JoshuaZ comments on Problem Solving via Polya - Less Wrong

14 [deleted] 08 January 2011 12:30AM

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Comment author: JoshuaZ 08 January 2011 02:19:49PM *  4 points [-]

Very cool. Some of those questions seem a little redundant, such as:

Have you seen it in another form?
An analogous problem?

These aren't redundant in the context that Polya is talking about. In math, these are different. The first means the same problem but with different notation or some equivalent problem. The second means a problem that is similar in some way (say for example something over a finite field having an analog over the real numbers or rationals.)

Comment author: jwhendy 08 January 2011 07:12:18PM 0 points [-]

I appreciate the explanation, especially when considering a math context (which is the intended context anyway, but I was thinking generally with my comment).