Talk:Ansatz

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[edit] literal meaning

I added the following as an explanation of the literal meaning:

The German word means something like "basis" or "starting point."

I think this is right in a general sense, but I don't speak German, and it's likely that someone who speaks both languages could give a better literal translation. This page is what I was working from: http://www.iee.et.tu-dresden.de/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/wernerr/search.sh?string=Ansatz&nocase=on&hits=50 --75.83.140.254 18:58, 18 December 2006 (UTC)

If you ken Old English, you'd know how to translare such ae easy-ass term. -lysdexia 20:48, 12 April 2007 (UTC)

[edit] 'often-used'?

I graduated in physics in 1968, and this is the first time I've come across the term ansatz'!! A sheltered life, clearly.Linuxlad 21:22, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Reorganize?

Hi - I like the content of this page, but I think it needs to be written the other way round. First, an Ansatz is a "guess that works". Then examples are (1) models (2) types of solution to an equation (3) any others? You can't define it as the use in modelling.

Any comments?

Instead of the first sentence being "Ansatz (plural: Ansätze) is a German language term often used by physicists and mathematicians." it should be in the form of "In physics and mathematics, an ansatz is a ..." and then explain what an ansatz is (and no, not "is a German language term." The fact that it's German in origin isn't crucial to understanding the concept.)
Also, it'd be nice to see at least one source. -- Antaeus Feldspar 04:19, 19 March 2007 (UTC)
Agreed. I'd also like to echo Linuxlad's comment above - for my part, I graduated in Physics & Philosophy in 1999, and hadn't come across the term till today (when this article inspired me to look it up). So I'd re-write it myself, but I'm still a little vague on exactly what it means so it's probably best left to someone who's come across it before. --Oolong 19:01, 13 June 2007 (UTC)
It _is_ used regularly. There you have 467000 examples -> http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=ansatz&hl=en
I've most often heard the term used in the context of when you assume a functional form for the solution of a differential equation. E.g., you have y' - y = x, then you can assume the functional form y(x) = a*e^x + bx + c (I think?). This f(x) is called the ansatz.--129.173.121.142 22:04, 8 October 2007 (UTC)