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424 votes
93 answers
149k views

Video lectures of mathematics courses available online for free

It can be difficult to learn mathematics on your own from textbooks, and I often wish universities videotaped their mathematics courses and distributed them for free online. Fortunately, some ...
208 votes
72 answers
51k views

What are your favorite instructional counterexamples?

Related: question #879, Most interesting mathematics mistake. But the intent of this question is more pedagogical. In many branches of mathematics, it seems to me that a good counterexample can be ...
195 votes
18 answers
17k views

Great graduate courses that went online recently

In 09.2020 by pure chance I discovered the YouTube channel of Richard Borcherds where he gives graduate courses in Group Theory, Algebraic Geometry, Schemes, Commutative Algebra, Galois Theory, Lie ...
160 votes
28 answers
30k views

How to present mathematics to non-mathematicians?

(Added an epilogue) I started a job as a TA, and it requires me to take a five sessions workshop about better teaching in which we have to present a 10 minutes lecture (micro-teaching). In the last ...
87 votes
33 answers
24k views

Parodies of abstruse mathematical writing

Perhaps under the influence of a recent question on perverse sheaves, in conjunction with the impending $\pi$-day (3/14/15 at 9:26:53), I recalled a long-ago parody of abstruse mathematical language ...
74 votes
51 answers
28k views

An example of a beautiful proof that would be accessible at the high school level?

The background of my question comes from an observation that what we teach in schools does not always reflect what we practice. Beauty is part of what drives mathematicians, but we rarely talk about ...
71 votes
24 answers
19k views

PhD dissertations that solve an established open problem

I search for a big list of open problems which have been solved in a PhD thesis by the Author of the thesis (or with collaboration of her/his supervisor). In my question I search for every possible ...
48 votes
12 answers
10k views

How to explain to an engineer what algebraic geometry is?

This question is similar to this one in that I'm asking about how to introduce a mathematical research topic or activity to a non-mathematician: in this case algebraic geometry, intended as the most ...
45 votes
14 answers
13k views

Examples of undergraduate mathematics separation from what mathematicians should know

I'm looking for examples of four kinds of things: Material that is usually covered in standard undergraduate mathematics courses and/or in first-year graduate work (or tested in qualifying ...
44 votes
10 answers
11k views

What kid-friendly math riddles are too often spoiled for mathematicians?

Some math riddles tend to be spoiled for mathematicians before they get a chance to solve them. Three examples: What is $1+2+\cdots+100$? Is it possible to tile a mutilated chess board with dominoes?...
40 votes
21 answers
16k views

Journals for undergraduates

Are there math journals that are aimed for undergraduates? I don't mean here journals where students can publish their papers, but journals that publish introductory articles that an undergraduate can ...
30 votes
15 answers
6k views

Lunch seminars for PhD students

The problem that I would like to ask about is metamathematical, but I hope the question is appropriate. I would like to know if there exist mathematical departments that run a regular seminar for all ...
25 votes
11 answers
5k views

Learning through guided discovery

I have been working through Kenneth P. Bogart's "Combinatorics Through Guided Discovery". You can download it from this page: http://www.math.dartmouth.edu/news-resources/electronic/kpbogart/ I've ...
19 votes
10 answers
6k views

Research Experience for Undergraduates: Summer Programs

Some time ago, I found this list of REU programs held in 2009. The main aspects that characterize such programs are: (a) a great deal of lectures on specific topics; and, admittedly more importantly,...
13 votes
17 answers
3k views

Short Course Suggestions For High School Students

I am planning to teach a course for talented high school students at a summer camp and I need suggestions for possible topics. The students usually have different backgrounds but most of them are ...
7 votes
4 answers
2k views

What would be good to know before starting my undergraduate studies to become a good mathematician?

First of all, I'm sorry if this isn't the kind of question that should be made in MathOverflow. I read the FAQ and I didn't consider this (that) inappropriate. I couldn't resist! People here are ...
6 votes
6 answers
7k views

Interesting applications of max-flow and linear programming

Max-flow and linear programming are two big hammers in algorithm design: each are expressive enough to represent many poly-time solvable problems. Some problems are obvious applications of max-flow: ...
5 votes
2 answers
1k views

Is beauty at the high school level even possible? [closed]

This question is a follow up to 74841, and follows from a suggestion by Gian-Carlo Rota that beauty as judged by the educated public differs from that experienced by mathematicians (he gives Euclidean ...
5 votes
3 answers
2k views

Graphical representation of mathematical structures (in the spirit of unified modeling language)

In software engineering the unified modeling language ("UML") is a well established technique for providing overview of complex systems and an efficient means of communicating about them. There are ...
Andreas Rüdinger's user avatar
3 votes
3 answers
3k views

Battle of the brains; cultural mathematics [closed]

Firstly, I apologize if my question is long. Three years ago, I watched a video with the name Battle of the Brains. It was a wonderful video about challenging some famous peoples to solve some ...