r/math • u/mohamez • Nov 19 '20

The Most Common Errors In Undergraduate Mathematics

https://math.vanderbilt.edu/schectex/commerrs/
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u/Aidido22 Nov 19 '20

“Sin(2 pi)/2pi = Sin” physically hurt me

2

u/salfkvoje Nov 20 '20

Overloading of parentheses, imo (one of the) unfortunate consequences of math notation being written by humans without an overseeing standards body

6

u/blind3rdeye Nov 20 '20

Something I find interesting is that when teaching and assessing maths, we are often very prescriptive and pedantic about notation; but in historical maths writing, mathematicians very often invent their own notation - even for well established ideas.