Thursday, December 19, 2013
Monday, December 9, 2013
fair game chapters from the book
Basically, everything we covered. This includes Chapters 1-5, 6.1, 7.1, and Theorems 7.2.1,& 7.2.5.
Office Hours Today and Review
1) I will be in my office today 11:00am-1:00pm today to answer questions
2) Hello professor Taylor, A few students from math 300 will meet tomorrow (today!) in Hayden library at 3pm. If you could notify the class that it's open to anyone that wants to come and study to prepare for your final. Thank you.
Friday, December 6, 2013
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Tuesday, December 3, 2013
makeup exam in the testing center
The makeup exam will take place in the testing center Wednesday Dec 4 and Thursday Dec 5. This is a very busy time in the testing center. You will need to be in and out before 3pm.
Wednesday, November 27, 2013
Another writing assignment question
.....I cannot seem to get the proof of if m and k are not co-prime
numbers. If you could explain to me how to start or give me any insight
it would be appreciated!
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
Well, you should carefully read the Theorem Statement section in wikipedia article on the Chinese Remainder Theorem, particularly the part following the fact that simultaneous congruences can be solved even when the divisors are not pairwise coprime. Then I would reflect on what the existence and/or nonexistence of solutions to the simultaneous congruences says about the elements in the partition Pm.Pk
Writing Assignment Question
Hello Professor Taylor,
I am writing to get a bit of clarity of what we are proving in this
paper. From the blog instructions, I gather that we are trying to prove
that:
"Given two integers x and y, we say that the partition P separates x and y, if [x]≠[y]."
and then from 2)
given a)
we are to prove b), c), and d)
Again, I am just writing to see if I am understanding this
correctly or if I am off base here. Thank you for your time and have a
good afternoon.
####################################################################
Well, no. Everything you are to prove is in item 2), and the four parts are somewhat independent. The statement
"Given two integers x and y, we say that the partition P separates x and y, if [x]≠[y]."
is the definition of what it means for a partition to separate two elements x,y.
By the way, note that I made an additional comment inline to item 2a) on the writing assignment announcement below.
By the way, note that I made an additional comment inline to item 2a) on the writing assignment announcement below.
Wednesday, November 20, 2013
question and answer
Hello
Im having trouble with problem #17 in
section 4.4, the book gives a hint so i thought in the back so I thought
to prove that R is reflexive, antisymmetric and transitive on A. Is
there an another route that might not take as long or Im I going about
it ok??
Thank you
##########
##########
************************************************
17. If a subset of a partially ordered set has exactly one minimal element, must that element be a smallest element? Give either a proof or a counter example to justify your answer.
************************************************
As you say, the back of the book gives a relation, a subset and a point in that subset that they claim is acounter example. The trick is to show that the relation is a partial order, and that the point and subset have the needed properties.
Tuesday, November 19, 2013
Online LaTeX editor
Hey, this link is a useful equation editor for creating image files of mathematical text
The next writing assignment
1) The Topic
Pick a natural number m>0. As discussed in class, every natural number n can be uniquely expanded as n=b*m+r, where b is an integer and
. Consider the relation
with domain
, range [0,m-1] and elements (n,r) where r is the remainder of n mod m. Notice that
is an equivalence relation, for which each of the equivalence classes
consists of numbers congruent to each other mod m,i.e. for
consists of all numbers with remainder r when divided by m. These equivalence classes form a partition
into m pieces; call this partition
(the upside down capital pi means disjoint union). Notice that that problems 17 and 18 in section 4.6 of the textbook, discuss a way of getting a new partition
from two old ones P,Q : the new partition has sets that are non-null intersections of the pieces of the old one. Given two integers x and y, we say that the partition P separates x and y, if [x]≠[y]. For example x and y are separated mod 2 if one is even and the other odd, but not separated if they are both even or both odd.
2) To prove:
a)
(Note: your classmate Chelsey Anderson points out that this problem can be solved using the Chinese Remainder theorem)
b) If
separates x and y then so does
for every integer k>0, and in particular so does
.
c) If
, then x,y are separated in every
with 
d) if
then x,y are separated in
for the least m such that 
3) The first draft is due to me by email in PDF format on Sunday Dec1, by 5pm. They should *NOT* have your name, but instead your posting id, instructions to find your posting id are below in this blog. I will redistribute the papers on Sunday night; your edits will be due by Tuesday Dec 3, at 5pm by email to me in PDF format. You may print your editing paper, edit by pen, then photograph and save as pdf to email it to me.
4) you should research your paper, on the web, in the journals, and by asking anyone you can pin down. Be sure to cite all sources, both formal and informal. Use inline citations. Your references should list title, date and journal for published articles, should use title, author if available, url and date accessed for online articles, and should list the name and date of any personal communications.
Pick a natural number m>0. As discussed in class, every natural number n can be uniquely expanded as n=b*m+r, where b is an integer and
2) To prove:
a)
b) If
d) if
Next Week Nov 25-29
1) Your second midterm will take place on Tuesday Nov 26 in class.
2) No homework is due, however the material covered this week will be due on Thursday December 5.
2) No homework is due, however the material covered this week will be due on Thursday December 5.
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Office hours cancelled
Office hours are cancelled today Nov 13 and Friday Nov 15. I have some medical issues to deal with and these were the times I could get. I'll be available Thursday afternoon, if you need to speak to me.
Thursday, November 7, 2013
Monday, November 4, 2013
On peer editing of the essays
1) Some people seem to think that it's impolite to express an opinion about what is wrong or what is unclear with their partner's essay. Just the opposite is true, you are helping them to think and to express themselves more clearly. It's also hard work for you, and requires thought and effort to understand what your partner was trying to say but didn't, and what s/he should have said but didn't.
2) In the future, I think it would be better if I run the peer editing in an anonymous way--collect the drafts myself, replace the name with a number and distribute it myself. Look for it.
2) In the future, I think it would be better if I run the peer editing in an anonymous way--collect the drafts myself, replace the name with a number and distribute it myself. Look for it.
Office Hours and Class on Tuesday
I'm scheduled to be a workshop all day Tuesday. Therefore:
a) Class will be taught by a substitute teacher.
b) My office hours on Tuesday are cancelled. Instead I'll have office hours 11am-Noon today.
a) Class will be taught by a substitute teacher.
b) My office hours on Tuesday are cancelled. Instead I'll have office hours 11am-Noon today.
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Wednesday, October 30, 2013
The makeup exam tomorrow
In the testing center 10:30AM-6:30PM (i.e. you need to be out by 6:30pm). Be sure to bring your ID card.
Thursday, October 24, 2013
Velleman's Proof Designer
Daniel Velleman, the author of our textbook has a Java Applet of a proof designer. Take a look at the docs here.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)

