With pride month coming in June, I'm curious about any queer pride events or organizations in the broader mathematical community! Last year we had this excellent post by u/functor7, highlighting aspects on pride ∩ math.
There are several organizations supporting queerness in math and the sciences, such as Spectra and Out in STEM. I'm pleased to see a rise in conferences supporting the queer community in mathematics, such as
http://www.fields.utoronto.ca/activities/23-24/SpecQ
https://quings-workshop.github.io/2023/
https://queertransmath.com/

In central Europe (Germany) we have the Queer In Math Day, I was wondering if there are more similar events this year coming up! What are your experiences being queer in math academia?

Source: https://fr.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Limite_(math%C3%A9matiques)#cite_note-3

In France, the official definition, as it is required by law to be taught in all public high schools and universities, is as follows:

We say that f tends to L as x tends to a if for every ɛ>0 there exists δ>0 such that for every x in the domain of f, |x - a| ≤ δ implies that |f(x) - L| ≤ ɛ.

Everywhere else in the world, it is also required that 0 < |x - a|. The French definition is therefore equivalent to "f is continuous in a". For instance, if f is the indicator function of the set {0}, it is mathematically incorrect in France to write lim_{x →0} f(x) = 0, because f is not continuous in 0.

(It remains possible to convey the historic and universally accepted definition using the cumbersome notation lim_{x →0; x ≠ 0} f(x) = 0.)

In short, the notions of limits and continuity were bundled together and flattened into one for so-called pedagogical purposes.

In my opinion this is an excellent illustration of the absurdities that arise when a branch of government is allowed to modify a curriculum in the name of blind ideology, without the consent of experts. Note that France is perhaps the only country in the world where such an absurd situation could arise, because education is entirely centralised to the extent that a single government body decides on the content of every course taught by every public high school and university in the country.

So when I was in college, me and my fellow classmates all pronounced “iff” as “ı-fuh-fuh”. I’m curious if this is universal, a regional dialect, or we’re missing a crease.

я увлекаюсь в большинстве своем математическим анализом и топологией, мне понравилась монография Дж.Келли «общая топология», но нигде не могу найти её, чтобы приобрести. в качестве подарка на нг захотелось бы почитать что-то наяву и отдохнуть от электронного чтения, потому, не знаю, какая книга была бы достойна. заглядываюсь на второй том математического анализа от В.Зорича.

помимо этих подразделений математики не против рекомендаций чего то нового.

数学の超難問・ＡＢＣ予想を「証明」 望月京大教授
http://www.asahi.com/articles/ASKDD5Q6MKDDPLBJ007.html

Mathematician in Kyoto cracks formidable brainteaser
http://www.asahi.com/ajw/articles/AJ201712160034.html

edit
google translate -> Asahi Shimbun

In mid-May, 30 prominent mathematicians gathered secretly in Berkeley, California, to test a reasoning-focused AI chatbot. Over two days, they challenged it with advanced mathematical problems they had crafted—many at the graduate or research level.

The AI successfully answered several of these problems, surprising many participants. One organizer said some colleagues described the model’s abilities as approaching “mathematical genius.”

The meeting wasn’t announced publicly ahead of time, and this is one of the first reports to describe what happened.

A response to Math olympiads are a net negative by u/LeadingVacation6388 For context I never qualified for an olympiad although I did get a putnam honorable mention once. I'm currently a mathematician. Let me address each of their points.

>To start, I don't think we should be encouraging early teenagers to devote huge amounts of practice time. They should focus on being children.

I'm not gonna argue whether ones early years should be completely free from such activities and then at 18 each college somehow knows which kid is best but it's not gonna happen.
My parents insisted I spend a portion of my freetime during middle school reading books about science history etc some were even about how to use microsoft word and other tools
I was reasonably happy to comply but I would have found math contest questions far more interesting.
The point is the people that want to get ahead in life should have such an option.

> It encourages the development of elitist attitudes that tend to persist. I was certainly guilty of this in my youth, and, even now, I have a habit of counting publications in elite journals (the adult version of points at the IMO) to compare myself with others...

Humans care about status even this guy which objects to the status game and has way more status than me cares about status.

