Doron Zeilberger on experimental math
Nov. 2nd, 2006 06:46 amI love Zeilberger's style. From What Is Experimental Mathematics?:
Let me try and explain to you, by example, what is experimental math. It is really an attitude
and way of thinking, or rather not thinking. Mathematicians traditionally love to solve problems
by thinking. Myself, I hate to think. I love to meta-think, try to do things, whenever possible,
by brute force, and of course, let the computer do the hard work.
...
Zeilberger-style Experimental Mathematics
Traditionally there was a dichotomy between the context of discovery, that nowadays is mostly
done by computers, and the context of verification that is still mostly carried out by humans.
In my style of experimental math, the computer does everything, the guessing and the (rigorous!)
proving, if possible completely seamlessly without any human intervention. Feel free to browse my
website for many examples.