Teaching Enriched Mathematics

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Thoughts on Teaching Mathematics in an Exploratory, Dialectical, Topical format.

(2nd ed. July 13th 2016; 1st ed. Jan 31, 2010)

Mathematics is a richly spun tapestry, threaded with interconnections from a multiplicity of endeavors, perspectives, and disciplines, both theoretical and applied. Yet contrary to this “non-linear” reality, the typical pattern of school and even university mathematics is both linear and restricted.

This article takes a look at what lies behind the way things are, and what could bring positive change.

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Snippets

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Below a quick reference for various useful code snippets…

  1. Forth
  2. LaTeX
  3. HTML

Forth snippets

Forth has many dialects. I use GForth for general purpose Forth, as it is available for both Linux and Windows (including Win8) and has a floating point stack which is convenient for scientific programming. I use Win32Forth for its Win32 facilities and easy integration with assembly language. I use F-PC for its simple design and compatibility with 16-bit i-x86 assembly language, though it needs to run in a 16-bit emulator such as DosBox.

Floating Point

\ extra stack operations
: f2dup ( fa fb -- fa fb fa fb ) fover fover ;
: funder ( fa fb -- fb fa fb ) fswap fover ;

\ useful scaffolding within loops
: fshowstack ( -- ) cr f.s key drop ;
: fshowtop ( -- ) cr fdup f. ;

\ float ops
: f2* ( fa -- 2fa ) fdup f+ ;
: f^2 ( fa -- fa^2 ) fdup f* ;

\ float equality
: feps 1e-12 ; \ proxy for machine epsilon
: f=eps ( fa fb -- bool ) f- fabs feps f< ; \ true if fa and fb within neighborhood of feps


LaTeX snippets

Downloadable Templates
Packages
  1. \usepackage{amsfonts} allows $\mathbb{R}$ for reals, $\mathbb{Z}$ for integers, $\mathbb{R}^n$ for n-dim. spaces.
  2. \usepackage{amsmath} gives \eqref, \binom, \eqrefm, and more
  3. \usepackage{amssymb} gives full AMS mathematics symbology
  4. \usepackage{graphicx} allows incorporating images. EPS format is required though; png2eps is a useful conversion utility.
    graphicx Reference
    Example: \includegraphics[scale=0.4]{file}

  5. \usepackage[pass]{geometry} allows changing margins within the document
Whitespace and Margins
  1. \newgeometry{top=2.5cm,bottom=2.3cm,left=2.5cm,right=2.3cm}

What is the right text block size for comfortable reading? Conventional guidance is 60 characters per line, 80 characters upper limit. Yet 90-100 characters is comfortable for technical material. The 'right' number probably depends on content type (fiction, news, technical, mathematics) and reader experience. For example, experienced mathematicians either skim headings, formulas, theorems, figures or carefully read every word in a subsection of interest. In the first case, having more on the page (vertical compression) is a benefit: fewer pages to turn, easier to refer to previous statements. In the second case, the reading is deliberate enough that slightly longer lines don't matter; they are not long enough to cause 'doubling' (accidentally reading the same line twice).

Text Format

Verbatim / Code Formatting

  1. \texttt{sqrt} for verbatim style on a phrase
  2. for verbatim code block, using a smaller font size:
    {\footnotesize\begin{verbatim}
    : f2dup ( fa fb -- fa fb fa fb ) fover fover ;
    : funder ( fa fb -- fb fa fb ) fswap fover ;
    \end{verbatim}
    }
Referring to Labelled / Numbered blocks
  1. \begin{lemma} your lemma name here \label{theorem_trivial}\end{lemma}
    your lemma text here
    sets label

  2. \ref{theorem_trivial} refers to named label internal numbering.
  3. \pageref{theorem_trivial} refers to named label page number.
  4. Note run LaTeX twice to get refs correct.
  5. \begin{equation} formula_text \label{labelname}\end{equation} numbers equations and sets reference.
  6. Equation \eqref{labelname} refers to labelled equation's number
Equations
  1. Text inside math equations: $\epsilon_{\text{machine}}$
  2. Numbered equations: \begin{equation} formula_text \label{labelname}\end{equation} numbers equations and sets reference.
  3. Multi-line numbered equations : \begin{align} line 1 ... \\
    line 2 ... \end{align}

