Calvin Lin's messageboard -4

Hi guys! You can leave messages for me here.

My previous messageboard has too many comments and images, which cause it to load slowly. If you have a previous conversation please continue it there instead of starting a new thread here.

I will be editing and deleting comments to help keep this loading fast. E.g. Once images are irrelevant, they will simply be displayed as a hyperlink, instead of requiring everyone to download the picture. Irrelevant comments will be deleted.

Please keep conversations separate, IE start a new thread for different comments. This will allow me to easily keep track of live discussions.

Easy Math Editor

This discussion board is a place to discuss our Daily Challenges and the math and science related to those challenges. Explanations are more than just a solution — they should explain the steps and thinking strategies that you used to obtain the solution. Comments should further the discussion of math and science.

When posting on Brilliant:

Use the emojis to react to an explanation, whether you're congratulating a job well done , or just really confused .
Ask specific questions about the challenge or the steps in somebody's explanation. Well-posed questions can add a lot to the discussion, but posting "I don't understand!" doesn't help anyone.
Try to contribute something new to the discussion, whether it is an extension, generalization or other idea related to the challenge.
Stay on topic — we're all here to learn more about math and science, not to hear about your favorite get-rich-quick scheme or current world events.

Markdown	Appears as
`italics` or `_italics_`	italics
`bold` or `__bold__`	bold
- bulleted - list	bulleted list
1. numbered 2. list	numbered list
Note: you must add a full line of space before and after lists for them to show up correctly
paragraph 1 paragraph 2	paragraph 1 paragraph 2
`[example link](https://brilliant.org)`	example link
`> This is a quote`	This is a quote
# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"	# I indented these lines # 4 spaces, and now they show # up as a code block. print "hello world"

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `$` ... `$` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$

Comments

Calvin, now this is serious...how am I supposed to find "Calvin Lin's messageboard -4" in the future? Right now, the only way is for me to save the notifications. If any discussion or Note is started, how do we find them again?

Looks like I can try to save problems and notes in "favorites" and use them to save my links to members as well, indirectly. But the Search feature is seriously reduced in utility--I can't use it to find problems, notes, or members that I only have a vague recollection of. I used to use the Search feature all the time, now it's unlikely I'll be using it for anything, except to search wiki subjects.

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 9 months ago

Yes this is going to be a complicated problem. Atleast problems and notes should be added in search engine. Also, if I wanted to solve any problem related to a certain topic I used to find them in the search engine but now it is impossible to find questions relating to a particular topic.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 9 months ago

I find it troubling that useful options and features are being removed rather than added. Not having the "Follow" option, no longer being able to use the Search function to find members, problems and notes, and no longer being able to "Like" or repost a problem all detract, in my view, from the Brilliant experience and the sense of community I used to feel on this site. (As to the "Followers" issue, I notice that in the "Featured Member" display, even over the last few days, it highlights that a member "has just got followed by their nth Brilliant user"; no doubt this kind of highlight will disappear soon as part of the purge. This display also has highlighted streaks of members, yet in the Stats option there is no longer a list of streaks or points achieved to peruse, again detracting from the sense of community.) The emphasis seems to be directed towards POTW, quizzes and wikis, rather than community and members as it was in the past. (So much emphasis on the POTW appears to me to be siphoning interest from the general community section of problems, so much so that any effort to post problems, notes and solutions that will just languish there, (unless "promoted" to the POTW section, (a la Hunger Games)), has the sense of futility. So there appears to be a change in philosophy being manifested here; perhaps this is more effective in growing the site, but for me it has greatly detracted from its appeal, (although I still appreciate Brilliant and will likely never leave). I'm interested, as always, to hear your thoughts, @Michael Mendrin

Brian Charlesworth - 2 years, 9 months ago

You've hit the problem on the head. I used to be an active member of Yahoo!Answers because for a while it allowed me to keep a close knit community of fellow members, including you. Then for corporate reasons, Y!A deliberately made this difficult, as if they decided they didn't want any "cliques" whatsover, so that one feels isolated in Y!A and out of touch "with the regulars". And that was why I joined Brilliant.org. Now Brilliant.org is going in the same way? Depersonalizing the Brilliant.org experience? Why?

For a while it seemed like Brilliant.org was encouraging the human side of this community of problems, wikis, and discussions, but now the new emphasis is just "problems, wikis, and discussions"--with no faces?

I hope Brilliant.org is just experimenting, and will come up with something better.

