How do mathematicians know what is known?

Solution 1:

Is this question still open? Often times, mathematicians don't know what is known. I published a paper based on an "unsolved problem" that someone had posed. It turned out that it had already been solved 40 years ago, but it had been forgotten. But after my paper was published, someone remembered the old paper (it wasn't in Math. Reviews as it had been in a small European journal). This happens a lot. Usually you talk to other people in the area first, before doing any serious work on a problem .

IMO programs of different nations?

Can any commutative ring of characteristic $p\in\mathbb P$ be written as the form $R/(p)$ with $R$ being a ring of characteristic $0$?

What do trivial and non-trivial solution of homogeneous equations mean in matrices? [closed]

Is there a direct proof that a compact unit ball implies automatic continuity?

Covering pairs with permutations

Prove that $\frac{p^p-1}{p-1}$ is not prime if $p \equiv 1 \pmod 4$

Showing that $10!=6!7!$ via Gamma function

Domination problem with sets

Is the closure $\overline{ \{X \in \mathbb{R}^{m \times n} : \rho(M-NX) < 1\} }$ equal to $ \{X \in \mathbb{R}^{m \times n} : \rho(M-NX) \le 1\}$

Are these continued fractions of integrals known?

What do square brackets mean in array initialization in C?

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