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For questions in Mathematics Education as a scientific discipline. For more hands-on questions on teaching Mathematics, please use the tag teaching. There is also a Stack Exchange community http://matheducators.stackexchange.com/

15 votes

Pedagogical question about linear algebra

To understand a definition, show the students (a) lots of examples, (b) lots of non-examples and why they don't work, (c) misconceptions related to the definition (e.g., coordinates and real/imag. par …
KConrad's user avatar
  • 50.6k
58 votes

Cool problems to impress students with group theory

Here is a striking application of a particular finite non-abelian group. Explain to your students the issue of check digits as an error-detecting device on credit cards, automobile identification num …
J. W. Tanner's user avatar
63 votes
Accepted

Interesting results in algebraic geometry accessible to 3rd year undergraduates

If you want to teach something intriguing, you should do something that introduces a new geometric idea while also involving algebra in an essential way. I recommend that you give an introduction to t …
KConrad's user avatar
  • 50.6k
15 votes

Historical (personal) examples of teaching-based research

While thinking about teaching finite fields for students who knew some group theory and what a field is, but had not seen abstract linear algebra, I wondered if there might be a way to show them a fin …
Community's user avatar
  • 1
19 votes

Strong induction without a base case

I hope the following will satisfy Bjorn. It is a proof by induction which naturally skips over the base case and is at the undergraduate level. I saw the argument for the first time today in the pap …
KConrad's user avatar
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11 votes

Place of Analytic geometry in modern undergraduate curriculum

To answer your first question, that the label "analytic geometry" is found in the title of a calculus book doesn't mean what you might think. The reality is that in the 1960s and 1970s most calculus b …
KConrad's user avatar
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56 votes

Why do we care about $L^p$ spaces besides $p = 1$, $p = 2$, and $p = \infty$?

Tim, I've got two words for you: interpolation theorems (e.g., Riesz-Thorin and Marcinkiewicz interpolation theorems). Such theorems let you pass from information about some operators on $L^1$ and $L …
Harry Gindi's user avatar
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12 votes

Applications of Group Theory Which Motivate Theoretical Questions?

I had the same question before I taught a course that was largely group theory. Here is the webpage I created to address the issue: http://www.math.uconn.edu/~kconrad/math216/whygroups.html
KConrad's user avatar
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10 votes

Math History books

Here are three possibilities. You'll have to judge if they will be accessible to non-science majors. Mathematics and Its History by John Stillwell. Since Stillwell is on MO, perhaps he can say mor …
KConrad's user avatar
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33 votes

Examples of common false beliefs in mathematics

After learning that the Witt vectors of a finite field of size $p^n$ is the ring of integers of the unramified extension of ${\mathbf Q}_p$ of degree $n$, I think lots of people then think that the Wi …
KConrad's user avatar
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17 votes
Accepted

The interrelationship problem of modern mathematics – How to deal with it in first year grad...

Of course you should show students, taking into account their backgrounds, that the material they are learning in one course is relevant elsewhere. It makes it clearer to the students that topics th …
KConrad's user avatar
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5 votes
Accepted

Text/structure for an analysis course for students with pre-existing understanding of some a...

If you want a reference that will not bore them, supplement the main text with "Metric Spaces: Iteration and Application" by Victor Bryant. The book is short and it shows in several contexts how the c …
KConrad's user avatar
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