P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please • Hacker News Board

P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#1

Post by MarkPNeyer » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 7:25 AM UTC

P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please
simple.wikipedia.org

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#2

Post by buff-a » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 8:41 AM UTC

My 2c: Don't write "Problems in P", write "P Problems".

Also you definition of "why its interesting" conflicts with the other Wikipedia page which says:

The P versus NP problem is a major unsolved problem in computer science. Informally, it asks whether every problem whose solution can be efficiently checked by a computer can also be efficiently solved by a computer.

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#3

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 8:43 AM UTC

[deleted]

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#4

Post by DanWaterworth » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 8:43 AM UTC

I think you might be missing the point of the simple English wikipedia. It's the vocabulary that you use that is simple, not the way in which you express the concepts.

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#5

Post by jarin » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 8:43 AM UTC

I think this generally does a good job of simplifying the terminology without falling into "durr, people who don't speak English natively are dumb" territory.

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#6

Post by peteretep » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 8:44 AM UTC

Your example at the end - you should go in to less detail about the number of combinations, and more in to how it's easy for a computer to check the right answer has been reached.

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#7

Post by Singletoned » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 8:54 AM UTC

DanWaterworth wrote: post #4

I think you might be missing the point of the simple English wikipedia. It's the vocabulary that you use that is simple, not the way in which you express the concepts.

I somewhat agree. For example why use a term like 'mass', when 'size' or 'weight' would be much simpler.

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#8

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 9:10 AM UTC

Singletoned wrote: post #7

DanWaterworth wrote: post #4

I think you might be missing the point of the simple English wikipedia. It's the vocabulary that you use that is simple, not the way in which you express the concepts.

I somewhat agree. For example why use a term like 'mass', when 'size' or 'weight' would be much simpler.

[deleted]

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#9

Post by lamby » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 9:11 AM UTC

Singletoned wrote: post #7

DanWaterworth wrote: post #4

I think you might be missing the point of the simple English wikipedia. It's the vocabulary that you use that is simple, not the way in which you express the concepts.

I somewhat agree. For example why use a term like 'mass', when 'size' or 'weight' would be much simpler.

and wrong

Re: P vs NP on simple english wikipedia - feedback, please

#10

Post by iand » Thu, Sep 15, 2011, 9:13 AM UTC

The page says people "would like to know if there are any problems that are easy for computers to see if a one person's answer is correct, but hard for computers to find a correct answer." However the example given seems to answer this question in the affirmative: it's a problem that's easy to check using a set of scales, but very hard to find a correct answer.