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A comment on Modular forms, the ‘fifth fundamental operation’ of math. Parent comment

Re:Modular forms, the ‘fifth fundamental operation’ of math by cperciva on Friday September 22, 2023 @02:23AM (#37608554)
As one Putnam Fellow to another: I took a graduate course on modular forms and I still don't really feel that I know what they are. I can't help feeling that they're the mathematical analogue of quantum mechanics: "If you think you understand modular forms, you don't understand modular forms."
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Re:Modular forms, the ‘fifth fundamental operation’ of math by nhatcher on Friday September 22, 2023 @08:04AM (#37610887)
Wow! That's a lot. But are they something that it's intrinsically difficult to understand or is it more like "yeah sure I can follow the definitions and such and maybe a theorem or two, but why is this important at all?"
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Re:Modular forms, the ‘fifth fundamental operation’ of math by cperciva on Friday September 22, 2023 @01:08PM (#37614616)
It's more that they're kind of magical. You think you have a handle on how they behave, then you see a theorem and them and you're like "how the hell do they do that?"
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Re:Modular forms, the ‘fifth fundamental operation’ of math by macrolocal on Friday September 22, 2023 @11:02AM (#37612964)
For automorphic forms, absolutely.
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