[seqfan] Re: 2 Questions from a rank amateur newbie

[Sean A. Irvine]

Your sequence is essentially already covered by A014085.  I don't see a lot
of merit in repeating this sequence in fractional form as I think treating
it as simple count is more natural than converting to a fraction (or worse
percentage).

With regard to your more general questions, it is perfectly fine for
submissions to leave some fields (Formula, References, etc.) empty if no
suitable information is available.

The OeisWiki contains a wealth of information about making submissions and
the meaning of the various fields.  Are you already familiar with that?

e.g,

https://oeis.org/wiki/Style_Sheet
https://oeis.org/wiki/Overview_of_the_contribution_process

Sean.


On Wed, 2 Jun 2021 at 11:00, Jerry <zhivago47 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Hello. I note in the subject line that I am a rank amateur (in mathematics)
> so that those who don't want to read the posts from such folks as I can
> skip over the post without having to read any of it. I am a newbie with
> reference to using the OEIS (and SeqFan).
>
> 1. My first set of questions is about submitting a new sequence to OEIS. I
> submitted my first sequence about a week ago. After some very helpful
> comments (thank you, Omar E. Pol, Andrew Howroyd, Michael S. Branicky), I
> withdrew my submission because a better sequence, noted by Howroyd, already
> existed. I now have another sequence I would like to submit, but given my
> inexperience and lack of advanced math knowledge, I thought it might be
> better to show it here for corrections and general feedback before
> bothering folks on OEIS proper with it. If this is not a good idea, please
> let me know.
>
> The basic concept of this sequence is to give the percentage of 'integers
> between square integers' that are primes. For example, between 9 and 16,
> there are 6 integers, 2 of which are prime, so the 'percentage', in
> fraction format, is 1/3. This sequence requires, as I understand it, the
> submission of two sequences, one for the numerators and one for the
> denominators, cross-referenced to each other. As I suspect is obvious, this
> pair of sequences relates to Legendre's Conjecture (
> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legendre%27s_conjecture )
>
> I have searched OEIS for both these sequences (with 18 terms each) and
> found no matches. However, I know from my brief experience that this same
> information may already be in OEIS in some other format I haven't thought
> of, and if so, not only is my proposed pair of sequences not needed, but
> also the existing sequence is probably much better. So if anyone knows of a
> form of this sequence already in the OEIS, please let me know, and it will
> save a number of hard working editors and other folks at OEIS a bunch of
> trouble.
>
> If such a sequence is not in OEIS, then I have several questions about the
> format I should submit it in. Let me list the two sequences to start, just
> for reference:
> (numerators)  1, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 3, 1, 1, 1, 2, 5, 5, 1, 1, 7, 5, 1, 3,
> (denominators) 1, 2, 3, 8, 5, 3, 14, 4, 6, 4, 11, 24, 26, 7, 5, 32, 34, 6,
> 19,
>
> First question: The best name for these two sequences that I have been able
> to come up with is:
> (numerator/denominator of) fraction of integers, between n^2 and (n+1)^2
> exclusive, that are primes, n>0.
> From other sequences I have looked at, my name doesn't seem very elegant.
> Any improvements would be appreciated. Also, specifically, is the word
> 'exclusive' needed? Is 'n>0' needed (or does offset 1 take care of that)?
> (I discuss the offset later in this post.)
>
> Should 'references' be blank, because I know of no links that discuss this
> particular fractional sequence? (If there were such a reference, then there
> would probably already be a OEIS sequence for it, right?)
>
> I could list a large number of 'links' about Legendre's Conjecture, and
> most of them wouldn't say very much. Would it be sufficient to just list a
> link like https://mathworld.wolfram.com/LegendresConjecture.html and let
> it
> go at that?
>
> Formula: I don't think (please correct me if I'm wrong) there is, properly
> speaking, a formula for this sequence. Rather there is only an algorithm.
> If so, should I put the algorithm in this section? If so, is the following
> algorithm accurate? Is it the best algorithm?
> Divided the primes between squares ( A014085, excluding first term) by the
> gap between squares exclusive ( A005843, excluding the first term). Reduce
> the resulting fraction.
>
> Example: how many examples should I give, if any? Use something like n=3
> and n=20?
>
> See also: there are a number of sequences in OEIS related to Legendre's
> Conjecture. Should I try to list all that I can find? Or should I list just
> those that specifically relate to my algorithm (A014085 and A005843,
> mentioned above)? Or something else or nothing?
>
> keywords: The two keywords I believe are needed are frac and nnon. Correct?
> Are there any others I should include?
>
> offset: I believe this should be 1, correct? I notice, however,  that
> A014085 and A005843 both use offset 0. For my sequence, n=0 is not
> meaningless, since the denominator is not 0, but it  seems irrelevant to
> me, but am I wrong? Should my sequence start with n=0?
>
> If anyone has taken the trouble to read this far, thank you!
>
> 2. Second question: I mentioned at the beginning that I submitted a
> sequence to OEIS and I withdrew it in under two days. I learned a lot from
> the experience, and I was wondering if it would be worthwhile to post an
> item with hints and recommendations for 'rank amateur newbies', like me. Of
> course, it may be that newbies, especially those with limited math
> knowledge, don't come to SeqFan. I looked and searched the topics in
> SeqFan, and couldn't find any topic along the lines of help or hints--for
> newbies or anyone else. Nor did I notice any topics that would 'prove' OEIS
> newbies use SeqFan, although I easily may have missed topics that fit that
> criterion.
>
> So, my question is, do you think such a post would have any value? If not,
> might it be useful somewhere else? Of course, I would try to not duplicate
> hints and recommendations that are easily found in OEIS itself. Probable
> subjects would be: thinking of (and searching for) better sequences that
> would do what your new sequence is meant to be used for; ways to search for
> sequences in OEIS that are not mentioned in the OEIS instructions; where to
> find different types of hints and explanations within OEIS.
>
> Thank you to any and all who read this post, and especially to any who
> respond.
>
> Jerry Caveney
>
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