As for the seriously truncated Search feature, now it's become much more cumbersome to go back to a problem that I'm working on. I don't understand at all why we can't use Search to locate problems.

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Michael Mendrin – This is what I've been seeing for the past few years. Gone are the days when we had cliques on Brilliant. It used to work really well, but like you've said before, they're changing their focus from community to content, losing the appeal it had before.

Sharky Kesa - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Sharky Kesa – Well said, "from community to content". If Brilliant.org ever became faceless, then I don't think it would be an enjoyable experience for me any more. What is the point of solving or creating problems? I can do that on my own in my office with four walls.

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Michael Mendrin – Yes, Sharky summed it up perfectly. Going back to the "Community with content" model would be ideal, but I fear that the horse has already left the barn...

Brian Charlesworth - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Michael Mendrin – Yes, our "migration" from Y!A to Brilliant had the same motivation, so it's very concerning to see the same dynamic playing out again. The difference here is the high degree of accountability of Calvin and crew, as opposed to the utter corporate facelessness of Y!A, so there is reason to hope that our concerns will be heard, if not completely addressed. Maintaining community while trying to grow is always a challenge for any organization, and I hope Brilliant is up to the task, for otherwise it will lose its uniqueness and charm.

As for the truncated Search feature, the "Recent problems" option does allow one to go back to unfinished problems, although it's not as precise a tool.

Brian Charlesworth - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Brian Charlesworth – Many websites today have extensive search features. Here, it's become more like an index tool for wikis and quizzes. Maybe it should not be called "Search" any more, as that is now kind of misleading. What I do know is that i won't be using it much any more, I'll have to find other means. I used to use Search to find problems from way back that I only have a vague recollection of. Now I have no idea of how to even find them any more. Maybe use Google Search? I think I'll try that.

I really hope Brilliant.org is not going in the way of Y!A, losing "its uniqueness and charm" for corporate and marketing reasons.

The "Featured Members" is a step in the positive direction, I hope that's not going to be cut out as well.

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 9 months ago

To find it type https://brilliant.org/discussions/thread/calvin-lins-messageboard-4-2/ remember -4-2 because someone else first make a note with the same title and Calvin had to write 4 2 and change it back. From where I know this https://brilliant.org/profile/b-n8n5oq/sets/helpful-things/520709/little-help-with-new-brilliant-update/#comment-a3f5136417e92

B D - 2 years, 9 months ago

Calvin, thanks for having the Edit choices fixed. Now I find out that the "Like" feature has disappeared. What's the news with that?

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 9 months ago

Also noticed that "following and followers" are gone.

X X - 2 years, 9 months ago

Also, now the "search machine" can only search for "Wiki Pages" and "Quizzes". We cannot search for members, problems or notes now.

X X - 2 years, 9 months ago

Yeah, I just noticed that... wow, that's going to make things difficult it's going to make it much harder to find things. What's going on?

As a matter of fact, I wouldn't even be able to find this "Calvin Lin's messageboard -4" at all either! How would I be able to come back to this in the future?

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Michael Mendrin – You can reshare it or save it so you can find it.

B D - 2 years, 9 months ago

@B D – That works only as long as this Note is available.

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Michael Mendrin – Ok

B D - 2 years, 9 months ago

Brilliant is now looking new. Why all these changes are made. No followers No likes No searching for problems and notes. The search for problems and notes should not be removed.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 9 months ago

A question. When posting solutions or added material to previously posted solutions, is it normal for any such work not "submitted" be lost upon exit? I've had the annoying experience of having spent the better part of an hour developing a solution to a problem (Golden Cubes by W Rose) only to see it vanish while clicking around. I seem to recall that I was able to return to such "work in progress" but maybe my memory isn't right? It has just now happened again.

Michael Mendrin - 4 years, 4 months ago

Solutions are saved locally to your machine using cookies. Here is a video of it working for a modal popup on the feed.

If that’s not what happens for you, please ensure that you have cookies enabled. If it still remains an issue, can you take a video, or give me detailed steps of what you did such that the solution didn’t appear?

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 4 months ago

Actually, things seem to be back to normal? When working on The Strange and Secret Notes of Lovers, I did not seem to be having that problem. But I will keep in mind your suggestions the next time I run into this problem.