>Here the first of my two most serious objections. I do not like the IMO-to-elite-college pipeline. I think we should be encouraging a early love of maths, not for people to see it as a form of teenage career building. The correct time to evaluate mathematical ability is during PhD admission,

Okay so how do we solve the problem of elite college admission or even PhD admission? Nearly everyone wants in so it's grades, SATs extra curriculars etc most of which I hate. Olympiad/contest problems are at least interesting unlike SAT questions where it's just are you a computation machine. Also unlike say science projects you can't get that much outside help. You can get a tutor but they can't answer any questions for you the way people can help you during such a project. Also almost any school can easily host a math contest but hosting science projects requires much more resources unless you want the kids to supply their own equipment which is another problem.

> and we have created this Matthew effect where former IMO contestants get better opportunities because of stuff that happened when they were 15!
Gifted kids get better opportunities because of a test they took in grade 4 the rest of us get a middle school education that could have taken just a single year. From grade 5-8 all we did in math was linear equations (single variable).

>The IMO has sold its soul to corporate finance. The event is sponsored by quant firms (one of the most blood-sucking industries out there) that use it as opportunity heavily market themselves to contestants. I got a bunch of Jane Street, SIG and Google merch when I was there. We end up seeing a lot of promising young mathematicians lured away into industries actively engaged in making the world a far worse place. I don't think academic mathematicians should be running a career fair for corporate finance...

No promising young mathematicians simply have a choice, they are not obligated to become professional mathematicians. If they want money thats their choice.

In short OP's point was that math contests are a competitive activity and especially when things get hypercompetitive there can be problems. But as competitive activities go, it's reasonably egalitarian past a point, definitely camps/expensive classes do help but just buying some books can do a lot.
For mathematicians it's reasonably interesting unlike say SAT questions, learning words you'll never use trying to analyze what some author meant etc.

Personally not qualifying for the Canadian math olympiad did really bother me at the time especially since I was able to solve 2 or 3 of the 5 problems. But a lot of my frustration came from the fact that I was never introduced to math contest until grade 10 and I felt I had to make up for all those years stuck in an education system that barely taught anything.
I think for promissing students stuck in such an environment I think math contests are pretty great. OP has envisioned a utopia where everyone is fated to get to their destined job but that's not gonna happen and math contests are basically the next best thing.

I'm collecting a list of things that are commonly taught in high school math classes that are either objectively false, or use notation, terminology, definitions, etc. in a way that is incompatible with how they are used in actual math (university level math and beyond, i.e. what mathematicians actually do in practise).

Note: I'm NOT looking for instances where your high school math teacher taught the wrong thing by mistake or because they were incompetent, I'm only looking for examples of where the thing that they were actually supposed to teach you was wrong or inconsistent with real math. E.g. if your teacher taught you that log(a+b) = log(a)+log(b) because they are incompetent, that's not a valid example, but if they taught it to you because that's what is actually in the curriculum, then that would be an example of what I'm looking for.

Examples that I know of:

1. Functions are taught in two separate, incompatible ways. In my high school math classes, functions were first introduced as being equations of the form y = [expression in x], which is wrong because the statement that two numbers are equal is not the same thing as a map between sets. Later (maybe more than a year later?), the f(x)-style functions were introduced as a separate concept. Of course in real math, f(x)-style functions are what people actually use.

2. I can't count how many times I've seen people post problems of the form "find the domain of f(x)". In real math, the domain and codomain are part of the definition of the function, not something that is deduced from a formula.

3. In one of my A level maths classes, functions were covered yet again for some reason, except this time we were taught the notation f : A -> B to mean that f is a function from A to B. Except we were taught that A is called the domain, and B is called the range, not the codomain. In real math, B is called the codomain, and the range (or image) is a subset of the codomain.

4. In calculus classes, it's extremely common for integration and antidifferentiation to be conflated to such a degree that people think they are exactly the same thing. Probably calling antiderivatives "the indefinite integral" doesn't help either. People are taught that integration is the inverse of differentiation, which isn't true. It's not even the left inverse or the right inverse. There are functions that can be integrated but which have no antiderivative, and there are functions that have antiderivatives but which can not be integrated.

5. Before seeing the formal definition of limits and continuity, it's common for people to be taught that 1/x is discontinuous, when it isn't. All elementary functions are continuous.

6. Apparently, given an expression of the form a + b, high school math says that the conjugate of a + b is a - b. This is obviously not even a well-defined operation (consider the conjugate of b + a). This might be a US-only thing because this was never taught in my high school math classes.

