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Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by fermigier on Tuesday November 24, 2015 @02:28PM (#10622972)
I count 14 words (11 in the title, 1 in the body + 2 times "figure"), not 2. And 14 more if you count the authors names and affiliation as words.
Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by nmc on Tuesday November 24, 2015 @03:28PM (#10623438)
The statement about the two words only concerns the body, and the formula n² + 2 counts for one word.
Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by JayJee on Tuesday November 24, 2015 @03:49PM (#10623580)
Check out THIS word then:

(x = (-b±sqrt(b^2-4 a c))/(2 a))

Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by gohrt on Tuesday November 24, 2015 @03:40PM (#10623511)
Why would you count a compound expression, with internal spaces, as one word?
Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by pd1 on Tuesday November 24, 2015 @03:47PM (#10623564)
Technically "n^2+1" has no spaces.

And I guess one way to think about it is that terms in an expression can be viewed as letters, so the expression then becomes a word.

Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by harryjo on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @01:53AM (#10625769)
How do you pronounce that word?
Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by pd1 on Thursday December 03, 2015 @03:01PM (#10672154)
"n squared plus one"
Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by danharaj on Tuesday November 24, 2015 @03:47PM (#10623561)
The spaces are mere typesetting. n^2+2 is the same expression typeset a different way.
Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by harryjo on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @01:53AM (#10625765)
"mere typesetting" is a rather offensive way to describe a document typeset in TeX, a system invented to free mathematics from "mere typesetting".
Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by danharaj on Wednesday November 25, 2015 @05:12PM (#10630098)
Hey, I've used LaTex. It deserves aspersions as much as accolades :3
Re:The shortest paper ever published in a serious math journ... by vangale on Tuesday November 24, 2015 @04:34PM (#10623722)
In the "story" PDF linked above by elbigbad it was said the title was added by the journal without input from the authors.