Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics

Question

The first thing to say is that this is not the same as the question about interesting mathematical mistakes. I am interested about the type of false beliefs that many intelligent people have while they are learning mathematics, but quickly abandon when their mistake is pointed out -- and also in why they have these beliefs. So in a sense I am interested in commonplace mathematical mistakes.

Let me give a couple of examples to show the kind of thing I mean. When teaching complex analysis, I often come across people who do not realize that they have four incompatible beliefs in their heads simultaneously. These are

(i) a bounded entire function is constant;
(ii) $\sin z$ is a bounded function;
(iii) $\sin z$ is defined and analytic everywhere on $\mathbb{C}$;
(iv) $\sin z$ is not a constant function.

Obviously, it is (ii) that is false. I think probably many people visualize the extension of $\sin z$ to the complex plane as a doubly periodic function, until someone points out that that is complete nonsense.

A second example is the statement that an open dense subset $U$ of $\mathbb{R}$ must be the whole of $\mathbb{R}$. The "proof" of this statement is that every point $x$ is arbitrarily close to a point $u$ in $U$, so when you put a small neighbourhood about $u$ it must contain $x$.

Since I'm asking for a good list of examples, and since it's more like a psychological question than a mathematical one, I think I'd better make it community wiki. The properties I'd most like from examples are that they are from reasonably advanced mathematics (so I'm less interested in very elementary false statements like $(x+y)^2=x^2+y^2$, even if they are widely believed) and that the reasons they are found plausible are quite varied.

Answer 1

Any subgroup of the direct product $G \times H$ of two groups is of the form $A \times B$, where $A$ is a subgroup of $G$ and $B$ is a subgroup of $H$.

Answer 2

I'm not sure how common this is, but it confused me for years. Let $f : \mathbb{C} \to \mathbb{C}$ be an analytic function and $\gamma$ a path in $\mathbb{C}$. In your first class in complex analysis, you define the integral $\int_{\gamma} f(z) dz$.

Now let $a(x,y) dx + b(x,y) dy$ be a $1$-form on $\mathbb{R}^2$ and let $\gamma$ be a path in $\mathbb{R}^2$. In your first class on differential geometry, you define the integral $\int_{\gamma} a(x,y) dx + b(x,y) dy$.

It took me at least three years after I had taken both classes to realize that these notations are consistent. Until then, I thought there was a "path integral in the sense of complex analysis", and I wasn't sure if it obeyed the same rules as the path integral from differential geometry. (By way of analogy, although I wasn't thinking this clearly, the integral $\int \sqrt{dx^2 + dy^2}$, which computes arc length, is NOT the integral of a $1$-form, and I thought complex integrals were something like this.)

---

For the record, I'll spell out the relation between these notions. Let $f(x+iy) = u(x,y) + i v(x,y)$. Then $$\int_{\gamma} f(z) dz = \int_{\gamma} \left( u(x,y) dx - v(x,y) dy \right) + i \int_{\gamma} \left( u(x,y) dy + v(x,y) dx \right)$$ The right hand side should be thought of as multiplying out $\int_{\gamma} (u(x,y) + i v(x,y)) (dx + i dy)$, a notion which can be made rigorous.

Answer 3

Another false belief which I have been asked thrice so far in person is $$\lim_{x \rightarrow 0} \frac{\sin(x)}{x} = 1$$ even if $x$ is in degrees. I was asked by a student a year and half back when I was a TA and by couple of friends in the past 6 months.

Answer 4

The product of two symmetric matrices is symmetric!

Answer 5

The ring $\mathbb{C}[x]$ has countable dimension over $\mathbb{C}$; therefore its field of fractions $\mathbb{C}(x)$ also has countable dimension over $\mathbb{C}$.

Answer 6

The standard projection map in a first course in topology is open. How could it not be closed? I always forget the standard homework exercise in which people first try to use this non-fact.

Answer 7

A common misbelief for the exponential of matrices is $AB=BA \Leftrightarrow \exp(A)\exp(B) = \exp(A+B)$. While the one direction is of course correct: $AB=BA \Rightarrow \exp(A)\exp(B) = \exp(A+B)$, the other direction is not correct, as the following example shows: $A=\begin{pmatrix} 0 & 1 \\ 0 & 2\pi i\end{pmatrix}, B=\begin{pmatrix} 2 \pi i & 0 \\ 0 & -2\pi i\end{pmatrix} $ with $AB \neq BA \text{ and} \exp(A)=\exp(B) = \exp(A+B) = 1$.

Answer 8

I'm not sure that anyone holds this as a conscious belief but I have seen a number of students, asked to check that a linear map $\mathbb{R}^k \to \mathbb{R}^{\ell}$ is injective, just check that each of the $k$ basis elements has nonzero image.

Answer 9

Here's one that bugged me from point set topology: "A subnet of a sequence is a subsequence".

