I am a linux user FC4, and a math student. For all my upper division math classes I need to write a research paper. My last 3 classes are Differential Equations, Number Theory and Curve Fitting.

Diff Eqs deal with how things change over time; heat loss, population growth, space objects' change in trajectory as it approches another body, or pretty much anything else you can think of.

Number Theory deals with sets, prime numbers, geometric numbers and is the foundation for cryptography.

Curve Fitting deals with how to arrange raw data in to some form of usable data; with intent to arrive at a formula.

Are you asking us to do your homework? Nice try. As for linux (the topic of this forum), it caters to mathematicians' needs a lot. Many open-source libraries/programs (gmp, mpfr, fftw, etc.) exist. Major comercial packages exist also (Mathematica, MATLAB, etc.). Almost any programming languages you would use also are usable on linux. As for the paper, TeX and friends are the absolute best (IMHO) for such papers.

Are you looking for descriptions of algorithms? You can always consult the books (a few by Knuth. There's also `Numerical Recipes' available online somewhere -- free as in beer). You can also consult the source (the whole point of FLOSS). The best way to learn about practical implementations of algorithms is to see how others have approached similar problems. There are tons of examples of good (and not so good) programming of algorithms for fitting curves, numerical methods for diffEQ's, stuff involving primes/cryptography, etc. Reading code, you might even find a bug and/or fix.

Last piece of generic wisdom: GIYF

Google (and Wikipedia) Is Your Friend.

I always thought the answer was 42.

sounds interesting. Are you going to write three papers on three fileds?

sounds interesting. Are you going to write three papers on three fileds?

What is your question?
What guidelines are you given about the research paper?

You are going to get some flak on homework...the fact is we are allowed to help you but help is not likely if we don't understand what you are trying to do.

Write three papers! :-)

Well (i am way out of my depth here) i don't see that Linux is your best subject material for these sorts of 'research papers'. At a stretch i guess:

Differential equations the evolution of Linux in both server and desktop environments and the user adoptions, and why of course.

Number theory you could do research on cryptographic algorithms like RSA and elliptic curve type stuff.

Curve fitting you could study various proprietry and open source database formats.

Anyway like i said, way out of my depth and i don't think Linux is the key to your problems.

You titled your thread "free research." Are you offering to provide free research in one or more of these topic areas in return for the right to use the results in your research paper? If so, are you looking for a research topic from someone in this forum? Are you looking for raw data? Are you looking for both?

Notice who's missing from the conversation?? It may be time to let it die....
(He is not however, the typical One-Post-And-Disappear type that we see here on occassion)

I think maybe you picked the wrong General forum - I have moved it from Linux-General to General.

tzonga1,

I figured you were offering to do the research. I would recommend that you return to this thread and post your intent. I am only one person that may or may not have something for you. Explain in the thread exactly what you're looking for; don't just send an e-mail to me hoping that you problem is solved.

That said, I'll let you know that I am a statistician/engineer. That is, I did my undergrad work in Electrical Engineering and my graduate work in Statistics. Personally, I'm pretty comfortable analyzing/modeling my own data and really don't need someone to do it for me. But, I might have something I can throw your way to help you out. It would be real world data from a process industry.

My work/interests lie in repairable system analysis and system optimization. Anything I could find would be related. If I remember correctly, Diff E addresses numberical integration (e.g., Newton-Raphson method) which is used in system analysis. Fitting a model to failure data (typically Weibull, lognormal, and Poisson models) would be required. Number theory certainly plays a role in the theoretical development of recurent event analysis.

I can't promise anything, but I have your e-mail address now if anything comes up. I presume you need this for the fall/winter semesters.