Talk:List of mathematical functions

message: "Algebraic functions are functions that can be expressed as the solution of a polynomial equation with integer coefficients." Math noob here, but surely the coefficients don't have to be integers?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by DamnedOwl (talk • contribs) 10:33, 22 March 2017 (UTC)
thread_title:  Elementary functions 

message: This list is so completely incomplete it shouldn't even be here.
:A list like this could by definition never be complete. That does not mean that it is of no interest. If important named functions are missing, why not add them? −Woodstone 21:37, 4 October 2006 (UTC)
replies: text: Yes this should definitely be here, I needed a list of various common mathematical functions for demo purposes, and I expected Wikipedia to have such list and it did indeed, and was helpful.--92.107.251.225 (talk) 21:41, 1 May 2011 (UTC)

text: The purpose of such encyclopedic entires would be to start at the notable. That a cohesive representation comes as a process to this venture, if possible, is just a nice side effect. Yet lacking the possibility for completeness does not preclude the focus on notable functions from establishing an encyclopedic entry on this topic of some kind of pertinence. This therefore, would be my justification. Nagelfar (talk) 05:57, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Should this even be here? 

message: The Dawson function is listed twice (under both "Antiderivatives of elementary functions" and "Other standard special functions") 141.228.106.135 (talk) 09:15, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
replies: text: I've removed the second mention. Gandalf61 (talk) 09:44, 18 April 2008 (UTC)
thread_title:  Dawson function 

message: I don't think Legendre functions should appear in this section.
Legendre functions are Gauss hypergeometric functions, whereas Bessel functions are confluent hypergometric functions.  Very different beasts, even though there does exist relations between them. HowiAuckland (talk) 12:58, 2 November 2009 (UTC)
thread_title:  Legendre functions under "Bessel functions and related functions" 

message: I think a problem with this list (which seems to be echoed in the conversations above (years ago!)), is that we're mixing apples and oranges.  "Special functions" are special because they tend to have their own name and notation, but they can also be categorized as algebraic or transcendental.  Thoughts on clarifying this? Ethan Mitchell (talk) 02:15, 19 August 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  Mixing our Categories 

message: Is there any possible way to quantify known impossible operations/calculations in the various forms of mathematics? For example, although anything divided by zero is itself, it is impossible to turn this operation and divide zero by that anything: the operation is non-computable. Could there be an exhaustive list of such impossibilities? I believe they may be of interest, personally, due to their philosophical implications. Nagelfar (talk) 05:52, 3 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Nagelfar, you have it somewhat backwards.  Anything divided by zero is undefined; zero divided by anything except zero is zero.  As for making a list, I think there are too many such situations to be worth enumerating, and many of them are specific to particular fields of numbers.  For instance, the square root of a negative number is undefined for the real numbers, but it is defined for the complex numbers. Ethan Mitchell (talk) 15:52, 4 September 2011 (UTC)

text: I believe what you're looking for is Indeterminate form#List of indeterminate forms. Robo37 (talk) 18:49, 4 September 2011 (UTC)
replies: text: Hmm, that's a little more specific, but it's nice. Ethan Mitchell (talk) 12:58, 5 September 2011 (UTC)
thread_title:  List of impossible operations in maths 

message: What is the relation between this list and the list at List_of_special_functions_and_eponyms. There is quite a mismatch between the special functions section of this article and that list, but maybe I've just misunderstood the contents of those lists? tjajab (talk) 11:18, 30 December 2012 (UTC)
thread_title:  Relation to Wikipedia article List of special functions and eponyms 

message: Shouldn't this list include piecewise functions?  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Niedzielski (talk • contribs) 15:38, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Piecewise 

message: This list is a great overview. It would be even more useful if each function included a small graph picture to help readers understand and build intuition about the differences and characteristics of each. Many articles already have an exemplary leading image that could be used.  — Preceding unsigned comment added by Niedzielski (talk • contribs) 15:42, 7 August 2015 (UTC)
thread_title:  Graphs