See here for the definitions. Using this one gives a great proof that compactness implies sequential compactness in any topological space:

Let $X$ be a compact space. Let $(x_n)$ be a sequence. Since a sequence is a net and it's a basic theorem of point set topology that in a compact topological space, every net has a convergent subnet (proof in the above link), there is a convergent subnet of the sequence $(x_n)$. Using the above belief, the sequence $(x_n)$ has a convergent subsequence and hence $X$ is sequentially compact.

For a counterexample to this "theorem", consider the compact space $X= \lbrace 0,1 \rbrace ^{[0,1]}$ with $f_n(x)$ the $n$th binary digit of $x$.

Answer 10

As a teaching assistant in an elementary number theory course, I've seen the following quite often :

If $a$ divides $bc$ and $a$ does not divide $b$, then $a$ divides $c$.

That's of course true if $a$ is prime, but people seem to forget that hypothesis.

Answer 11

In measure-theoretic probability, I think there is sometimes an idea among beginners that independent random variables $X,Y$ should be thought of as having "disjoint support" as measurable functions on the underlying probability space $\Omega$. Of course this is the opposite of the truth.

I think this may come from thinking of measure theory as generalizing freshman calculus, so that one's favorite measure space is something like $[0,1]$ with Lebesgue measure. This is technically a probability space, but a really inconvenient one for actually doing probability (where you want to have lots of random variables with some amount of independence).

Answer 12

Yet another one:

Let $f:\mathbb{R}\rightarrow\mathbb{R}$ be differentiable. If $f'(x_0) > 0$, then there exists an interval $I$ containing $x_0$ such that $f$ is increasing in $I$.

Answer 13

The gamma function is not the only meromorphic function satisfying $$f(z+1)=z f(z),\qquad f(1)=1,$$ with no zeroes and no poles other than the points $z=0,-1,-2\dots$.

In fact, there is a whole bunch of such functions, which, in general, have the form $$f(z)=\exp{(-g(z))}\frac{1}{z\prod\limits_{n=1}^{\infty} \left(1+\frac{z}{m}\right)e^{-z/m}},$$ where $g(z)$ is an entire function such that $$g(z+1)-g(z)=\gamma+2k\pi i,\qquad g(1)=\gamma+2l\pi i,\qquad k,l\in\mathbb Z, $$ ($\gamma$ is Euler's constant). The gamma function corresponds to the simplest choice $g(z)=\gamma z$.

Answer 14

False belief: Every commuting pair of diagonalizable elements of $PSL(2,\mathbb{C})$ are simultaneously diagonalizable. The truth: I suppose not many people have thought about it, but it surprised me. Look at $$\left(\matrix{i& 0 \cr 0 & -i\cr } \right), \left(\matrix{0& i \cr i & 0\cr } \right).$$

Answer 15

"Some real numbers are not definable, by Cantor's diagonal argument."

There are subtleties involved in formalizing the statement "some real numbers are not definable", as explained in Joel's answer to this question. The statement can be seen to hold in some models and fail in other models. However, the claim that the statement follows from Cantor's diagonal argument is clearly false, yet seems to be fairly common.

The false reasoning typically proceeds in three steps:

1. There are only countably many definitions of real numbers: $\varphi_0(x),\varphi_1(x),\dotsc$ (this part is ok).

2. Consider the countably many real numbers so defined: $x_0,x_1,\dotsc$ (this part is problematic for subtle reasons).

3. Use Cantor's diagonal argument to obtain a real number $y$ that is not in the sequence from step 2, and is therefore not definable.

For the moment, let us assume that step 2 succeeds in the way that one might naïvely think it would. Then we have defined a sequence $x_0,x_1,\dotsc$ containing all definable real numbers. Therefore Cantor's diagonal argument in step 3 defines, from this sequence, a real number $y$ that is not in the sequence. So $y$ is both definable and not definable, and we obtain a contradiction outright! Clearly, something is wrong (and it turns out to be in step 2).

Answer 16

"Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes was by contradiction."

That is a very widespread false belief.

"Prime Simplicity", Mathematical Intelligencer, volume 31, number 4, pages 44--52, by me and Catherine Woodgold, debunks it. The proof that Euclid actually wrote is simpler and better than the proof by contradiction often attributed to him.

Answer 17

Perhaps the most prevalent false belief in math, starting with calculus class, is that the general antiderivative of f(x) = 1/x is F(x) = ln|x| + C. This can be found in innumerable calculus textbooks and is ubiquitous on the Web.

Answer 18

"Compact implies sequentially compact."

Answer 19

My example is $G_{1}$ isomorphic to $G_{2}$'s subgroup and $G_{2}$ isomorphic to $G_{1}$'s subgroup implies $G_{1}$ and $G_{2}$ are isomorphic...

