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Word problem from the Līlāvatī (12th century), with its English translation and solution. In science education, a word problem is a mathematical exercise (such as in a textbook, worksheet, or exam) where significant background information on the problem is presented in ordinary language rather than in mathematical notation.
In computational mathematics, a word problem is the problem of deciding whether two given expressions are equivalent with respect to a set of rewriting identities. A prototypical example is the word problem for groups , but there are many other instances as well.
Word problem may refer to: Word problem (mathematics education) , a type of textbook exercise or exam question to have students apply abstract mathematical concepts to real-world situations Word problem (mathematics) , a decision problem for algebraic identities in mathematics and computer science
The word problem was one of the first examples of an unsolvable problem to be found not in mathematical logic or the theory of algorithms, but in one of the central branches of classical mathematics, algebra. As a result of its unsolvability, several other problems in combinatorial group theory have been shown to be unsolvable as well.
Many, if not most, undecidable problems in mathematics can be posed as word problems: determining when two distinct strings of symbols (encoding some mathematical concept or object) represent the same object or not. For undecidability in axiomatic mathematics, see List of statements undecidable in ZFC.
An artificially produced word problem is a genre of exercise intended to keep mathematics relevant. Stephen Leacock described this type: [ 1 ] The student of arithmetic who has mastered the first four rules of his art and successfully striven with sums and fractions finds himself confronted by an unbroken expanse of questions known as problems.