    1. use \nonumber to suppress line numbers
    2. end a line with \\
    3. use align* to suppress all line numbers
    4. use & to align at a character
  4. Cases:
    \begin{equation}
    x_{ij} =
    \begin{cases}
    0& \text{if $i \neq j$},\\
    1& \text{if i=j}.
    \end{cases}
    \end{equation}

  5. Stacked Text, e.g. for limits
    \lim{x \to 2} or usepackage{mathtools} and then \substack{first line\\second line\\third line}
Figures and Captions
  1. Utility for converting PNG to EPS (zip)
  2. Captioning a figure Reference
    Caption is placed in the same position before/after graphic
    \begin{figure}[h!]
    \includegraphics[scale=0.3]{sqrt_xls_2} % Excel hand calc
    \caption{Variation suitable for hand calculation.}
    \label{fig:sqrt_xls_2_hand}
    \end{figure}

  3. Referring to labelled figure label reference
    Figure \ref{sqrt_xls_2_hand}

  4. Text wrapping a figure (wraps the text below it)
    \begin{wrapfigure}{R}{0.75\textwidth}
    \centering
    \includegraphics[width=0.75\textwidth]{sqrt_xls_1_sqrt2}
    \caption{\label{fig:sqrt2} Calculate $\sqrt{2}$}
    \end{wrapfigure}
Useful Macro Commands
  1. Already defined: \lim, \sin, \min, \arctan, \to, etc.
  2. For analysis

    \newcommand{\dt}{\ensuremath{\text{d}t}} % for calculus dt symbol
    \newcommand{\diff}[1]{\ensuremath{\text{d#1}}} % for calculus dx, dy, dz, dt differential
    \newcommand{\qed}{\ensuremath{\ \ \blacksquare}} %for end of proof symbol
    \newcommand{\qedlt}{\ensuremath{\ \ \square}} %for end of proof symbol
    \newcommand{\eps}{\ensuremath{\epsilon}} %for easy use of epsilon
    \newcommand{\imply}{\rightarrow} % for => % Longrightarrow, etc.
    \newcommand{\limply}{\leftarrow} % for =>
    \newcommand{\bimply}{\leftrightarrow} % for <=>
    \newcommand{\st}{\ensuremath{\ \ \text{s.t.}\ \ }} % for easy use of s.t. (such that) in a formula
    \newcommand{\inv}{\ensuremath{^{-1}}} % for easy creation of f^{-1}, etc.

  3. For logic and set theory

    % MACRO for nice emptyset
    \let\oldemptyset\emptyset
    \let\emptyset\varnothing
    \newcommand{\dcup}{\ensuremath{\ \ \dot\cup \ \ }} % for disjoint union
    % \setminus instead of \backslash
    % TEXT words for logical operators
    \newcommand{\AND}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ AND }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \newcommand{\OR}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ OR }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \newcommand{\NOT}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ NOT }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \newcommand{\XOR}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ XOR }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \newcommand{\NAND}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ NAND }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \newcommand{\NOR}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ NOR }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \newcommand{\XNOR}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ XNOR }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \newcommand{\TRUE}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ TRUE }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \newcommand{\FALSE}{\ensuremath{\text{\begin{ttfamily}\small{ FALSE }\end{ttfamily}}}}
    \renewcommand{\neg}{\sim} % symbolic not defined now to use tilde ~ instead of ¬
    \newcommand{\eqdef}{\ensuremath{=_\text{\tiny def}}} % decorating = with `by definition'

  4. For variable decoration

    \let\oldforall\forall % old takes the former command
    \renewcommand{\forall}{\ \ \oldforall} % adds space before a logical operator
    \let\oldexists\exists % old takes the former command
    \renewcommand{\exists}{\ \ \oldexists} % adds space before a logical operator

    \renewcommand{\vec}[1]{\mathbf{#1}} % vectors are bold
    \newcommand{\pder}[2]{\frac{\partial#1}{\partial#2}} % for partial derivatives