Answer 20

In the past I have found myself making this mistake (probably fueled by the fact that you can indeed extend bounded linear operators), and I think it is common in students with a not-deep-enough topology background:

"Let $T$ be a compact topological space, and $X\subset T$ a dense subset. Take $f:X\to\mathbb{C}$ continuous and bounded. Then $f$ can be extended by continuity to all of $T$ ".

The classical counterexample is $T=[0,1]$, $X=(0,1]$, $f(t)=\sin\frac1t$ . It helps to understand how unimaginable the Stone-Cech compactification is.

Answer 21

The quaternions $\{x+yi+zj+wk\mid x,y,z,w\in \mathbb{R}$} is a complex Banach algebra (with usual operations). Hence it is apparently a counterexample to the Gelfand-Mazur theorem

So, what is the error?

The error is the following:

However the quaternions, being a skew field extention of the field of complex numbers, is a vector space over the field of complex number and it is also a ring, but there is no compatibility between scalar multiplication and quaternion multiplication). So it is not a complex algebra. This shows that in the definition of a complex algebra $A$, the commutative condition $\lambda (ab)=(a)(\lambda b),\;\;\lambda \in \mathbb{C},\;\;a,b\in A$, is very essential.

Answer 22

That Darboux functions are continuous is certainly a widely held belief among students, at least in France where it is induced by the way continuity is taught in high school.

I remember having gone through all the five "stages of grief" when shaken from this false belief with the $\sin(1/x)$ example : denial, anger ( "then the definition of continuity must be wrong ! Let's change it !), bargaining ("Ok, but a Darboux function must surely be continuous except at exceptional points. Let's prove that..."), depression (when shown a nowhere continuous Darboux function), acceptance ("Hey guys, you really think the intermediate value theorem has a converse? C'mon, you're smarter than that...")

Answer 23

A projection of a measurable set is measurable. Not only students believe this. I was asked once (the quote is not precise): "Why do you need this assumption of a measurability of projection? It follows from ..."

A polynomial which takes integer values in all integer points has integer coefficients.

Another one seems to be more specific, I just recalled it reading this example. A sub-$\sigma$-algebra of a countably generated $\sigma$-algebra is countably generated.

Answer 24

Just today I came across a mathematician who was under the impression that $\aleph_1$ is defined to be $2^{\aleph_0}$, and therefore that the continuum hypothesis says there is no cardinal between $\aleph_0$ and $\aleph_1$.

In fact, Cantor proved there are no cardinals between $\aleph_0$ and $\aleph_1$. The continuum hypothesis says there are no cardinals between $\aleph_0$ and $2^{\aleph_0}$.

$2^{\aleph_0}$ is the cardinality of the set of all functions from a set of size $\aleph_0$ into a set of size $2$. Equivalently, it is the cardinality of the set of all subsets of a set of size $\aleph_0$, and that is also the cardinality of the set of all real numbers.

$\aleph_1$, on the other hand, is the cardinality of the set of all countable ordinals. (And $\aleph_2$ is the cardinality of the set of all ordinals of cardinality $\le \aleph_1$, and so on, and $\aleph_\omega$ is the next cardinal of well-ordered sets after all $\aleph_n$ for $n$ a finite ordinal, and $\aleph_{\omega+1}$ is the cardinality of the set of all ordinals of cardinality $\le \aleph_\omega$, etc. These definitions go back to Cantor.

Answer 25

Regard a reasonably nice surface in $\mathbb R^3$ that can locally be expressed by each of the functions $x(y,z)$, $y(x,z)$ and $z(x,y)$, then obviously

$\frac {dy} {dx} \cdot \frac {dz} {dy} \cdot \frac {dx} {dz} = 1$

(provided everything exists and is evaluated at the same point).

After all, this kind of reasoning works in $\mathbb R^2$ when calculating the derivative of the inverse function, it works for the chain rule and it works for separation of variables.

---

Note that this product is in fact $-1$ which can either be seen by just thinking about what happens to the equation $ax+by+cz=d$ of a plane / tangent plane or by looking at the expression coming out of the implicit function theorem.

I recall someone claiming that this example proves that $dx$ should be regarded as linear function rather than infinitesimal, but I cannot reconstruct the argument at the moment as this discussion was 15 years ago.

In particular, it is true under appropriate conditions in $\mathbb R^4$ that $\frac {\partial y} {\partial x} \cdot \frac {\partial z} {\partial y} \cdot \frac {\partial w} {\partial z} \cdot \frac {\partial x} {\partial w} = 1$

Answer 26

In descriptive set theory, we study properties of Polish spaces, typically not considered as topological spaces but rather we equip them with their "Borel structure", i.e., the collection of their Borel sets. Any two uncountable standard Borel Polish spaces are isomorphic, and the isomorphism map can be taken to be Borel. In practice, this means that for most properties we study it is irrelevant what specific Polish space we use as underlying "ambient space", it may be ${\mathbb R}$, or ${\mathbb N}^{\mathbb N}$, or ${\mathcal l}^2$, etc, and we tend to think of all of them as "the reals".

