Mathematical Tables in the Digital Era

Definitions and mathematical statement

The supplied record does not define a mathematical table, a numerical table, or the temporal scope of the digital era. These terms are the subjects of a historiographical investigation; no formal class of tables, mathematical domain, or criterion for their disappearance or transformation is specified.

The research question attributed to the 2011 Oberwolfach mini-workshop is: What is a mathematical table in the era of digital computing? Did the development of digital programmable computers end the numerical table, or instead transform its algorithms and uses?

This is a historical and conceptual research question, rather than a specified mathematical proposition with explicit hypotheses and quantifiers. Its formulation leaves unresolved what counts as a table and what evidence would establish the end or transformation of numerical tables. A precise mathematical assertion cannot be extracted without introducing definitions and criteria absent from the supplied source record.

Short English statement

Investigate what mathematical tables became with digital computing, including whether programmable computers ended numerical tables or transformed their algorithms and uses. The supplied question is historiographical; its key terms and criteria require clarification before any mathematical formalization.

Sources

• Local UnsolvedMath registry, permanent ID $30001726$, title Mathematical Tables in the Digital Era, source problem code catalogue entry, in the Oberwolfach Reports Open Problems collection. The supplied record gives 2011 as the proposed year and identifies no individual proposer.
• Supplied source citation: Mini-Workshop: History of Numerical and Graphical Tables (2011), Oberwolfach Reports, report 12/2011, pp. 639--689, DOI 10.4171/owr/2011/12. https://doi.org/10.4171/owr/2011/12. The supplied background describes Oberwolfach Reports as documenting mathematical workshops and their open-problem discussions.
• Supplied literature source: Oberwolfach Report 12/2011, https://doi.org/10.4171/owr/2011/12. Literature checked at: 2026-08-21. This is supplied dated curation, not an independently verified literature assessment. It labels the question open and characterizes it as a continuing historical research question rather than a theorem with a definitive yes-or-no resolution; it requests independent verification of time-sensitive status and cited claims.
• The supplied statement status is corrected_verified. Its verification note says that the official report confirms the historiographical research question and that an extraction label was removed. These are supplied verification claims; the report has not been independently consulted for this draft.