On 2018-05-13 04:23, Steven D'Aprano wrote:
In my experience mathematicians put the given *before* the statement:
Given a, b, c three sides of a triangle, then
Area = sqrt(s*(s-a)*(s-b)*(s-c))
where s = (a + b + c)/2 is the semi-perimeter of the triangle.
For the record, that is almost exactly what I wrote for a student
earlier today, and its not just me, it is very similar to the wording
used on both Wolfram Mathworld and Wikipedia's pages on Heron's Formula.
http://mathworld.wolfram.com/HeronsFormula.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heron%27s_formula
Putting "given" after the expression is backwards.
Yes, but that's because we're ruling out the use of "where". At this
point I would be fine with "snicklefritz" as the keyword. The point is
that I want to put SOMETHING after the expression, and this is not at
all unusual. See for instance Wikipedia pages on the Reimann zeta
function
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Riemann_zeta_function#Definition),
gravitation equation
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gravity#Newton%27s_theory_of_gravitation), and
compound interest
(https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compound_interest#Mathematics_of_interest_rate_on_loans).
If we have to use the word "given" even though the word mathematicians
would use in that position is "where", that's not such a big deal.
--
Brendan Barnwell
"Do not follow where the path may lead. Go, instead, where there is no
path, and leave a trail."
--author unknown
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