Michael Mendrin - 4 years, 4 months ago

When it appears"Discussions for this problem are now closed"? Why does that stop a user to even report a problem? The right to report a problem must be given atleast. I had a little doubt regarding a problem...I wanted to ask...But there is no way that I can even utter that..."Discussions are closed"! Why reports are closed? Just because all the experts have solved it, does that mean that the question is right always? Now you tell me whom should I ask? Particularly I'm talking about this problem:- '3-5-7 square point'. See, I might be proved wrong again by you guys. But that's ok...if there is a mistake from my side, I'll be more than ready to accept it, but kindly make the allowance to express doubts on a problem... And as a user, I ask only this: please provide me with the reason of 'closing the discussion' for the problem after sometime. I hope that you will give me answers to my queries, and I'm sorry in advance if all of this offends anybody here in this site. But I had to ask this... Some of you will already know that I'm kind of a rebel here...I don't want to and mean to be so...It is so because there are a few things I don't understand about this site which I ask...

Skanda Prasad - 4 years, 4 months ago

We close discussions on problems for various reasons. When we do so, we ensure that the problem is correctly stated, and that the solution explains what is going on. This affects a very small percentage of problems.

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 4 months ago

I'm in that small percentage then. But why do you close the discussions? Let it be on... Nothing will happen... Say the problem is correct, solution is also correct. If it's correct, does it mean that nobody is supposed to get a doubt? Everybody is not as brilliant as you, maybe others are, but not me...you must understand that...please...

Skanda Prasad - 4 years ago

When we are commenting on discussions or solutions,we sometimes use LaTeX,but we can't preview it before we post it.Can you help with this?Thanks!

X X - 2 years, 11 months ago

AFAIK, we can't preview comments.

Sravanth C. - 2 years, 11 months ago

Oh,I see.

X X - 2 years, 11 months ago

Just post and make edits if there are errors.

If you want a place to type out comments before posting them, then you can use this wiki.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 11 months ago

OK,thank you.

X X - 2 years, 11 months ago

Sir, how does a problem gets rated?

Rohit Udaiwal - 5 years, 8 months ago

Process by which a problem is rated:
1. The problem creator or moderator gives it an initial seed level. If a problem gets 100++ views, we will also give it a seed level.
2. The community works on the problem.
3. After enough people have worked on it and we have become more confident that the rating is accurate, we will release the level of the problem.

You can help your problems get rated by:
1. Adding a relevant seed level when you post the problem
2. Making it interesting and engaging for others to work on the problem

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 8 months ago

OK thanks!

Rohit Udaiwal - 5 years, 8 months ago

I came across this function and i'd like to ask whether the derivative for it exists.

$F(x)=\sqrt{\ln\left({\sin{\left(\frac{x^2}3-1\right)}}\right)}$

NIKHIL BN - 4 years, 1 month ago

What have you tried?

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 1 month ago

I found the range which happens to be equal to zero. The principle domain is just one point $\dfrac{x^2}3-1=\dfrac\pi 2$ .

Since the graph of the function are just points separated by equal distances, is the function differentiable?

NIKHIL BN - 4 years, 1 month ago

@Nikhil Bn – Good analysis. if you consider this a real valued function with a restricted domain of isolated points, then is it a differentiable function? You should be able to check that against the definition.

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 1 month ago

@Calvin Lin – Could you please explain, the wiki didn't help me much. Also, assuming it is differentiable I found the derivative and when I substitute the points the value turns out be indeterminate, what does this mean?

NIKHIL BN - 4 years, 1 month ago

@Nikhil Bn – Well, it's more of a semantics argument.

Anything is true of the null set. For example, "All of the mini coopers that I own are blue" and "All of the mini coopers that I own are red" are both true statements because I don't own any mini coopers.

In this case, because the domain is just one point, then the function is trivially continuous and differentiable. Because the definition of these terms are "For any point $x$ in the domain, there exists a neighbourhood $N_\epsilon (x)$ , such that for any point $y \in N_\epsilon (x)$ , ... ". It doesn't matter what the "..." is, because there is no points $y$ that satisfies the conditions (e.g. I don't own any mini coopers), and thus the statement is true (e.g. hence all of the mini coopers I own are blue and red).

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 1 month ago

@Calvin Lin – Thanks that's clear now

NIKHIL BN - 4 years, 1 month ago

@Calvin Lin,

Sir, this is IMO 2017 Day 1 , problem 3. None of the contestant could solve this problem at IMO this year.

Can you tell me the logic and hints required to solve this problem?

Priyanshu Mishra - 3 years, 10 months ago

Hello sir,

I have started creating some maths problems recently. But they are level 2 or 3. I want to create some tough( level 4 or 5) problems.

