User talk:Pizza Puzzle1

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Hi Pizza Puzzle, welcome to Wikipedia! The C Plus Plus article's looking very good at the moment. Out of interest is your user name related to the maths puzzle about cutting up pizzas? -- Ams80 23:20 15 May 2003 (UTC)


I do apologize for calling the links "silly" - of course nobody likes such a word applied to what they do. Sorry. Evercat 21:35 9 Jun 2003 (UTC)

How about "immediately below the following line"? Anyway ...
I recently replied to some comments of yours from May on my talk page; sorry that I took so long. -- Toby Bartels 05:05 9 Jun 2003 (UTC)

You got rid of your list of articles you'd been working on! -- Oliver P. 17:04 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Oh, you just moved it to User:Pizza Puzzle/stuff. Sorry. Never mind... -- Oliver P. 17:04 8 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Any time. ;) -- Oliver P. 21:56 7 Jun 2003 (UTC)

It is a common error to think that a tangent line intersects a curve at only one point. -- Oliver P. 21:34 7 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Hi. Thanks for expanding Salam Pax. I'm wondering, though, why you removed this bit: "expressed both cynicism and hope about the U.S.' efforts in the country." Koyaanis Qatsi 16:03 4 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I wasn't talking about the site in general, I was talking about the U.S.' efforts specifically. That's apparent. But whatever. And no, I'm typically quite far from sentimental, though I'll agree with you the statement should have been shored up with specific examples. Apparently people can read it as saying things it does not. Best, Koyaanis Qatsi 20:55 4 Jun 2003 (UTC)

"The" just sounds more natural to me than "a", in the context. I use "the" (the definite article) when I am being definite about which thing is being talked about. In this case, there is only one black line, so I would call it the black line. Maybe I'm just less poetic than you. ;) Shall we see what mathematical textbooks do? -- Oliver P. 14:02 4 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I definitely agree here. Since it's the only line, and the only curve, "the" makes more sense. Trying to insert poetry into articles about mathematics is likely to be an uphill battle :) -- Wapcaplet 14:07 4 Jun 2003 (UTC)
Amend: Checking out my old Calculus textbook, it appears that the use of "the" or "a/an" depends on context. For example:
Graph of the six trigonometric functions
The graph of f(x)=x^2
An angle θ
A smooth curve that fits the data of Fig. 3.1.9
So perhaps the use of a in the tangent article is best. Though, I would at least use the word the when referring to the tangent point (since it is the only one) -- Wapcaplet 14:16 4 Jun 2003 (UTC)

So you want us to put new messages above older ones? How very geological of you. ;) And on the subject of tangent - what have you got against the word "the"? I think it's a nice word... And another thing, how are you pronouncing "(n - 1)-dimensional" so that it takes "a" instead of "an"? I pronounce it "en minus one dimensional". That starts with a vowel. -- Oliver P. 13:46 4 Jun 2003 (UTC)

At the top? What, here? ;) -- Oliver P. 21:19 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Hi, Pizza Puzzle, it's nice to see a new face in the math department. I have a couple of pointers on working in Wikipedia:

  • When you create a stub (a very short article, like Quantity), try to put in more than just a definition and a link; at least an explanation of how the concept is used. (That said, some people leave out even the definition and the link!) See Wikipedia:The perfect stub article for more on this.
  • When you're editing a page, select the "Preview" button to view your edits and then correct them or edit further; press "Save" only when you've finished. This cuts down on the clutter in Special:Recentchanges and also makes it easier to see in one glance what you've done to the page.

Despite these two bits of criticism, I liked seeing your work on the mathematics articles -- especially the new articles that you've created! And if you plan to edit more math articles (and I hope that you do), then be sure to check out the WikiProject Mathematics. -- Toby 15:06 19 May 2003 (UTC)

Hi, Pizza Puzzle. I saw all the edits on the Algebra article and I'm sure that the article is better for your changes. However, there's one thing I'd like to point out and another item I'd like to discuss. First, as noted above, you can use the "Preview" button to see what your change(s) will look like before pressing "Save." You made about a dozen small changes, one right after the other, when you could have made them all in one change. Doing this makes it easier to see what changes were made when looking at the page history. Secondly, I'm sorry you don't like short paragraphs, but the discussion on Algebra clearly should be seperated into two paragraphs: the first paragraph defines what Algebra is and the second dicsusses different types of Algebra. I'll leave the change out and let you decide what to do with the entry since I beleive you'll just revert the paragraph seperation again. Please try to follow the rules of grammar and structure in Wikipedia since we are trying to make it as good as possible. Take care. --Frecklefoot 15:27 20 May 2003 (UTC)

Yes, Sir. -- Oliver P. 19:00 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

I'm glad you liked it. :) -- Oliver P. 20:46 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

Well, you define a vertical tangent, then... -- Oliver P. 20:55 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

It's unbounded. But my maths is a bit rusty, so I think I'll leave these articles until I'm less tired. Tomorrow, maybe. Goodnight... Oh, and er no, the vertical tangent comment was a response to your removal of my silly "left to the interested reader" remark from the tangent article... -- Oliver P. 21:00 3 Jun 2003 (UTC)

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