# Careless mistakes in formulas shouldn't be treated the same as non-mainstream physics

In this question,

What is the Schrödinger equation in position velocity space?

I originally made a careless mistake when writing the Schrödinger equation in velocity space, as I had originally put a $$m^3$$ in the denominator of part of the equation instead of putting $$m$$ in the numerator, which I have since corrected.

Now the way I made this mistake is that I thought about how $$\vec{v}=\frac{\vec{p}}{m}$$ and from getting the velocity and momentum mixed up, changed $$\vec{p}^2$$ to $$\frac{v^2}{m^2}$$ instead of $$\vec{v}^2m$$ and failed to see that I had implicitly assumed $$\vec{p}=\frac{\vec{v}}{m}$$ until I edited my question to show how I derived the Schrödinger equation in velocity space and noticed my mistake. The reason I didn't notice when someone commented on my question that $$\vec{p}=m\vec{v}$$ is because I assumed that he/she wasn't thinking about the form $$\vec{v}=\frac{\vec{p}}{m}$$.

I think in general if a wrong equation can be explained by a careless mistake such as mixing up $$\vec{v}$$ and $$\vec{p}$$ in $$\vec{v}=\frac{\vec{p}}{m}$$, or forgetting a term in an equation, when a question and the equations in it are long, it should be considered a sign of a careless mistake rather than asking from the perspective of non-mainstream physics.

• Obvious typos can be corrected, but that can be tricky when the typo is in an equation, because it can be hard to tell if it is a mere typo or an actual error. Aug 11, 2021 at 13:58