refute a proof of the Riemann Hypothesis, round #4921

In article <erh6k.49$yg7.10@edtnps82>,
"Larry Hammick" <larryhammick@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:

One time in university calculus, a test required us to prove something about
continuity. I used the letter epsilon where the textbooks conventionally use
delta, and delta where they use epsilon. The advanced student who marked the
paper gave me a zero on that question, apparently thinking that I had no
idea what I was doing. The episode taught me lesson, not about mathematics,
but about academia.

To bring this almost on-topic, one time Hugh Montgomery pondered what
would happen if you wrote a mathematical paper and every time you
needed a new symbol for something you just took the first letter of the
alphabet that you hadn't already used. A paper on the Riemann
Hypothsesis might begin, "Let a(b) = sum from c equal 1 to infinity of 1
over c to the d." He concluded that the paper would be pretty much
unreadable.

I think the lesson you learned, or ought to have learned, was not so
much about academia as about how important conventions are as an aid to
understanding.

--
Gerry Myerson (gerry@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx) (i -> u for email)
.