    \let\oldhat\hat % oldhat takes on what hat formerly had
    \renewcommand{\hat}[1]{\oldhat{\mathbf{#1}}} % hats make vectors bold and hatted vectors
    \newcommand{\overbar}[1]{\ensuremath{\overline{#1}}} % defines \overbar, which is more prominent than \bar and more convenient than overline
    \newcommand{\fuzzy}[1]{\ensuremath{ \underset{\sim}{#1} }} % usage: \fuzzy{A} for A under-tilde
    % \newcommand{\minimise}[1]{\ensuremath{\underset{#1}\min}} % usage: \minimise{x} for min over x NOT NEEDED \min_{ } already does this...
    \newcommand{\set}[1]{\ensuremath{ \{#1\}}} % usage: \set{x_i}_{i=1}^N

  5. For tildes

    \newcommand{\overtilde}[1]{\ensuremath{ \overset{\sim}{#1} }} % usage: \tilde{x} for x over-tilde
    % \newcommand{\approx}{\ensuremath{\sim}} % usage: \approx 3
    \newcommand{\abs}{\ensuremath{\text{abs}}} %for absolute value

  6. For probability AND statistics

    \newcommand{\pr}[1]{\ensuremath{\text{Pr}\{#1\}}} %for probability, e.g. Pr(X=k)
    \newcommand{\e}[1]{\ensuremath{\text{E}[#1]}} % expectation
    \newcommand{\var}[1]{\ensuremath{\text{var}[#1]}} %for variance
    \newcommand{\avg}{\ensuremath{\text{avg}}} %for avg
    \newcommand{\sd}{\ensuremath{\text{sd}}} %for standard deviation
    \newcommand{\cov}[2]{\ensuremath{\text{cov}(#1,#2)}} %for covariance
    \newcommand{\cor}[2]{\ensuremath{\text{cor}(#1,#2)}} %for correlation

  7. For COMBINATORICS AND DISCRETE MATHS

    \let \oldbinom\binom
    \renewcommand{\binom}[2]{C\oldbinom{#1}{#2}} %This adds a C(a;b) to the choose notation
    \newcommand{\floor}[1]{\ensuremath{\left\lfloor#1\right\rfloor}} %for floor and ceiling
    \newcommand{\ceil}[1]{\ensuremath{\left\lceil#1\right\rceil}}
    \newcommand{\lcm}{\ensuremath{\mbox{lcm} }} % LCM -- because \gcd is defined
    \newcommand{\falling}[1]{\ensuremath{\underline{#1}}} % For use with falling factorial, and N-lower k, etc.

  8. For Physics

    \newcommand{\micro}{\ensuremath{\mu}} %for micro symbol, e.g. uPa (micro-Pascals)
    \newcommand{\dB}{\ensuremath{\text{ dB }}} %for dB
    \newcommand{\kHz}{\ensuremath{\text{ kHz }}} %for kHz
    \newcommand{\Hz}{\ensuremath{\text{ Hz }}} %for Hz
    \renewcommand{\deg}{\ensuremath{^\circ}} %for circle degree symbol \deg uses a text style word and not a math style 15\deg C

  9. For Convenience

    %MACRO FOR: \BEGIN{EQUATION} FORMULA_TEXT \END{EQUATION} numbered equation
    \newcommand{\be}{\begin{equation}}
    \newcommand{\ee}{\end{equation}}

  10. For BUSINESS (copyrights, trademarks, etc.) Reference

    \def\registered{\ooalign{\hfil\raise .00ex\hbox{\scriptsize R}\hfil\crcr\mathhexbox20D}}
    % usage: $^\registered$
    % suggested by: Scott D. Anderson, anderson@cs.umass.edu
    \def\tm{\leavevmode\hbox{$\rm {}^{TM}$}}
    % usage: \tm
    % suggested by: Patrick TJ McPhee Toronto Canada ptjm@io.org

HTML snippets

  • Images, resized
    (in angle brackets) img src="http://mathscitech.org/.../mjoy-demo.png" alt="example" style="width:367px;height:385px;"

Freehand Diagrams on Windows, Android, and iOS with MetaMoji Note & the WACOM pen tablet.

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Updated: 2014-11-23
MetaMoji Note: A worthy digital replacement to Pencil & Notebook for creating freehand diagrams on Windows and Android.

