Questions tagged [teaching]
For questions related to teaching mathematics. For questions in Mathematics Education as a scientific discipline there is also the tag mathematics-education. Note you may also ask your question on http://matheducators.stackexchange.com/.
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Mathematical games interesting to both you and a 5+-year-old child
Background: My daughter is 6 years old now, once I wanted to think on some math (about some Young diagrams), but she wanted to play with me...
How to make both of us to do what they want ? I guess ...
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How necessary is the knowledge of Lebesgue integral for non-analysts? [closed]
Recently I have learned that at some math department the introductory course to Lebesgue integration not obligatory. Thus in another course on introduction to Hilbert spaces the $L^2(0,1)$ space is ...
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About the classification of commutative and of cocommutative, fin. dim. Hopf algebras
I want to prove that the cocommutative finite dimensional Hopf algebras over an algebraically closed field of characteristic zero are group algebras (for some finite group) and that the commutative f....
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Applications of isotropic quadratic forms
I will soon be teaching an introductory course on bilinear algebra and quadratic forms. I will likely spend most of the time and effort on positive definite quadratic forms and euclidean spaces. These ...
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Teaching polarisation formula
When teaching about Hilbert spaces, one begins with a polarisation formula, which allows us to reconstruct the scalar product from the norm:
$$\langle u,v\rangle=\frac14(\|u+v\|^2-\|u-v\|^2+\imath\|u+\...
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Defining negation
I'm currently coauthoring a book intended to teach first-year students basic proof techniques. One of the chapters, written by my coauthor, is about basic logic. In that chapter the negation of a ...
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How to talk about certain "free" categories?
Given two categories $\mathcal{C}$ and $\mathcal{D}$, we can describe the following category $\mathcal{E}$. It is the initial category whose object set contains $\mathrm{Obj}(\mathcal{C}) \times \...
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A course on modern algebraic geometry from "The Stacks Project"
I hope this question is viable for this site. I'm sincerely sorry, if you think it isn't.
For a lot of time, "EGA" by Alexander Grothendieck and Jean Dieudonne was "the" reference on the basics of ...
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Why do we need random variables?
In this MathStackExchange post the question in the title was asked without much outcome, I feel.
Edit: As Douglas Zare kindly observes, there is one more answer in MathStackExchange now.
I am not ...
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proof without words for logarithms [closed]
Does anyone know of any PROOF WITHOUT WORDS for logarithmic functions?
The only one I've seen in calculus based and I need one for high school math kids in MATH 1,2,3.
Any suggestions would be ...
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Languages beyond enumerable
A language is a set of finite-length strings from some finite alphabet $\Sigma$.
It is no loss of generality (for my purposes) to take $\Sigma=\{0,1\}$; so a language is a set of bit-strings.
...
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How do you mentor undergraduate research?
Lets say you had an undergraduate who wanted to do some advanced work and some research, possibly for a thesis, or things like that.
There are two slightly more specific groups of questions I have ...
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Applications of the Cayley-Hamilton theorem
The Cayley-Hamilton theorem is usually presented in standard undergraduate courses in linear algebra as an important result. Recall that it says that any square matrix is a "root" of its own ...
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What are fun elementary subjects in probability?
I have to read several lectures on probability or applications of probability for high school students (of high level). There is no necessary part I must lecture, that is, my aim is just advertisement....
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What (fun) results in graph theory should undergraduates learn?
I have the task of creating a 3rd year undergraduate course in graph theory (in the UK). Essentially the students will have seen minimal discrete math/combinatorics before this course. Since graph ...
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Technical issue in the approach to Lie groups taken in a book
I'm teaching Lie groups and Lie Algebras out of Brian C. Hall's book (Lie Groups, Lie Algebras, and Representations: An Elementary Introduction, Springer), which I've enjoyed using. I'm confused about ...
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teaching higher algebra
Has anyone ever (successfully or unsuccessfully) taught a course in higher algebra (in the $\infty$-categorical sense)?