Can you please give some suggestions how to create level 4 or 5 problems?…

Rajath Rao - 3 years, 6 months ago

Respected Calvin sir can I know how many points we will get if we answer a question with certain level. I want to know how many points we will get on answering each of the 5 levels.

Ram Mohith - 3 years, 1 month ago

When you hold the pointer of your mouse on the level(under title) of the problem.

B D - 2 years, 9 months ago

Yes I came to know about it recently

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 9 months ago

Shall we get any points for upvotes ?

Ram Mohith - 3 years, 1 month ago

No. Points are a measure of your activity, not of your reputation.

Calvin Lin Staff - 3 years, 1 month ago

Sir, please answer my below query also.

Ram Mohith - 3 years, 1 month ago

@Calvin Lin Sir how can we add relevant wiki to our questions.??

Harsh Shrivastava - 3 years ago

There is an option just above your solution space.

Sravanth C. - 3 years ago

Every day one of the wikies will be featured as Wiki of the day. My doubt is if a wiki is featured as Wiki of the day can it have chance to be featured as Wiki of the day.

For example, if Arithmetic progression wiki is featured as Wiki of the day can again be featured as Wiki of the day some other time.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 11 months ago

Maybe.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 11 months ago

Is there any way to delete set created by oneself ?

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 11 months ago

Not currently.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

One of my problems was featured as one of the problems of the week. But there is a difference between the number of solvers in the question part and in the solution part . See the difference between the red part and green part !!! So, what is the actual number of solvers.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 11 months ago

The first time I did that question,I got it wrong,but at the problems of the week,I got it right.I think this is the reason.

X X - 2 years, 11 months ago

Yes I too think that is the reason. But they both should be the same know.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 11 months ago

That is because we changed the answer options in your question, so these stats will not match up perfectly.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

When contributing problems,there do exists a biology topic,but those biology problems are not seen in the community page,and people doesn't have a chance to solve it.For example,this one

Can you help with this?

X X - 2 years, 10 months ago

Ah thanks. I will make the change.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

Lately, I seem to be experiencing trouble with spacing between paragraphs when posting a problem. After I've spaced the paragraphs in the draft view, and I save it, some of the spacing disappears, and I cannot figure out why. Any idea what could be going on? For example, in When a Mathematician Orders a Slice of Pie, I can't get the comment, "Well, in that case I'll have the [...]" to be spaced from the proceeding paragraph. This sort of thing has happened before.

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 10 months ago

In this case, the image needs a new line after it, in order for the "Well, in that case ..." to appear on a new line. I made that singular edit, and it appears correctly now.

I've filed a bug report to understand why this is happening. (I don't know how/why those impact each other)

Let me know if you see this issue on a problem without images.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

What is meant by Classical Mechanics ?

What is the difference between Classical Mechanics and Modern Physics ?

Is there anything called Newtonian Physics ? If there what is it ?

Are the above different branches of physics ?

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

I think that all of them are branches of Physics

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 9 months ago

I see that every time in the problems of the week only math's, physics and logical problems are being featured. Why not problems of chemistry and biology are not featured ?

Sometimes I see some good problems of chemistry like this one. I am surprised when I sawed that question has only 129 solvers.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

They do feature biology problems

X X - 2 years, 10 months ago

Ok. I saw sometimes biology problems. But did you ever saw chemistry problems.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Ram Mohith – Hmm...I searched to Week of May 7,but haven't found one.

X X - 2 years, 10 months ago

@X X – I am a user from end of March. From then I didn't see any chemistry problems being featured.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Ram Mohith – Maybe they did feature before,but the times are way less than the times they feature physics problems.That's strange!

X X - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Ram Mohith – Finally found one

X X - 2 years, 10 months ago

@X X – I am going to post a chemistry problem in coming one or two days. Actually I prepared it long before but did post it because I have seen that no chemistry problems are being featured. But my question is a good one.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Ram Mohith – I'll looking forward to it!

X X - 2 years, 10 months ago

@X X – I have posted a new chemistry problem. See it here. I hope it is a good one. Actually this is not the question which wanted to post. I had another one but I didn't find a good picture for it so I postponed it.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

Perhaps chemistry questions are somewhat mystery.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

It's mostly that the quantity and quality of chemistry/biology questions are much lower, which is why they don't make the cut.

I believe we used that chemistry problem on Facebook, which is why it got more solvers than normal (for chemistry problems).

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

I have posted a new one. Is this a good one according to your terms of quality and quantity of knowledge it gives.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Ram Mohith – (I do not know enough about chemistry to be certain of my comment.)

