# Tag Info

28

First of all, I should point out that the standard definition of a normal subgroup is A subgroup $N \subset G$ is normal iff $g n g^{-1} \in N$ for all $n\in N$ and $g\in G$. When I say "the" standard definition, I mean that this is how working group theorists think of normal subgroups, and this is one of two basic ways to prove that a subgroup is normal....

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I did this once with a high school group. My approach was to use the metaphor of a scientist doing a controlled experiment: You study a complicated system by introducing a single change, while trying to keep everything else constant, and watch how that change affects the system overall. In this case, the system is arithmetic, and the "one change" we are ...

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In my experience, one of the problems with series is that usually you have two sequences if you investigate the series $\sum(a_n)$: the sequence $(a_n)$, and the sequence of partial sums $S_n=a_1+\ldots + a_n$. I noticed that trying to stress this distinction helps a lot. To the intuition, I like R. Péter: Playing with Infinity, the chocolate bar example on ...

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A possibility is to show your students Google's implementation of the game Snake. If you enter the term snake into Google's search engine, the there is a box at the top showing If your particular Google bubble doesn't show this result, I think that there is a direct link. If you hit "Play", you can play a game of Snake, using the standard rules. ...

17

Perhaps you should seek texts that emphasize the high-level viewpoint that you are missing in the details of the more advanced texts. Three examples: (1) Bressoud, David M. A radical approach to Lebesgue's theory of integration. Cambridge University Press, 2008. MAA Review. (2) Hajime Sato. Algebraic Topology: An Intuitive Approach. Transl: Kiki ...

16

The way I like to approach this is as follows. After discussing subgroups, the natural question as to forming the quotient $G/H$ arises. I then proceed to look at the cosets and prove that if $gH\cdot g'H=gg'H$ is a well-defined operation, then the cosets become a group, which we call the quotient group. This is a very easy proof with basically nothing to do....

15

I think it is important to develop mathematical intuition in one's work, but not necessarily of the naive sort. Of course, one's intuition may turn out, ultimately, to be incorrect. An important outcome in this case is not to assume that you have bad intuition, but instead to think about how you can make the end result sync up better with what could be ...

15

Just supplementing Benjamin Dickman's nice answer, here is $x \mapsto x^2 - x$ in $\mathbb{Z}_{18}$ in the same style: For example, the pentagon wheel reflects the fact that $$(5+3k)^2-(5+3k) = 9k^2 + 27k + 20 = 9k(k+3) + 20 = 2\bmod 18 \;.$$

15

To answer the question in the title, I would say that one problem with no-symbols reasonings is that one need to use a lot of pronouns. Problem is, pronouns usually leave too much ambiguity. At some point, mathematical sentences where written without symbols; the introduction of letters to denote mathematical object improved quite a lot the depth and ...