I'm asking out of curiosity (and also hoping for more resources).
The kind of ...
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Pedagogical question on Lie groups vs. matrix Lie groups
There are two common approaches taken in introductory texts on Lie groups: studying all Lie groups, or focusing only on matrix Lie groups. The main advantage of the latter approach is that one can ...
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Advice for PhD Supervisors
My first PhD student is having his viva tomorrow. Hence, I began contemplating a bit about the whole process of supervising. One thing I realized is that while there seems to be plenty of advice for ...
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How to teach generalizing the induction hypothesis? [closed]
I just finished teaching a class on using proof assistants (in this case, Agda) to write provably correct programs. Reflecting on how it went, the biggest difficulty I noticed the students having was ...
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Historical (personal) examples of teaching-based research
The phrase "teaching-based research" brings to mind research about teaching, though important, it is not what I mean. Unfortunately, I couldn't come up with a better phrase, thus please bear with me ...
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History of $\frac d{dt}\tan^{-1}(t)=\frac 1{1+t^2}$
Let $\theta = \tan^{-1}(t)$. Nowadays it is taught:
1º that
$$
\frac{d\theta}{dt} = \frac 1{dt\,/\,d\theta} = \frac 1{1+t^2},
\tag1
$$
2º that, via the fundamental theorem of calculus, this is ...
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Why does inconstructibility of $\sqrt[3]{2}$ imply impossibility of cube doubling? [closed]
In this question "constructing" and "doubling" is meant in the compass-and-straightedge sense.
On my desk I have five Basic Algebra texts treating constructability in the plane $\mathbb{C}$ or $\...
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Which universities teach true infinitesimal calculus? [closed]
My colleague and I are currently teaching "true infinitesimal calculus" (TIC), in the sense of calculus with infinitesimals, to a class of about 120 freshmen at our university, based on the book by ...
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Teaching stochastic calculus to students who know no measure theory (or PDE, or...)
I've got quite a challenge as my teaching assignment for the next Fall (not that I want to get rid of it, quite the contrary, but I still feel like asking for advice won't hurt :-)).
I'm to teach the ...
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A funny factorization of the Jacobian coming from the lines on the Fermat cubic
Here is something which came up in my algebraic geometry class, and I'm wondering if it has a deeper explanation. Let $F(w,x,y,z) = w^3+x^3+y^3+z^3$ and let $X$ be the cubic surface in $\mathbb{P}^3$ ...
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Total spaces of tangent/cotangent bundles in a course where all varieties are quasi-projective
$\def\PP{\mathbb{P}}$In a course where all varieties are quasi-projective (as in Shafarevich Volume I), I am trying to figure out whether I can justify talking about the total spaces of the tangent ...
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Math books for advanced high school students
I'm working in a program for teaching a group of students selected in a Olympiad competition. The program is aimed to acquaint the students with the diverse aspects of higher mathematics in a way ...
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Teaching the fundamental group via everyday examples
This question is a "prequel" to a similar question about homology. Both questions were inspired by seeing a talk, by Tadashi Tokieda, about the interesting physics that appears in toys.
What ...
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Lower semicontinuity of naive fiber size
I would like to present the following result in my algebraic geometry class, but it is seeming much harder than I would expect. Since my class is working with closed points over an algebraically ...
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Simple yet interesting applications of Calculus or Linear Algebra to Economics [closed]
This is essentially a vast generalization of my previous question: Examples of separable ordinary differential equations in economics
I'm giving a talk to college-level math teachers on some ...
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Conceptual algebraic proof that Grassmannian is closed in Plucker embedding
I'm planning lectures for my intro algebraic geometry course, and I noted something awkward that is coming up. We're starting projective varieties soon. Of course, we'll prove that projective maps are ...
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Where can I find resources for creating a mathematics "bridge course"?
My department is in the very early stages of developing a "bridge course" or "introduction to proofs" course, motivated by our lower-level courses not currently doing a good job of preparing our ...
