Cognitive trajectory of proof by contradiction for transition-to-proof students

History and research on proof by contradiction suggests proof by contradiction is difficult for students in a number of ways. Students’ comprehension of already-written proofs by contradiction is one such aspect that has received relatively little attention. Applying the cognitive lens of Action-Process-Object-Schema (APOS) Theory to proof by contradiction, we constructed and tested a cognitive model that describes how a student might construct the concept ‘proof by contradiction’ in an introduction to proof course. Data for this study was collected from students in a series of five teaching interventions focused on proof by contradiction. This paper will report on two participants as case studies to illustrate that our cognitive trajectory for proof by contradiction is a useful model for describing how students may come to understand the proof method.     

A short proof of Kneser's conjecture

In the paper a short proof is given for Kneser's conjecture. The proof is based on Borsuk's theorem and on a theorem of Gale.     

A changing trajectory of proof learning in the geometry inquiry classroom

The purpose of this study is to explore how students changes through learning to construct mathematical proofs in an inquiry-based middle school geometry class in Korea. Although proof has long been considered as one of the most important aspects of mathematics education, it is well-known that it is one of the most difficult areas of school mathematics for students. The geometry inquiry classroom (GIC) is an experimental class designed to teach geometry, especially focusing on teaching proof, based on students’ own inquiry. Based on a 2-year participant observation in the GIC, this study was conducted to address the following research question: how has students’ practice of mathematical proof been changed through their participation in the GIC? The in-depth analysis of the classroom discourse identified three stages through which the students’ practice of mathematical proof was transformed in the GIC: ‘emergent understanding of proof’, ‘proof learning as a goal-oriented activity’, ‘experiencing proof as the practice of mathematics’. The study found that as learning evolved through these stages, so the mathematics teacher’s role shifted from being an instructor to a mediator of communication. Most importantly, this research showed that the GIC has created a learning environment where students develop their competence in constructing meaningful mathematical proof and grow to be ‘a human who proves’, ultimately ‘a person who playfully engages with mathematics’.     

A Teacher's Conception of Communication in Geometry Proofs

Mathematical proof has many purposes, one of which is communication of the reasoning behind a mathematical insight. Research on teachers' views of the role that proof plays as mathematical communication has been limited. This study describes how one teacher conceptualized proof communication during two units on proof (coordinate geometry proofs and Euclidean proofs). Based on classroom observations, the teacher's conceptualization of communication in written proofs is recorded in four categories: audience, clarity, organization, and structure. The results indicate differences within all four categories in the way the idea of communication is discussed by the teacher. Implications for future studies include attention to teachers' beliefs about learning mathematics in the process of understanding teachers' conceptions of proof as a means of mathematical communication.     

A new proof of the equivalence of injectivity and hyperfiniteness for factors on a separable Hilbert space

In 1975 A. Connes proved the fundamental result that injective factors on a separable Hilbert space are hyperfinite. In this paper a new proof of this result is presented in which the most technical parts of Connes proof are avoided. Particularly the proof does not rely on automorphism group theory. The starting point in this approach is Wassermann's simple proof of injective ? semidiscrete together with Choi and Effros' characterization of semidiscrete von Neumann algebras as those von Neumann algebras N for which the identity map on N has an approximate completely positive factorization through n × n-matrices.     

An elementary proof of the Petersson-Knopp theorem on Dedekind sums

A brief and elementary proof of Petersson and Knopp's recent theorem on Dedekind sums is given. The proof is based on a result of Subrahmanyam.     

A proof of strongly uniform termination for Gödel's T by methods from local predicativity

We estimate the derivation lengths of functionals in G?del's system of primitive recursive functionals of finite type by a purely recursion-theoretic analysis of Schütte's 1977 exposition of Howard's weak normalization proof for . By using collapsing techniques from Pohlers' local predicativity approach to proof theory and based on the Buchholz-Cichon and Weiermann 1994 approach to subrecursive hierarchies we define a collapsing f unction so that for (closed) terms of G?del's we have: If reduces to then By one uniform proof we obtain as corollaries: A derivation lengths classification for functionals in , hence new proof of strongly uniform termination of . A new proof of the Kreisel's classific ation of the number-theoretic functions which can be defined in , hence a classification of the provably total functions of Peano Arithmetic. A new proof of Tait's results on weak normalization for . A new proof of Troelstra's result on strong normalization for . Additionally, a slow growing analysis of G?del's is obtained via Girard's hierarchy comparison theorem. This analyis yields a contribution to two open pro blems posed by Girard in part two of his book on proof theory. For the sake of completeness we also mention the Howard Schütte bound on derivation lengths for the simple typed -calculus. Received August 4, 1995     

On pairs of multidimensional matrices

Recently Bapat applied a topological theorem of Kronecker and generalized a theorem of Sinkhorn on positive matrices. Here we give an alternative proof of a slightly stronger version of his generalization. This proof combines Kakutani's fixed point theorem and the duality theorem of linear programming and gives yet another proof of a theorem of Bacharach and Menon on pairs of nonnegative matrices.     

