Timeline for Readings for an honors liberal art math course
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
5 events
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| Apr 13, 2017 at 12:58 | history | edited | CommunityBot |
replaced http://mathoverflow.net/ with https://mathoverflow.net/
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| Jun 10, 2012 at 21:40 | comment | added | Timothy Chow | @Ronnie: I think Wells's point is not that logical proof is not unique to mathematics; rather, it is that mathematics (in the form of games and puzzles) is not so foreign to the public consciousness. "Sudoku is math" is a truism for most mathematicians, but the public doesn't think of Sudoku as having anything to do with math. But never mind that; I basically agree with you that under my #1 suggestion above ("Give examples of proofs"), games and logic puzzles are a good source of examples. | |
| Jun 3, 2012 at 10:57 | comment | added | Ronnie Brown | There is a relevant letter to the EMS Newsletter by David Wells, ems-ph.org/journals/newsletter/pdf/2012-03-83.pdf pointing out that, contrary to some answers here, the notion of logical proof is not so unique to mathematics, as is shown by the popularity of many games and puzles; one should mention also Sudoku. I also argue that in mathematics teaching the notion of proof should be introduced partly as explanation and also in situations where the result needs a proof to convince of its truth (and beauty!). Euclidean geometry is great for this; think of the nine point circle. | |
| Mar 3, 2012 at 3:30 | comment | added | Kerry | really great comment. | |
| Mar 2, 2012 at 23:18 | history | answered | Timothy Chow | CC BY-SA 3.0 |