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An application of Maschke's theorem
I've been teaching some elementary representation theory to undergraduates, and want to provide applications of Maschke's theorem to complex group algebras to present in class. In particular, I'd like ...
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Are injective modules flabby on basic open sets?
In order to give a simple proof of a basic fact about quasi-coherent modules (see below), I'm interested in knowing whether the following statement holds:
Statement: If $A$ is a commutative ring and $...
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Understanding reasons for best constants in inequalities
Why, in functional analysis, is so important to calculate best constant in an embedding inequality?
Cross-posted from "https://math.stackexchange.com/questions/727690/understanding-reasons-for-best-...
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Teaching profession:Differential Equations and Mean Value Theorems
Usually I teach Algebra,Algebra and Geometyry, Topology, at various University levels. This semester (Spring 2014) I have to teach Differential Equations to University second year students (4th ...
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undergraduate handle decomposition. Reference
As the title says, I'm searching for a nice textbook for introducing the theory of handle decomposition of manifolds to undergraduate students.
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How useful/pervasive are differential forms in surface theory?
Every year I teach an introductory class on the differential geometry of surfaces, including numerical aspects (e.g., how to solve PDEs on surfaces). Historically this class has included an ...
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Easy to state applications of dimension theory in algebraic geometry
Dimension theory is quite a sophisticated topic (at least for me), it is fully settled in Shafarevich's book on the first 100 pages.
Shafarevich gives two nice applications of the theory. 1) A proof ...
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Assessing effectiveness of (epsilon, delta) definitions [closed]
There is much discussion both in the education community and the mathematics community concerning the challenge of (epsilon, delta) type definitions in calculus and the student reception of them. The ...
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Not quite adjoint functors
What are standard and/or natural examples of pairs of functors $F:C\leftrightarrows D:G$ and unnatural bijections $\hom_D(Fx,y)\to\hom_C(x,Gy)$ for all $x$ and $y$? Can one do this so that the ...
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Teaching homology via everyday examples
What stories, puzzles, games, paradoxes, toys, etc from everyday life are better understood after learning homology theory?
To be more precise, I am teaching a short course on homology, from ...
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Is Euclid dead?
Apparently Euclid died about 2,300 years ago (actually 2,288 to be more precise), but the title of the question refers to the rallying cry of Dieudonné, "A bas Euclide! Mort aux triangles!" (...
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Can this informal argument (for the fact that almost all reals in the unit interval are irrational) be saved?
In the textbook from which I am teaching a Discrete Math course, the authors propose randomly generating an infinite sequence of decimal digits $d_1, d_2, \dots$. We are to think of this as the ...
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Does seeing beyond the course you teach matter? The case of linear algebra and matrices
This question is indeed very important for me. Thus I hope you bear with my subjective explanations for a few minutes. I am an "excellent" lecturer, at least according to course evaluation forms ...
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Variation on the Sobolev space $H^1_0$
Let $\Omega\subset\mathbb{R}^n$ be a bounded open set, let
$$
C^1_0(\overline\Omega) = \{u\in C^1(\Omega)\cap C(\overline\Omega):u|_{\partial\Omega}=0\},
$$
and let $C^1_c(\Omega)$ be the space of ...
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Linear Algebra Text Book [closed]
In our department we do not like our current linear algebra book and so we would want to find a better book. This is for the first course in linear algebra and the title of the course is
Elementary ...
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How should you respond to a student who asks whether a very nice physical example constitutes a proof? [closed]
"Is this really a proof?" is the exact question e-mailed to me today from an undergraduate mathematics student whom I know as a highly competent student. The one sentence question was accompanied with ...
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Calculus Teaching: Is it possible or desirable to give a severely abbreviated treatment of series convergence tests?
I will be teaching Calculus 2 this fall at a large U.S. state university. Our incoming students tend to have a limited or inconsistent background, which limits the amount of material we can cover.
...