Pencil & Notebook are hard to beat when diagrams, equations, and words are desired in roughly equal measure, which is common when working as an engineer, mathematician, or product designer. To be sure, there are good digital tools for subsets of these (example LaTeX), but not when all three are combined. But now there’s a new suite of digital freehand tools that are almost good enough to set aside the notebook and pencil permanently.  The core of this toolkit is a vector-based graphics canvas (software) and an ultra-precise stylus (hardware).

Example of Freehand Digital Pencil, using Adobe Ideas.
Courtesy of Simon Raper, Drunks and Lampposts

If you use Apple iOS, you may already be using Adobe Ideas, which does the job brilliantly and is free (see this excellent article by Simon Raper). [1]  But Adobe has no plans to release this to either Windows RT or Android, so for the rest of us, that’s a show-stopper, until now, with MetaMoji…

Continue reading this article…

The Mathematics of Duelling

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Duelling with pistols. If you were the one issuing the challenge, your dilemma was that custom dictated that your adversary be allowed to shoot first. Only then, if you were still able to shoot, would you be permitted to seek “satisfaction”.

How much of an advantage does the first shooter really have? In this article, we build a simple probability model, and implement a numerical model in a few lines of R code.

Two gentleman face off in the snow.  Convention dictates the challenged shoots first.

Two gentleman face off in the snow. Convention dictates the challenged shoots first.

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A Radar Tracking Approach to Data Mining

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(Statistics and Data Mining II)

Automated decision problems are frequently encountered in statistical data processing and data mining. An heuristic filter or heuristic classifier typically has a limited set of input data from which to arrive at a set of conclusions and make a decision: REJECT, ACCEPT, or UNDETERMINED. In such cases, pre-processing the input data before applying the heuristic classifier can substantially enhance the performance of the decision system.

In this article, I’ll motivate the use of a radar-tracking algorithm to improve the performance of automated decision making and statistical estimation in data processing. I will illustrate using the website visitation statistics problem.

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Analysis of Visitor Statistics: Data Mining in-the-Small

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(Statistics and Data Mining I)

For a variety of reasons, meaningful website visitation and visitor behavior statistics are an elusive data set to generate. This article introduces the visitor statistics problem, and describes seven challenges that must be overcome by statistical and data analysis techniques aiming for accurate estimates. Along the way, we’ll encounter the “Good News Cheap, Bad News Expensive” Paradox of Data Mining — or, why information is often used “as-is”.

This article is the first in a series on algorithms, statistics and data analysis techniques (using free and open source tools) using the visitor statistics problem as a vehicle for illustration.

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LaTeX (Maths Typesetting)

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Writing Beautiful Mathematics: Getting Started with LaTeX on Windows

If you haven’t done so already, you may want to start by reading the Preface to the Computing Series: Software as a Force Multiplier, Sections 1-3.

2nd ed. Revised with new templates Sep 21, 2019, 1st ed. May 18, 2010.

Getting Started with LaTex
LaTeX (open source, free) is an essential tool to write beautifully formatted mathematics efficiently. If you have extensive mathematical symbology and have been using MS Word for this, you are using the wrong tool for the job (see Figure below). Setting up LaTeX should take no more than an hour, after which you can produce publication-ready mathematical documents quickly and reliably. This article walks you through setting up a working platform for Windows, and provides the LaTeX templates you’ll need to produce your first examples. Also shared is the source code and compilation instructions for an example paper, which you can download and modify for your own use, containing several advanced stylistic elements (endnotes, figures with captions, URLs, code listings, and epigraphs).

An example of mathematics written in LaTeX, from Finite Summation of Integer Powers (Part 3), A. Ebrahim, C. Ouellette, 2010.

An example of mathematics written in LaTeX, from Finite Summation of Integer Powers (Part 3), A. Ebrahim, C. Ouellette, 2010.

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A Course in the Philosophy and Foundations of Mathematics

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An examination of mathematical methods and the search for mathematical meaning.

This article curates a reading list (most sources available freely online1) organized into a set of encounters that lie outside the standard mathematics curriculum. They are intended to enrich the reader’s understanding of mathematics and its place in scientific inquiry, increase her/his connection to the historical and philosophical questions behind the mathematics of the past and present, and gain greater satisfaction from further mathematical study. The reader should come away with a better understanding of the culture of mathematics: what mathematics is, mathematical method and meaning, and the relation of mathematics to the empirical world and to science.

