Experience with using counterexamples in an introductory calculus class

The paper describes a personal experience with using counterexamples as a pedagogical strategy in the teaching and learning of an introductory calculus course at a university of technology.     

Pre-service teachers' free and structured mathematical problem posing

This exploratory study examined how pre-service teachers (PSTs) pose mathematical problems for free and structured mathematical problem-posing conditions. It was hypothesized that PSTs would pose more complex mathematical problems under structured posing conditions, with increasing levels of complexity, than PSTs would pose under free posing conditions, because the structured posing condition would guide PSTs to more closely consider the mathematical relationships in a posing situation. Sixty-five PSTs – 61 participating in a written assessment and 4 participating in task-based interviews – responded to problem-posing tasks under free or structured posing conditions. Two-way independent samples t-tests and chi-square tests were used to test the hypothesis, along with a qualitative analysis of the task-based interviews. We found that while the task format had limited impact on the complexity of problems posed, PSTs in the structured-posing condition may have more closely attended to the mathematical concepts in each task, and may have also impacted their process of posing problems than those in the free posing condition.     

Mathematical thinking and origami

The purpose of this paper is to describe the mathematics that emanates from the construction of an origami box. We first construct a simple origami box from a rectangular sheet and then discuss some of the mathematical questions that arise in the context of geometry and calculus.     

Leone Burton: an appreciation

Some mathematical statements can be validated by a supportive example or refuted by a counterexample. Our study investigated secondary school teachers' knowledge of such proofs. Fifty practising secondary school teachers were first asked to validate/refute six elementary number theory statements, then to suggest justifications that students might give for the same statements, and finally to judge eighteen numerical justifications for the same statements. The findings indicated that teachers are well acquainted with numerical examples and counterexamples as proofs. We also found that teachers' considerations for accepting given justifications involve mathematical aspects as well as didactical ones. Teachers are less familiar with students' tendencies to bring more than one example or counterexample in such proofs.     

The forward and inverse problems for a fractional boundary value problem

In this paper, the authors study the forward and inverse problems for a fractional boundary value problem with Dirichlet boundary conditions. The existence and uniqueness of solutions for the forward problem is first proved. Then an inverse source problem is considered.     

Trinomial formula,Pascal- and Sierpinski-pyramid

Stimulated by a picture of a Sierpinski-pyramid and an article by Stewart, students were asked about a connection between this pyramid and the well-known trinomial formula. The results of all the work done with students are presented in this note.     

微分方程的定解问题形成探析

定解问题的形成对于微分方程理论的发展具有极其重要的历史和现实意义.系统分析和探讨微分方程在历经百年求通解热潮后转向考虑定解问题的根本原因,揭示其思想方法对微分方程理论形成的重要意义.     

The inverse problem of the calculus of variations: The use of geometrical calculus in Douglas's analysis

The main objective of this paper is to work out a full-scale application of the integrability analysis of the inverse problem of the calculus of variations, as developed in recent papers by Sarlet and Crampin. For this purpose, the celebrated work of Douglas on systems with two degrees of freedom is taken as the reference model. It is shown that the coordinate-free, geometrical calculus used in Sarlet and Crampin's general theoretical developments provides effective tools also to do the practical calculations. The result is not only that all subcases distinguished by Douglas can be given a more intrinsic characterization, but also that in most of the cases, the calculations can be carried out in a more efficient way and often lead to sharper conclusions.

     

Revisiting mathematical problem solving and posing in the digital era: toward pedagogically sound uses of modern technology

The availability of sophisticated computer programs such as Wolfram Alpha has made many problems found in the secondary mathematics curriculum somewhat obsolete for they can be easily solved by the software. Against this background, an interplay between the power of a modern tool of technology and educational constraints it presents is discussed. Using topics from algebra (equations) and elementary number theory (summation of powers of integers), the paper suggests ways of developing problems that are both technology-immune and technology-enabled in the sense that whereas software can facilitate problem solving, its direct application is not sufficient for finding an answer. Stemming from the author's work with secondary mathematics teacher candidates, this paper highlights the appropriate use of technology as support system for multiple ways of knowing and knowledge construction in the modern classroom.     

