Talk:Sum of a series: Difference between revisions
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==Wrong name?== |
==Wrong name?== |
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Strictly speaking (from a mathematical point of view), this task is asking for the "sum of a sequence"; the term "series" refers instead to the list of partial sums of such a sequence, and you're not summing the series, because it's already summed <i>en passant</i>. You can google for "series vs sequence" for more on this. While "series" and "sequence" are often confused in common parlance, I don't see much harm in changing this task to a more accurate name from the viewpoint of the mathematicians. (I guess I'm a bit sensitive on this subject because at one point I had to go through all the Perl 6 docs and change all occurrences of "series operator" to "sequence operator".) --[[User:TimToady|TimToady]] 18:37, 22 November 2012 (UTC) |
Strictly speaking (from a mathematical point of view), this task is asking for the "sum of a sequence"; the term "series" refers instead to the list of partial sums of such a sequence, and you're not summing the series, because it's already summed <i>en passant</i>. You can google for "series vs sequence" for more on this. While "series" and "sequence" are often confused in common parlance, I don't see much harm in changing this task to a more accurate name from the viewpoint of the mathematicians. (I guess I'm a bit sensitive on this subject because at one point I had to go through all the Perl 6 docs and change all occurrences of "series operator" to "sequence operator".) --[[User:TimToady|TimToady]] 18:37, 22 November 2012 (UTC) |
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:Agreed. I rephrased the intro accordingly. Hope it's ok. Maybe the title should be changed as well, but the current one is not so bad, providing a little justification is given in the intro.--[[User:Grondilu|Grondilu]] 19:08, 22 November 2012 (UTC) |
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Revision as of 19:08, 22 November 2012
Wrong name?
Strictly speaking (from a mathematical point of view), this task is asking for the "sum of a sequence"; the term "series" refers instead to the list of partial sums of such a sequence, and you're not summing the series, because it's already summed en passant. You can google for "series vs sequence" for more on this. While "series" and "sequence" are often confused in common parlance, I don't see much harm in changing this task to a more accurate name from the viewpoint of the mathematicians. (I guess I'm a bit sensitive on this subject because at one point I had to go through all the Perl 6 docs and change all occurrences of "series operator" to "sequence operator".) --TimToady 18:37, 22 November 2012 (UTC)
- Agreed. I rephrased the intro accordingly. Hope it's ok. Maybe the title should be changed as well, but the current one is not so bad, providing a little justification is given in the intro.--Grondilu 19:08, 22 November 2012 (UTC)