Help:Using Wikipedia for mathematics self-study: Difference between revisions

Revision as of 04:03, 27 July 2010

Revision as of 04:09, 27 July 2010

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* To find additional related topics, look under the "See also" header or use the article's categories listed at the bottom.

==AbsencesOmissions from the encyclopedia==

Mathematics is something that is ''done'' rather than ''read''. A mathematics textbook will contain many problems, and solving them is an essential part of learning mathematics. Wikipedia does not haveinclude theseproblems; by design, Wikipedia is an encyclopedic reference, [[WP:NOTTEXTBOOK|not a textbook]].

When it comes to more advanced topics, mathematics is developed, and largely hangs together, by means of the large body of quite formal ''proofs'' that exist in the mathematical literature. Wikipedia does not attempt to condense thisall materialof these proofs into encyclopedic form, for reasons that are discussed at length in [[Wikipedia:WikiProject Mathematics/Proofs|another essay]]. Wikipedia assembles the facts uncovered by mathematical investigation, and the definitions underlying the abstract theories. In common with other mathematical encyclopedias, it omits most proofs.

Although learning mathematics involves memorization of suchthe sort of factual knowledge concerningthat the content of mathematicalWikipedia theoriesprovides, memorization is not enough to master the field. To become a mathematician, you must acquire the skills of creating proofs and doing calculations for yourself, to internalize the material. Therefore, you must go beyond the outlinesoutline a Wikipedia article can supply. We hope that Wikipedia articles can provide a good starting point for the process, along with a reference for topics you have already learned.

==Caveats==