Talk:wwwww
While I do not have a source to cite, I can verify that this is how we were taught to end our proofs in Freshman Calculus -- although our teacher sometimes abbreviated it further as "W to the fifth" (a math joke). --EncycloPetey 08:17, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
AH! Found some on-line citations at least:
- When you finish your solution, make it clear you are finished. State the final result, which should be saying that you did exactly what the problem asked you to do, e.g. 'Thus, we have shown by contradiction that there are infinitely many prime numbers.' You can also decorate the end of proofs with such items as 'QED' or 'AYD' or 'WWWWW'
- Incidentally, some people prefer to use the more tongue-in-cheek WWWWW or W5 which stands for the English "Which Was What Was Wanted." or "Which Was What We Wanted."
- this last one is just a copy of the Wikipedia entry - where our entry came from. There is nothing in mathworld SemperBlotto 08:30, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
- Not specifically, but their entry on Q.E.D. notes:
- "Q.E.D." (sometimes written "QED") is an abbreviation for the Latin phrase "quod erat demonstrandum" ("that which was to be demonstrated"), a notation which is often placed at the end of a mathematical proof to indicate its completion.
- The translation they give ("that which was to be demonstrated") can also be translated loosley into English as "which was what was wanted". Although Mathworld tauts itself as the "most extensive" source on the web for mathematics, I've found them lacking many times on the specifics even in very basic topics (I teach math, so I send my students to various sites for additional illustrative tidbits). But as I noted above, I have seen the phrase used by college math professors to conclude their proofs. --EncycloPetey 12:24, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
- Not specifically, but their entry on Q.E.D. notes:
I'm sorry, I think I should have simply removed the RFV when I edited the entry. It isn't listed on RFV. The user that copied the entry from Wikipedia was tagging all entries being copied with rfv, at my misinterpreted/poorly communicated request. The rfv, (looking at history) I think was meant for the Japanese texting portion. I don't know why I dropped that; I recall starting a search for the Japanese term...I probably just hit save on the window when I came back to it, later. This was only one entry in a moderately large series of similar entries, and apparently I was doing too many things at once. --Connel MacKenzie T C 08:44, 22 February 2006 (UTC)
wwwww[edit]
wwwww, qed, and ayd? have same or similar meanings what does ayd stand for? I would guess it stands for "and you're done".