AoPS Wiki:AoPS-Mathlinks Rules and Tips
Contents
MATHEMATICAL DISCUSSION
MathLinks is a community for discussing mathematical problems on various levels. You can share problems with others, solve others' problems, create your own problems and post them, and more.
Posting problems on AoPS/MathLinks
Posting problems
If you want to post a new problem, post it in a new topic. If you have several problems to post, post every problem in a new topic.
Discussing different problems in one topic leads to confusion.
Please double check your problem for mistakes. A simple typo in a formula can make a problem incomprehensible.
Please also give your topic a useful name. Names should describe something. It is better to write names like "prove concurrency in a right-angled triangle", "a^4+b^4+c^4\geq a^3b+b^3c+c^3a", "a^2+b^2=20c^2", "f(xf(y))f(y)=yf(xy)" than the following ones: "hard geometry", "please help me!!", "what to do with this one?", "don't know how to solve it".
Where to post
There are different forums to post problems in.
If you have a problem, you have to choose the right forum according to its level:
- Getting Started is for insert stuff here, but please make it understandable to non-Americans.
- Intermediate Topics is for insert stuff here, but please make it understandable to non-Americans.
- Pre-Olympiad is for problems slightly under the olympiad level and for very easy olympiad problems.
- Olympiad Section is for olympiad-level problems.
- Olympiad-level means the level of the IMO, of IMO shortlists, of the USAMO or the Baltic Way mathematical competition.
- College Playground is a special forum for problems that require preknowledge which is usually not given in schools - for instance, linear algebra, calculus, topology.
The Olympiad Section is subdivided into subforums:
Decide which topic your problem belongs to, and post it into the respective subforum.
Each of these subforums is subdivided into subsubforums:
- Unsolved Problems: Post your problem here if you don't know its solution and you are searching for it, but you know there is a solution (e. g. because the problem was given at an olympiad).
- Proposed & Own Problems: Post your problem here if you know the solution and you want to share the problem with others.
- Open Questions: Post your problem here if it is a conjecture, i. e. you don't have its solution and you don't even know whether it has ever been solved.
- Solved Problems: This is the archive for former "Unsolved" problems which were then solved. Don't post new problems here, it's an archive!
- Theorems and Formulas: This is for important and useful theorems.
Running competitions and homework
This is obvious, but let's strike it here too: Don't post problems from running homework competitions! You are supposed to solve them on your own, so making others solve them for you is cheating!
If you post school or university homework problems, please indicate that your problems are homework. In most cases, you will get no complete solutions, but hints and other help.
Posting solutions
Wherever you see a problem on the forum, you can post a solution to it if you want.
The solution needs not be 100% detailed, but it must be understandable. Posts consisting only of words like "The problem is easy" or "Cauchy-Schwarz solves it" have no value and will be deleted.
Other cases of posting
You are not limited to posting and solving problems. You can write whatever you want, assumed that it is useful and relevant to the forum. For instance, you can generalize problems, point out mistakes in others' proofs, ask questions about others' solutions, simplify others' solutions etc.. But note that the mathematical sections of AoPS/MathLinks are for mathematical discussion only. For non-mathematical discussions, there is the Round Table, the Games & Fun Factory and some more. Non-mathematical discussions in mathematical sections of AoPS/MathLinks can be considered offtopic and removed.
Using LaTeX
LaTeX makes it possible to include formulas in your posts. For instance, by writing
$a^2 + a^3b$
you get 
, and by writing
$\frac{a}{b} + 2! = 3^{10}$ you get 
. Learning LaTeX is very easy by this short tutorial and by testing it out on the forum. Testing can be done in the Test Forum.
Searching on the forum
Before you post a new problem, you should ask yourself whether this problem has already been discussed on AoPS/MathLinks. You can find this out using two functions of the forum:
The Search function helps you find topics in the forum by some keywords. For instance, if your problem is from the USAMO 2002, you can type "USAMO 2002" into the search field. If your problem is about a triangle, its incircle and some altitudes, you can try typing "triangle incircle altitude*" into the search field (the * in "altitude*" is there to find both "altitude" and "altitudes").
The Resources section contains lists of problems of several olympiads. If you know what competition your problem is from, you can look up this competition in the Resources section. If you find your problem there, click on the problem number on the left of the page, and you get a thread with this problem.
You are not supposed to spend half an hour searching for your problem on AoPS/MathLinks, but it is helpful if you try it at least once.
Naming your topic
Topic naming In creating a new topic, you have to write a name of it, under all others will see it before they will click on it and see your problem. It is better to write names like "prove concurrency", "a^4+b^4+c^4\geq a^3b+b^3c+c^3a", "a^2+b^2=20c^2", "f(xf(y))f(y)=yf(xy)" than the following ones: "hard geometry", "please help me!!", "what to do with this one?", "don't know how to solve it". Describe very briefly and concisely the problem.