Simply saying "exclude this rule" doesn't provide me with enough information to figure out "so what other rules are there that I need to be concerned about?". Looking at your solution, you seem to be making the assumption that electrons are filled in order of increasing energies. (Is this an inherent chemistry rule? doesn't seem like it since the rule is likely the Auf Bau Principle itself.) What in the question implies that they can't be filled in order of increasing orbitals, or even decreasing energies starting with the orbital of highest energy?

E.g. As an extreme example, what you are saying is "Assume that 2 is not the next integer after 1. If so, what is the next integer after 11?" This feels meaningless without knowing much more about the new number system.

Note: I said "quantity and quality of questions", not "quality and quantity of knowledge (in a particular problem)".

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Calvin Lin – I have edited the question for more clarity.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Ram Mohith – Off the top of my head, a better way to phrase the idea in your problem is:

Scientist 1: Believes in Auf Bau Principle (define)
Scientist 2: Believes in this new principle (define)
Based on their beliefs, which of the following atoms (in the ground state) could be used to distinguish who is right / lead to different predictions in their model?

This way, the problem changes from "boring tedious let's see where the electron goes" to "Oh hm, what are the differences in these scientific models, and how can we distinguish them?" (which I believe is much more interesting to the audience).

So, the takeaway is that even if you know there is a specific idea you want people to be aware of, figuring out how to present the problem can have a significant impact on their engagement.

Note In general, it is not good to hide really important information (as opposed to just constant values that are needed) in the details section of the problem.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Calvin Lin – Can you edit the problem. I understood what you want to convey to me but I feel it will better if you edit the problem.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Calvin Lin – Sir, I have now posted a new question and deleted the before one. Please check this one. If you think any changes are to be made you can do them .

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Ram Mohith – I still have the same issue. What does it mean to "exclude the principle"?

Extending my example, if we exclude the rule that $1 + 1 = 2$ , then what is $11 + 1$ ?

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Calvin Lin – Ok. I thought you said it in terms of knowledge. Sorry for the misunderstanding.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Calvin Lin – Further I think this question needs assistance from Blake Farrow sir as he is good in writing chemistry problems.

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

Is there any wiki for the topic 'Solving Diophantine Equations Using Inequalities'??

Harsh Shrivastava - 2 years, 10 months ago

Not as yet. You're welcome to add one :)

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

I am unable to edit this question from quite some days. In fact, there is no "Edit Problem" option. This will happen only when a question is featured in one of the problems of the week. But from last one month I found that this question is not featured and also there is no edit problem option. Why is this happening ?

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

Click "More" (down right) and you will see the options save, view reports, toggle latex, edit problem and delete.

B D - 2 years, 10 months ago

I am saying that I am unable to find the edit problem option when I clicked "More" .

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 10 months ago

For questions that we're featuring (which could be Problems of the Week, on Facebook, in emails, etc), we remove the editing functionality.

I have verified that your linked question is such an example.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

Calvin, I've already asked Brilliant Staff about this. I just now created and posted a dummy problem, and then tried to change the correct answer, either using Edit choices or Edit problem. Neither one would allow me to change the "correct answer", so I'm forced to delete the problem if I happen to need to adjust the answer. That also forces me to change the title of the problem. What's going on?

Michael Mendrin - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Michael Mendrin – Noted. I've filed a bug report to look into this.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Michael Mendrin – Actually, if you have to repost a problem, you can first change the title, then change it back. It asks you to give a unique title because the website cannot be the same.

X X - 2 years, 10 months ago

@Calvin Lin, why do some of the notes do not have the save option but some others (like this one) has the save option?

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 9 months ago

Can you give an example (link to note, screenshot) where a note has no save option?

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 9 months ago

An example would be https://brilliant.org/discussions/thread/almost-2019/

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 8 months ago

@Mohammad Farhat – I notice it just got a save function. Maybe there is no save function if there is too less data to save.

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 8 months ago

@Calvin Lin, When I get a community problem wrong and I go back I see that I got it correct (sign) but when I go in they say it is wrong. The same happens when I get a problem correct.

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 9 months ago

Can you elaborate on what you mean? Ideally, give me a specific example + screenshots.

Note that "problem of the week" and "community problem" generate different attempts, so for the same problem that appears in 2 areas, you could be correct in one of them and wrong in the other.