In Lebesgue Sur les fonctions representables analytiquement, J. de math. pures et appl. (1905), Lebesgue makes the mistake of thinking that projections of Borel subsets of the plane ${\mathbb R}^2$ are Borel. In a sense, this mistake created descriptive set theory.

Now we know, for example, that in ${\mathbb N}^{\mathbb N}$, projections of closed sets need not be Borel. Since we usually call reals the members of ${\mathbb N}^{\mathbb N}$,

it is not uncommon to think that projections of closed subsets of ${\mathbb R}^2$ are not necessarily Borel.

This is false. Note that closed sets are countable union of compact sets, so their projections are $F_\sigma$. The actual results in ${\mathbb R}$ are as follows: Recall that the analytic sets are (the empty set and) the sets that are images of Borel subsets of $\mathbb R$ by Borel measurable functions $f:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R$.

• A set is Borel iff it and its complement are analytic.

• A set is analytic iff it is the projection of the complement of the projection of a closed subset of ${\mathbb R}^3$.

• A set is analytic iff it is the projection of a $G_\delta$ subset of $\mathbb R^2$.

• There is a continuous $g:\mathbb R\to\mathbb R$ such that a set is analytic iff it is $g(A)$ for some $G_\delta$ set $A$.

• A set if analytic iff it is $f(\mathbb R\setminus\mathbb Q)$ for some continuous $f:\mathbb R\setminus\mathbb Q\to\mathbb R$. (Note that if $f$ is actually continuous on $\mathbb R$, then $f(\mathbb R\setminus\mathbb Q)$ is Borel.)

(See also here.)

Answer 27

To my knowledge, noone has proven that the scheme of pairs of matrices (A,B) satisfying the equations AB=BA is reduced. But whenever I mention this to people someone says "Surely that's known to be reduced!"

(Similar-sounding problem: consider matrices M with $M^2=0$. They must be nilpotent, hence have all eigenvalues zero, hence $Tr(M)=0$. But that linear equation can't be derived from the original homogeneous quadratic equations. Hence this scheme is not reduced.)

Answer 28

In his answer above, Martin Brandenburg cited the false belief that every short exact sequence of the form

$$0\rightarrow A\rightarrow A\oplus B\rightarrow B\rightarrow 0$$

must split.

I expect that a far more widespread false belief is that such a sequence can fail to split, when A, B and C are finitely generated modules over a commutative noetherian ring.

(Sketch of relevant proof: We need to show that the identity map in $Hom(A,A)$ lifts to $Hom(A\oplus B,A)$. Thus we need to show exactness on the right of the sequence

$$0\rightarrow Hom(B,A)\rightarrow Hom(A\oplus B,A)\rightarrow Hom(A,A)\rightarrow 0$$

For this, it suffices to localize and then complete at an arbitrary prime $P$. But completion at $P$ is a limit of tensorings with $R/P^n$, so to check exactness we can replace the right-hand $A$ in each Hom-group with $A/P^nA$. Now we are reduced to looking at modules of finite length, and the sequence is forced to be exact because the lengths of the left and right terms add up to the length in the middle. This is due, I think, to Miyata.)

Answer 29

If $E$ is a contractible space on which the (Edit: topological) group $G$ acts freely, then $E/G$ is a classifying space for $G$.

A better, but still false, version:

If $E$ is a free, contractible $G$-space and the quotient map $E\to E/G$ admits local slices, then $E/G$ is a classifying space for $G$.

(Here "admits local slices" means that there's a covering of $E/G$ by open sets $U_i$ such that there exist continuous sections $U_i \to E$ of the quotient map.)

The simplest counterexample is: let $G^i$ denote $G$ with the indiscrete topology (Edit: and assume $G$ itself is not indiscrete). Then G acts on $G^i$ by translation and $G^i$ is contractible (for the same reason: any map into an indiscrete space is continuous). Since $G^i/G$ is a point, there's a (global) section, but it cannot be a classifying space for $G$ (unless $G=\{1\}$). The way to correct things is to require that the translation map $E\times_{E/G} E \to G$, sending a pair $(e_1, e_2)$ to the unique $g\in G$ satisfying $ge_1 = e_2$, is actually continuous.

Of course the heart of the matter here is the corresponding false belief(s) regarding when the quotient map by a group action is a principal bundle.

Answer 30

A common false belief is that all Gödel sentences are true because they say of themselves they are unprovable. See Peter Milne's "On Goedel Sentences and What They Say", Philosophia Mathematica (III) 15 (2007), 193–226. doi:10.1093/philmat/nkm015.