Local automorphisms of operator algebras on Banach spaces

In this paper we extend a result of Semrl stating that every 2-local automorphism of the full operator algebra on a separable infinite dimensional Hilbert space is an automorphism. In fact, besides separable Hilbert spaces, we obtain the same conclusion for the much larger class of Banach spaces with Schauder bases. The proof rests on an analogous statement concerning the 2-local automorphisms of matrix algebras for which we present a short proof. The need to get such a proof was formulated in Semrl's paper.

     

A linear programming proof of the second order conditions of non-linear programming

In this note we give a new, simple proof of the standard first and second order necessary conditions, under the Mangasarian–Fromovitz constraint qualification (MFCQ), for non-linear programming problems. We work under a mild constraint qualification, which is implied by MFCQ. This makes it possible to reduce the proof to the relatively easy case of inequality constraints only under MFCQ. This reduction makes use of relaxation of inequality constraints and it makes use of a penalty function. The new proof is based on the duality theorem for linear programming; the proofs in the literature are based on results of mathematical analysis. This paper completes the work in a recent note of Birbil et al. where a linear programming proof of the first order necessary conditions has been given, using relaxation of equality constraints.     

Systolic Inequalities and Minimal Hypersurfaces

We give a short proof of the systolic inequality for the n-dimensional torus. The proof uses minimal hypersurfaces. It is based on the Schoen–Yau proof that an n-dimensional torus admits no metric of positive scalar curvature.     

Argumentation and algebraic proof

This paper concerns a study analysing cognitive continuities and distances between argumentation supporting a conjecture and its algebraic proof, when solving open problems involving properties of numbers. The aim of this paper is to show that, unlike the geometrical case, the structural distance between argumentation and proof (from an abductive argumentation to a deductive proof) is not one of the possible difficulties met by students in solving such problems. On the contrary, since algebraic proof is characterized by a strong deductive structure, abductive steps in the argumentation activity can be useful in linking the meaning of the letters used in the algebraic proof with numbers used in the argumentation. The analysis of continuities and distances between argumentation and proof is based on the use of Toulmin’s model combined with ck¢ model.     

On Korn’s Inequality

For β ∈ R, the authors consider the evolution system in the unknown variables u and α { ttu＋ xxxxu＋ xxtα＋（β＋｜｜ xu｜｜L2^2） xxu=f, ttα- xxα- xxtα- xxtu=0} describing the dynamics of type III thermoelastic extensible beams, where the dissipation is entirely contributed by the second equation ruling the evolution of the thermal displacement α. Under natural boundary conditions, the existence of the global attractor of optimal regularity for the related dynamical system acting on the phase space of weak energy solutions is established.     

A simplified proof of the representation of functionals of diffusions

A simple proof is given for the stochastic integral representation of a Fréchet differentiable functional of the paths of a given diffusion process. The proof begins when the functional depends on one coordinate, then passes to (by appropriate conditioning) a perhaps more difficult case—when the functional depends on a finite number of coordinates—and finally, by approximation, to the general case.     

A thirteenth century ‘proof’ of the parallel postulate

Proposition I.14 of Witelo's Perspectiva purports to provide a proof of the claim contained in Euclid's fifth postulate. The Latin text of the proposition is presented and translated into English; a commentary on the nature of the ‘proof’ is also provided.     

A constructive proof of the Peter‐Weyl theorem

We present a new and constructive proof of the Peter‐Weyl theorem on the representations of compact groups. We use the Gelfand representation theorem for commutative C*‐algebras to give a proof which may be seen as a direct generalization of Burnside's algorithm [3]. This algorithm computes the characters of a finite group. We use this proof as a basis for a constructive proof in the style of Bishop. In fact, the present theory of compact groups may be seen as a natural continuation in the line of Bishop's work on locally compact, but Abelian, groups [2]. (© 2005 WILEY‐VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

An elementary proof of the irrationality of ζ(3)

An elementary proof of the irrationality of ζ(3) is presented. The proof is based on a two times more dense sequence of Diophantine approximations to this number than the sequence in the original proof of Apery.     

The level set method of Joó and its use in minimax theory

In this paper we discuss the level set method of Joó and how to use it to give an elementary proof of the well-known minimax theorem of Sion. Although this proof technique was initiated by Joó and based on the intersection of upper level sets and a clever use of the topological notion of connectedness, it is not very well known and accessible for researchers in optimization. At the same time we simplify the original proof of Joó and give a more elementary proof of the celebrated minimax theorem of Sion.     

Convergence of subdivision and degree elevation

This paper presents a short, simple, and general proof showing that the control polygons generated by subdivision and degree elevation converge to the underlying splines, box-splines, or multivariate Bézier polynomials, respectively. The proof is based only on a Taylor expansion. Then the results are carried over to rational curves and surfaces. Finally, an even shorter but as simple proof is presented for the fact that subdivided Bézier polygons converge to the corresponding curve.