An exploratory framework for handling the complexity of mathematical problem posing in small groups

The paper introduces an exploratory framework for handling the complexity of students’ mathematical problem posing in small groups. The framework integrates four facets known from past research: task organization, students’ knowledge base, problem-posing heuristics and schemes, and group dynamics and interactions. In addition, it contains a new facet, individual considerations of aptness, which accounts for the posers’ comprehensions of implicit requirements of a problem-posing task and reflects their assumptions about the relative importance of these requirements. The framework is first argued theoretically. The framework at work is illustrated by its application to a situation, in which two groups of high-school students with similar background were given the same problem-posing task, but acted very differently. The novelty and usefulness of the framework is attributed to its three main features: it supports fine-grained analysis of directly observed problem-posing processes, it has a confluence nature, it attempts to account for hidden mechanisms involved in students’ decision making while posing problems.     

Unbounded pseudodifferential calculus on Lie groupoids

We develop an abstract theory of unbounded longitudinal pseudodifferential calculus on smooth groupoids (also called Lie groupoids) with compact basis. We analyze these operators as unbounded operators acting on Hilbert modules over C^∗(G), and we show in particular that elliptic operators are regular. We construct a scale of Sobolev modules which are the abstract analogues of the ordinary Sobolev spaces, and analyze their properties. Furthermore, we show that complex powers of positive elliptic pseudodifferential operators are still pseudodifferential operators in a generalized sense.     

Using origami boxes to explore concepts of geometry and calculus

The purpose of this classroom note is to provide an example of how a simple origami box can be used to explore important concepts of geometry and calculus. This article describes how an origami box can be folded, then it goes on to describe how its volume and surface area can be calculated. Finally, it describes how the box could be folded to maximize the surface area and the volume.     

一些数学名词的由来

介绍数学领域中一些学科概念,如代数学、几何学、微积分学、拓扑学和概率论等的产生与演变过程。     

Teaching ideas and activities for classroom: integrating technology into the pedagogy of integral calculus and the approximation of definite integrals

The purpose of this article is to offer teaching ideas in the treatment of the definite integral concept and the Riemann sums in a technology-supported environment. Specifically, the article offers teaching ideas and activities for classroom for the numerical methods of approximating a definite integral via left- and right-hand Riemann sums, along with midpoint and trapezoidal Riemann sums. The activities demonstrate innovative and creative ways of integrating technology, in particular, GeoGebra dynamic software, into the pedagogy of college-level integral calculus. It also provides, among other things, interesting and original teaching ideas incorporating technology, and an evaluation of these activities by the students themselves who experienced these activities with the GeoGebra dynamic software.     

等周问题的一个初等证明

本文把欧氏平面，半球面和非欧面之中，不含给定边界，含有给定边界和含有边界而且在其上给定端点这样三种等周问题、给以初等、统一的证明。其要点在于把它们的存在性和唯一性简明扼要地归结到下述初等引理，即一个给定凹边边长的四边形的面积以四顶共圆时为其唯一的极大     

A geometric proof of the combinatorial bounds for the number of optimal solutions for the Euclidean 2-center problem

We provide lower and upper bounds for γ(n), the number of optimal solutions for the two-center problem: “Given a set S of n points in the real plane, find two closed discs whose union contains all of the points such that the radius of the larger disc is minimized.”The main result of the paper shows the matching upper and lower bounds for the two-center problem and demonstrates that γ(n)=n.     

Chalk it up to experience: using chalkboard paint to create mathematical manipulatives

In this article, we give two examples of creating portable chalkboards using chalkboard paint for students to use during cooperative learning. This provides a creative method for professors to facilitate active learning in the undergraduate mathematics classroom.     

格点上的非交换微分运算及其应用

By introducing the noncommutative differential calculus on the function space of the infinite/finite set and construct a homotopy operator, one prove the analogue of the Poincare lemma for the difference complex. As an application of the differential calculus, a two dimensional integral model can be derived from the noncommutative differential calculus.     

双圆柱区域上的高阶四元数函数的Dirichlet边值问题

本文讨论了四元数分析中多圆柱区域上方程∂_zⁿu(z) = f 的Dirichlet 边值问题. 获得问题的可解条件, 并当可解条件满足时, 给出了解的积分表示.     

Set-valued system of fractional differential equations with hysteresis

In this paper, we investigate the global solvability in L₁(0,1) of a set-valued system of nonlinear fractional differential equations with hysteresis. Some existence theorems for both single and multivalued systems are proved.