14

Homotopy equivalence v. Homeomorphism. I believe an accessible difference between homotopy equivalence and homeomorphism is that one preserves an intuitive (though hard-to-define) topological invariant, while the other almost never does: the invariant of dimension. For instance, any $\mathbb R^n$ is homotopy equivalent to a point. Similarly, $\mathbb R^n - \... 13 Modular arithmetic is beautiful and simple but tends to be frighteningly clotted with detail and notation at first. Whenever I present it I start off by telling the audience they already know modular arithmetic. I proceed to ask them: if it is now 1 o'clock (and then I write a '1' on the board), what time will it be in 2 hours (and I write a "+ 2" next to ... 13 (I have not done this exact presentation, so I cannot vouch for its efficacy. But I have used the main idea before, and it seems to help some students, and is at least a bit of fun. Also, this is meant to address the intuition aspect of the question, not the motivation.) Demonstrate by walking! Convergence means there's a spot that will be approached to any ... 13 I have given this issue a lot of thought over the years -- in fact a large portion of my dissertation is devoted to related issues. I think of this challenge in terms of a "mathematical sensibility" -- a way (more precisely, a cluster of related ways) of appreciating and participating in mathematics -- and frame the question as "What is the role of school ... 13 One of the approaches taken in some areas of mathematics (e.g., in arithmetic dynamics and considerations of preperiodic points, etc) is to create these graphs by drawing discrete points and then using arrows to show which values map to which other ones. Figuring out a "canonical" way to draw these pictures might be a bit tough (this is related in some ... 12 It seems to me that the reason for learning series in calculus is to analyze functions through power series representations. There are other reasons series are important in mathematics, but in the standard calculus course, it seems to me that series are introduced for the sake of explaining power series. The key is then, Can one motivate power series ... 12 You need to pick pedagogically appropriate texts. Not the Rudin ballbusters. Pick ones that have explanations and were written for students with occasional imperfections in their previous knowledge. Don't go too much off of what people say on the net is teh ultimate book to use. SINCE IT ISN'T WORKING FOR YOU. Find other texts that you can handle. ... 11 As @BenCrowell mentioned, the transfer principle proves that direct algebraic manipulation of infinitesimals in single variable calculus is allowed. But I stumbled upon this post in theshapeofmath.com, which shows how things can break when switching to multiple variables. It provides the following basic example of a possible error when handling partial ... 11 This answer is from my experience running a Maths Learning Centre. I help students learn and use maths, mostly when they are struggling, and I also hear their opinions of their lecturers and other teachers. I am very interested in all sorts of maths, and I will take almost any opportunity to be excited about a mathematical idea. For example, I made t-shirts ... 11 Most functions that are studied by physicists and other scientists are continuous. However, more and more discontinuous functions are appearing in the various sciences. This is due to: Computers and their digitization of data. Many computer routines produce discontinuous output, even if the data is near-continuous. Quantum theory is a mixture of the ... 10 Have a look at the paper written by Nunez et all: EMBODIED COGNITION AS GROUNDING FOR SITUATEDNESS AND CONTEXT IN MATHEMATICS EDUCATION. In essence, they argue that it is better to be causious if you want to "motivate the formal definition of continuity starting from the intuition" you have suggested in your question. In the following passage, "natural ... 10 My favorite video for this is powers of ten from 1977. Though we can get a little smaller today, I think it still does an excellent job with getting the scale of things starting from what we know. They should pick up on that these numbers are far far far bigger than the largest scale in the video. 9 Unfortunately, my example is not a full answer to your question, but I think, it helps students to be at least beware of what can happen. You can explain series as a inifite summation of areas (at least as long as everything is non-negative). And convergence of a series means: Is there a big rectangle such that all the given areas fit in? Intuitively, most ... 9 My feeling is that the$\epsilon$-$\delta$formulation is already pretty close to what one should think about limits; that is, the language can be hard to grasp at first, but the idea is very literally expressed in that language and can also be expressed in words. I find this more convincing using a physics measurement approach (which is slightly more ... 9 This is an excellent question. Some good advice on this can be found in the writing of Bill Thurston, some of which I have posted in an answer to this question on Math Overflow. The opening of the quotation I posted there is particularly telling: "Mathematics is a paradoxical, elusive subject, with the habit of appearing clear and straightforward, then ... 9 Introduction I wasn't taught the partial fractions decomposition (PFD) in calculus. We didn't cover it in high school, and when I went to college, they assumed we all knew it. Somehow it was when I read the proof in van der Waerden's Modern Algebra that I understood why it was called partial fractions. I looked at it again a couple days ago, and ... 8 Another point that oughtn't be neglected was that, historically, numerical computation/approximation used Taylor-Maclaurin expansions (not to mention Newton-Raphson when convenient) to approximate root-taking. Newton was apparently very happy with his discovery of the binomial expansion for general exponents, although surely not only for numerical purposes. ... 8 I am not entirely sure on the best way to convey the difference between homotopy equivalence and isomorphic homology groups (or even isomorphic homotopy groups, though on CW-complexes I guess this isn't as big of a concern), except by way of examples. I remember my algebraic topology exam had an explicit example of spaces with all the same homology and ... 8 We have two cookies. We divide them into pieces of 1/2 cookie each and end up with four pieces. Thus 2 divided by 1/2 equals 4. We have two cookies. We take 1/2 of the collection which is one cookie. Thus 2 multiplied by 1/2 equals 1. Each of those examples can be criticized. In the first example, one could claim that it shows that 2 divided by 4 equals 1/... 8 A point (say, in$\mathbb{R}^n$) is a vector. Vectors and points are really no different. They are both$n$-tuples in$\mathbb{R}^n$. The difference between two points (in$\mathbb{R}^n\$) is a vector, but a vector has no fixed position. Points are positions in space. Vectors are displacements. It makes no sense to add two points, but it does make sense to ...

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