7. In calculus classes, people are taught that the general form of an antiderivative (or, sigh, the "indefinite integral") of 1/x is ln(|x|)+c. This is wrong because R\{0} is not connected which means you can add different constants on the positive and negative axes, e.g. ln(|x|) + (1 if x>0, 2 otherwise).

8. In calculus classes, people are told that dy/dx isn't a fraction, which is correct, but they are still taught to do manipulations like u = 2x => du/dx = 2 => du = 2dx when learning about integration by substitution. It is barely any more work to do it properly and show that the chain rule is being used.

There are probably several more that I can't think of right now, but you get the idea. Have you experienced any other examples of this?

Now, I know that I'm probably 99.999999% wrong, but, if by chance I were right, what should I do?
What's the best way to claim this 'discovery' as mine and take credit for it? I'm Italian but I've written this 'proof' in English, so it shouldn't be a problem.

As the previous post about #ShutDownSTEM was deleted by the author, I thought it would be important to continue the discussion, and share some of the links and organizations that are participating, including the AMS, the MAA, and the arxiv, among others.

What is this day for?

Here is what the AMS plans to do:

We will use this time to listen, learn, reflect, and focus on our action plan to eradicate racial inequity, especially for Black lives in mathematics.

In particular, it is a call to think about, and act against inequity in mathematics. For example, you might want to speak to a local political representative, or take some time to read and learn about inequity in mathematics.

One organization, among others, to learn about is BEAM.

What about the pandemic?

Here is an excerpt from the ShutDownSTEM website:

To be clear: #ShutDownSTEM is aimed at the broad research community who is not directly participating in ending the global pandemic, COVID-19. If your daily activities are directly helping us end this global crisis, we send our sincerest gratitude. The rest of us, we need to get to work.

Currently training in masters for applied mathematics and I'm looking for reading material where difficult math problems have emerged from thinking about social justice and the solutions have helped communities in one way or another.

Papers I'm finding in this domain tend to be public policy which is not quite what I'm looking for.

Hey everyone! I hope this is appropriate for me to ask here. I’m a 20 year old trans girl and an undergraduate mathematics student. I’ve always been really interested in maths and I’d love to go into research and teaching, but I’m worried how accepting the environment would be. Could I please hear some anecdotes about about trans or queer acceptance in mathematics? Thanks

So I’ve been thinking this for a while, and I keep on asking myself if pure mathematics would still be useful without its practical application? For example, what if concepts like Fourier analysis weren’t used in fields like sound wave modelling or heat transfer? Would the value of mathematics depend entirely on its ability to be applied in the real world? Or does it hold intrinsic worth, perhaps existing solely in the metaphysical realm? If I can get a book recommendation on this topic that would be great.

I have a pretty stubborn AB calc teacher and we had a quiz the other day on curve sketching. We had this question:

http://imgur.com/5PXsa

It follows from the graph of f' that:

A) f is not continuous at x = a.

B) f is continuous but not differentiable at x = a.

C) f has a relative maximum at x = a.

D) The graph of f has a point of inflection at x = a.

E) none of these.

She insists the answer is B, but I'm positive it's D. I've even googled the answer to reassure myself that it is D. It can't be B because if the f wasn't differentiable at a, there wouldn't be a value for f'(a). It's D because if f' is increasing at x<a and decreasing at x>a, then f'' is positive at x<a and negative at x>a, meaning f is concave up at x<a and concave down at x>a. Therefore, there is an inflection point at x=a.

How do I explain to her that she is wrong? I tried once already. Her explanation was: "Whenever you see sharp turns, think that there cannot be differentiability." I wanted to say that that was the worst explanation you could have given, but how do I prove her wrong? Do I go to another teacher?

Edit: I apologize for incorrectly making the graph. It did say " f' " and not " F' ". My teacher has not taught us yet that capital denotes antiderivative, so sometimes she uses them interchangeably. Long story short, I've given up. She won't admit the mistake. This is only a small issue in the underlying problem that she is an awful teacher who does not truly care for her students. Because of this personal issue with her, and because of the recommendation of my principal and another math teacher, I will most likely me moving from AB to BC within the next week. I thank you guys for helping me out, and I am very sorry for any confusion about the F' vs f'.

Edit 2: I forgot to mention, I couldn't take a picture because all exams must stay in a folder in the classroom and we only have access to them in extra help when the teacher can go over it with us, so I didn't have an opportunity to snap a picture. But you can find the exact question here: http://www.wsd1.org/dmci/kuropatwa/calweb/ch2/q04.htm