MathOverflow is a

mathematics Mathematics is an area of knowledge that includes the topics of numbers, formulas and related structures, shapes and the spaces in which they are contained, and quantities and their changes. These topics are represented in modern mathematics ...

question-and-answer (Q&A) website, which serves as an

online community An online community, also called an internet community or web community, is a community whose members interact with each other primarily via the Internet. Members of the community usually share common interests. For many, online communities may fe ...

mathematician A mathematician is someone who uses an extensive knowledge of mathematics in their work, typically to solve mathematical problems. Mathematicians are concerned with numbers, data, quantity, structure, space, models, and change. History On ...

s. It allows users to ask questions, submit answers, and rate both, all while getting merit points for their activities. It is a part of the

Stack Exchange Network Stack Exchange is a network of question-and-answer (Q&A) websites on topics in diverse fields, each site covering a specific topic, where questions, answers, and users are subject to a reputation award process. The reputation system allows th ...

. It is primarily for asking questions on mathematics research – i.e. related to

unsolved problems List of unsolved problems may refer to several notable conjectures or open problems in various academic fields: Natural sciences, engineering and medicine * Unsolved problems in astronomy * Unsolved problems in biology * Unsolved problems in chem ...

and the extension of knowledge of mathematics into areas that are not yet known – and does not welcome requests from non-mathematicians for instruction, for example homework exercises. It does welcome various questions on other topics that might normally be discussed among mathematicians, for example about

publishing Publishing is the activity of making information, literature, music, software and other content available to the public for sale or for free. Traditionally, the term refers to the creation and distribution of printed works, such as books, newsp ...

, refereeing, advising, getting

tenure Tenure is a category of academic appointment existing in some countries. A tenured post is an indefinite academic appointment that can be terminated only for cause or under extraordinary circumstances, such as financial exigency or program disco ...

, etc. It is generally inhospitable to questions perceived as tendentious or argumentative.

Origin and history

The website was started by Berkeley graduate students and postdocs Anton Geraschenko, David Zureick-Brown, and Scott Morrison on 28 September 2009. The hosting was supported by

Ravi Vakil Ravi D. Vakil (born February 22, 1970) is a Canadian-American mathematician working in algebraic geometry. Education and career Vakil attended high school at Martingrove Collegiate Institute in Etobicoke, Ontario, where he won several mathemati ...

. The site originally ran on a separate installation of the StackExchange 1.0 software engine; on June 25, 2013, it was integrated in the regular

, running SE 2.0.

Naming

According to MathOverflow FAQ, the proper spelling is "MathOverflow" rather than "Math Overflow".

Use of mathematical formulas

The original version of the website did not support

LaTeX Latex is an emulsion (stable dispersion) of polymer microparticles in water. Latexes are found in nature, but synthetic latexes are common as well. In nature, latex is found as a milky fluid found in 10% of all flowering plants (angiosperms ...

markup for mathematical formulas. To support most of the functionality of LaTeX,

MathJax MathJax is a cross-browser JavaScript library that displays mathematical notation in web browsers, using MathML, LaTeX and ASCIIMathML markup. MathJax is released as open-source software under the Apache License. The MathJax project sta ...

was added in order for the site to transform math equations into their appropriate forms. In its current state, any post including "Math Mode" (text between $'s) will translate into proper mathematical notation.

Usage

As of April 4, 2012, there were 16,496 registered users on MathOverflow, most of whom were located in the United States (35%), India (12%), and the United Kingdom (6%). By December 11, 2018, the number of registered users had grown to 87,850. As of June 2019, 123,448 questions have been posted. In 2011, questions were answered an average of 3.9 hours after they were posted, and "Acceptable" answers took an average of 5.01 hours.

Reception

Terence Tao Terence Chi-Shen Tao (; born 17 July 1975) is an Australian-American mathematician. He is a professor of mathematics at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA), where he holds the James and Carol Collins chair. His research includes ...

compared it to "the venerable newsgroup ''sci.math'', but with more modern, '

Web 2.0 Web 2.0 (also known as participative (or participatory) web and social web) refers to websites that emphasize user-generated content, ease of use, participatory culture and interoperability (i.e., compatibility with other products, systems, and ...

' features." * John C. Baez writes that "website 'Math Overflow' has become a universal clearinghouse for math questions". *According to

Gil Kalai Gil Kalai (born 1955) is the Henry and Manya Noskwith Professor Emeritus of Mathematics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Israel, Professor of Computer Science at the Interdisciplinary Center, Herzliya, and adjunct Professor of mathematics a ...

, MathOverflow "is ran by an energetic and impressive group of very (very very) young people". *

Jordan Ellenberg Jordan Stuart Ellenberg (born October 30, 1971) is an American mathematician who is a professor of mathematics at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. His research involves arithmetic geometry. He is also an author of both fiction and non-ficti ...

comments that the website "offers a constantly changing array of new questions" and is "addictive" in a "particularly pure form", as he compares it to the Polymath Project. *Jared Keller in ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

'' writes, "Math Overflow is almost an anti-social network, focused solely on productively addressing the problems posed by its users." He quotes Scott Morrison saying "Mathematicians as a whole are surprisingly skeptical of many aspects of the modern Internet... In particular, things like

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dust ...

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

, etc. are viewed as enormous wastes of time."

Notes

External links

* * — podcast with Joel Spolsky and Jeff Atwood (creators of Stack Exchange) and Anton Geraschenko (creator of MathOverflow). {{Fog Creek Software Mathematics websites Internet properties established in 2009 Stack Exchange network