Calvin Lin Staff - 2 years, 9 months ago

@Calvin Lin, Can you please help me to add a problem to the wiki: Multiplying Numbers With Algebra. I think it has quite some potential to be an extraordinary wiki. (The wiki idea was not mine)

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 8 months ago

@Calvin Lin, the wiki got deleted somehow.

Mohammad Farhat - 2 years, 8 months ago

Till now I have posted 2 problems but very few people have solved it. How can I make more people solve them?

Mr. India - 2 years, 6 months ago

Calvin, another possible bug report, and I seem to recall this has happened before. Here are 2 problems I solved recently

Golden Cube
Co-co-company

In both cases, I found a better solution, entering a smaller number than the "correct" answer. In both cases, my smaller number was declared, "correct!". Well, this shouldn't be happening, don't you think? Anyway, in the case of the Co-co-company, I believe Marla Reece simply overlooked another way of arranging the 5 circles. However, in the case of the Golden Cube, I actually think W Rose was thinking of another problem than the one I solved. I notice that W Rose does have a tendency not to express his problems clearly.

But, mainly, I'm bringing to your attention that in some of these optimization problems, sometimes when I enter an answer that's different from the supposedly "correct" one, my entry is nevertheless declared "correct". Why do you suppose this happens sometimes?

Michael Mendrin - 4 years, 5 months ago

For golden cube, you submitted a first answer of 10, which was marked incorrect.
Then, you submitted a second answer, that was slightly smaller than our "correcrt answer". Since it is within the 2% error range of the correct answer, hence it was marked correct.

Similarly with Co-co company, the smaller answer that you submitted was within 2% of the error range, which is why you were marked correct.

For these problems, if you're convinced that your value is correct, please submit a report on the problem. Thanks.

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 5 months ago

Oh, I didn't know that Brilliant accepts answers "within 2%". But I've already posted comments in the reports section in both problems, and right now, W Rose seems to be in agreement with me with both the problem statement and the answer. Can the author of a posted problem that has already been answered change his own "correct" answer? If not, then he needs help from the Brilliant Staff to change his "correct" answer.

Michael Mendrin - 4 years, 5 months ago

@Michael Mendrin – Thanks. I've resolved both reports.

Calvin Lin Staff - 4 years, 5 months ago

I'm constantly getting 2 notifications every 10 seconds. But when I click that, it says 'No unread notifications'. Why is that happening? I've clicked that button for about 10 times.

Skanda Prasad - 3 years, 10 months ago

THanks. We will look into that bug.

Calvin Lin Staff - 3 years, 10 months ago

Yeah sure, thanks...

Skanda Prasad - 3 years, 10 months ago

At what date was Brilliant born?

B D - 2 years, 9 months ago

B D (Brilliant Date) :p

X X - 2 years, 9 months ago

Why did brilliant staff has been removed the leader board from all of the sets?

B D - 2 years, 8 months ago

@Calvin Lin sir, what might be the reason ?

Ram Mohith - 2 years, 8 months ago

Calvin I have a question. You have to solve problems to keep streak, but does one of them have to be correct?

B D - 2 years, 7 months ago

Yes I think

Mr. India - 2 years, 6 months ago

Dear @Calvin Lin why I can't save notes?

B D - 2 years, 6 months ago

@Calvin Lin, why does only the stats page is with the timezone the is picked from the settings in the profile?

B D - 2 years, 5 months ago

@Calvin Lin why the space to write a comment in a note is again at the bottom of the page?

B D - 2 years, 4 months ago

Sir, what is the way to post images along posting questions?

Is there any markdown or something else which would help me to draw pictures?

You can see that in all my posts, none of any one posts consists of pictures, geometrical diagrams.

Please help

Priyanshu Mishra - 5 years, 5 months ago

When you post a problem, click on "Drag and drop images here or click to upload" located below the question field and just above the preview button.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 5 months ago

sir does wrong answers affect my leveling up?

InkWhite 2000 - 5 years, 2 months ago

Yes. On the stats page, you can see how your ratings change as you answer problems.

Calvin Lin Staff - 5 years, 1 month ago

Math	Appears as
Remember to wrap math in `\(` ... `\)` or `\[` ... `\]` to ensure proper formatting.
`2 \times 3`	$2 \times 3$
`2^{34}`	$2^{34}$
`a_{i-1}`	$a_{i-1}$
`\frac{2}{3}`	$\frac{2}{3}$
`\sqrt{2}`	$\sqrt{2}$
`\sum_{i=1}^3`	$\sum_{i=1}^3$
`\sin \theta`	$\sin \theta$
`\boxed{123}`	$\boxed{123}$