Mathematics Glossary

Any student who ever sat or slept trough a mathematics course knows that certain words and phrases occur very frequently. This glossary might eliminate some confusion.


When the instructor says	He really means
------------------------	---------------
trivial                     The student might be able to
                            do it in three hours or so.

simple                      An "A" student can do it in
                            a week or so.

easy                        This topic would make a good
                            master's thesis.

clear                       The instructor can do it
                            (he thinks).

obvious                     The instructor is sure it is
                            in his notes somewhere.

certainly                   The instructor saw one of his
                            instructors do it, but has
                            completely forgotten how it
                            was done.

is well known               The instructor heard that
                            someone once did it.

can be shown                The instructor thinks it
                            might be true, but has no
                            idea how to prove it.

the diligent student        It is an unsolved problem -
can show                    probably harder than
                            Fermat's Last Theorem.

Author unknown.