- Title
- Closed forms: what they are and why we care
- Creator
- Borwein, Jonathan M.; Crandall, Richard E.
- Relation
- Notices of the American Mathematical Society Vol. 60, Issue 1, p. 50-65
- Publisher Link
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1090/noti936
- Publisher
- American Mathematical Society (AMS)
- Resource Type
- journal article
- Date
- 2013
- Description
- Mathematics abounds in terms that are in frequent use yet are rarely made precise. Two such are rigorous proof and closed form (absent the technical use within differential algebra). If a rigorous proof is “that which ‘convinces’ the appropriate audience,” then a closed form is “that which looks ‘fundamental’ to the requisite consumer.” In both cases, this is a community-varying and epoch-dependent notion. What was a compelling proof in 1810 may well not be now; what is a fine closed form in 2010 may have been anathema a century ago. In this article we are intentionally informal as befits a topic that intrinsically has no one “right” answer. Let us begin by sampling the Web for various approaches to informal definitions of “closed form”.
- Subject
- closed forms; algebra; equations; mathematical operations
- Identifier
- http://hdl.handle.net/1959.13/940202
- Identifier
- uon:12970
- Identifier
- ISSN:0002-9920
- Rights
- First published in Notices of the American Mathematical Society in Vol. 60, No. 1. 2013, published by the American Mathematical Society
- Language
- eng
- Full Text
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