Finding and fixing errors is part of making a reliable reference. This page explains how to report an error and how we handle it, and it lists every mathematical error that we have corrected in a verified page.
Reporting an error¶
Use Report an error at the top of any page. It opens an issue on GitHub. Please tell us:
the address of the page, and the label of the definition, theorem, example or exercise if you know it (it is the part of the address after
#);the kind of problem: a mathematical error, something unclear or misleading, a typo or formatting problem, or a broken interactive figure or link;
what is wrong and, if you can, the correction you suggest;
how you found it, if you like. This helps us write a test that would have caught it.
What happens next¶
Triage, usually within a week: we confirm the error and label it by severity, or close the report with an explanation.
Fix: for an error in a computation, we first add an automated test that fails on the current page, then correct the page so that the test passes.
Log: if the error was in the mathematics of a verified page, the correction is added to the log below, with the date, the page, the label, what was wrong, what changed and a link to the report.
Learn: we ask why our checks missed the error, and improve them if they could have caught it.
While a confirmed mathematical error in a verified page is waiting to be fixed, the page shows a “Known issue” note that links to the report.
Log of corrections¶
No corrections have been logged yet.