Editorial and mathematical review policy
42Math aims to publish interactive material that is useful, understandable, original, and technically honest. The maintainer is responsible for every page that appears on the site.
Topic selection
Topics are chosen when interactivity can add meaningful understanding: showing how variables relate, comparing models, visualizing a process, or making a difficult calculation explorable. A page should serve a learner's purpose beyond attracting search traffic.
What a finished 42Math tool should offer
- An interactive calculation, model, or visualization with a clear educational purpose.
- Visible formulas, units, assumptions, or algorithmic rules where they help explain the result.
- Sample scenarios that make the first interaction meaningful and can be independently checked.
- Shareable states when they help a teacher, learner, or collaborator discuss a specific result.
- Page-specific context that helps visitors interpret the output instead of merely receiving a number.
Sources
Source selection depends on the subject. Preference is given to primary or authoritative material such as standards organizations, government and university publications, peer-reviewed research, established textbooks, official technical documentation, and original papers. Secondary explanations may be used for context, but not as the sole authority for an important constant or claim when a better source is available.
Sources should be attached to the relevant tool or explanation where practical. A link is not treated as proof by itself: the implementation must agree with the cited definition, units, domain, and assumptions.
Calculation and code review
- Write the governing formula or algorithm independently of the interface code.
- Check units, sign conventions, input domains, constants, and conversion factors.
- Compare representative results with hand calculations, known examples, or an independent implementation.
- Test ordinary cases, boundary conditions, zero values, invalid inputs, and numerically sensitive cases.
- Confirm that displayed rounding does not imply more precision than the model supports.
- Test presets and shareable URLs against the explanation shown on the page.
Writing review
Explanations are checked for a clear purpose, accurate terminology, consistent symbols, appropriate units, and enough context to interpret the result. Limitations and approximations should be stated when they could materially change how a visitor understands the output.
Automation and AI assistance
Automated and AI-assisted tools may be used during coding, drafting, translation, test generation, or research organization. They are aids, not authors or authorities. Generated material can contain plausible errors, so publication requires human responsibility, source checking, and testing appropriate to the page. 42Math does not consider bulk generation alone to be editorial review.
Translations
A translated page should preserve the mathematics, units, warnings, and educational meaning of the English source. Machine assistance may be used, but mixed-language or unreviewed translations should not be treated as finished publication. Translation errors can be reported through the corrections page.
Updates and corrections
Pages may be revised when a source changes, a defect is discovered, a model needs clearer limits, or a visitor reports a problem. Material errors are prioritized over stylistic improvements. The public corrections policy explains how reports are evaluated.
Advertising independence
Advertising and traffic potential do not determine a formula, output, conclusion, or correction. Ads are intended to support the cost of the project and should remain visually separate from controls, answers, and navigation.
Professional-use boundary
The site is educational. Content involving health, money, safety, structures, electrical systems, or other high-stakes decisions requires qualified professional judgment and authoritative procedures beyond an online demonstration.