Generate the answer for a given question. The question requires common knowledge of English. Make sure that the answer is in detail, long, consistent with the context, and requires general knowledge of English. To be less repetitive, please vary your language for each question. Give a proper explanation to answer, and if necessary, provide the definition of various terms. And conclude your answer if it's long. If you have used other resources (e.g., Merriam Webster's.) to answer the question, include citations in your answer. You don't need to paraphrase the context of your resources, but make sure that your answer is consistent and complete.
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Question: The phrase to boil down to something can be found in most dictionaries. However, to me, it sounds colloquial to write Finding an exact solution to Eq. 1 boils down to ... A real-life example can be found here, and many more here. Interestingly, many of the examples are by non-native speakers. Is it good style to use this phrase in formal writing? (I am prepared to hear that if people use it, then it is OK.).

Answer: As has been suggested in other answers, it is not very suitable in formal writing. Here are some alternatives you might consider: amount to be reduced to be a matter of be in essence


Question: I was wondering why we say 'something is missing' instead of 'something is missed'? If missed is an adjective then why we use it that way? E.g.: 'The sword is missing'.

Answer: Imagine you have a collection of objects including a sword, one day you can't see the sword and you don't know where it's gone, then you can say 'The sword is missing', meaning it's absent. Now imagine you had a sword and you gave it to someone, or you got rid of it, the point being you know where it's gone and you don't have it. You see a snake in your lounge and you wish you had your sword to cut its head, you miss the sword and you think 'the sword is missed' (passive).


Question: Possible Duplicate: When is 'L' doubled? I'm confused about the two spellings. In which contexts do I have to use canceling or cancelling? Google returns 15.6 million results with canceling and 18 million with cancelling, so I don't know what is the good spelling. Why are both possible, and are there other such pairs?.

Answer:
There are many words that have different accepted spellings between British and American English. The wiktionary.org entry for 'cancelling' says: Alternative forms canceling (US English) This implies that a single 'l' is preferred in American English and a double 'l' in British English.