We look at seven topics. These may be covered in any order, to suit your particular interests.

  1. What is Mathematics? (Its Nature and Characteristics)
  2. Reality, Truth, and the Nature of Mathematical Knowledge
  3. What is Proof? and the Problem of Certainty
  4. Some Readings in the History of Mathematics and the Evolution of Its Ideas
  5. The Search for Foundations in Mathematics
  6. Mathematics and Science
  7. Thoughts on Mathematical Practice and Mathematical Style

There is no core body of technical material to master in this course; the important thing is a feel for how, why, and in what context the core ideas of mathematics evolved, getting to the essence of their motivation, and understanding the fruits of these efforts. The course such as the below should appeal to all those who have an itch to scratch beneath the surface of mathematics, who find themselves asking “but why?”. It could be useful in all three tiers of education: secondary, post-secondary (undergraduate), and graduate, appropriately restructured.

  • Secondary school elective: to encourage bright students in mathematics, science and technology to enter the university with a broader perspective on the mathematics they will be rapidly learning there.
  • University elective course: offered as a writing-intensive seminar, intended primarily for students in the sciences and engineer: mathematics, physics, engineering.
  • Graduate level course: offered in the first year of graduate school in mathematics or applied mathematics as a supplementary seminar.

Continue reading this article…

  1. To ensure that the materials are always available for download, I am serving them from copies held on this site. If you are the author of any of these articles and would prefer to have the primary download originate from your site, please send me an email, and I will make the change.

The Advance of Sensor Networks and Autonomous Systems

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The past five years have seen the emergence of a growing array of autonomous swimming, flying, and rolling vehicles, each highly sensored and capable of real-time communication with processors external to themselves. Practical designs are now commercially available for each of the four primary areas of our environment: terrestrial, marine (subsea, surface, and amphibian), atmospheric (gravity constrained), and space (orbital and planetary).

A look at a selection of these achievements in networked sensor systems will set the stage to discuss the communications layer of the ubiquitous computing stack.

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The Advance of Marine Micro-ROVs

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A Versatile Tool for Marine Operations, and a Portable Undersea Platform for Small Sensors

Micro-ROVs (Remotely Operated Vehicles) are becoming increasingly capable even as their size and cost drop, opening up new possibilities for the application of undersea inspection, imaging, and measurement.

In this article, I’ll discuss four reasons why Micro-ROVs should be a routinely used part of a marine and water-side operations toolkit, and review some stand-out choices in the Micro-ROV category.

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Stats: 1,072,680 article views since 2010 (May '24 update)

Dear Readers:

Welcome to the conversation!  We publish long-form pieces as well as a curated collection of spotlighted articles covering a broader range of topics.   Notifications for new long-form articles are through the feeds (you can join below).  We love hearing from you.  Feel free to leave your thoughts in comments, or use the contact information to reach us!

Reading List…

Looking for the best long-form articles on this site? Below is a curated list by the main topics covered.

Mathematics-History & Philosophy

  1. What is Mathematics?
  2. Prehistoric Origins of Mathematics
  3. The Mathematics of Uruk & Susa (3500-3000 BCE)
  4. How Algebra Became Abstract: George Peacock & the Birth of Modern Algebra (England, 1830)
  5. The Rise of Mathematical Logic: from Laws of Thoughts to Foundations for Mathematics
  6. Mathematical Finance and The Rise of the Modern Financial Marketplace
  7. A Course in the Philosophy and Foundations of Mathematics
  8. The Development of Mathematics
  9. Catalysts in the Development of Mathematics
  10. Characteristics of Modern Mathematics

Electronic & Software Engineering

  1. Electronics in the Junior School - Gateway to Technology
  2. Coding for Pre-Schoolers - A Turtle Logo in Forth
  3. Experimenting with Microcontrollers - an Arduino development kit for under £12
  4. Making Sensors Talk for under £5, and Voice Controlled Hardware
  5. Computer Programming: A brief survey from the 1940s to the present
  6. Forth, Lisp, & Ruby: languages that make it easy to write your own domain specific language (DSL)
  7. Programming Microcontrollers: Low Power, Small Footprints & Fast Prototypes
  8. Building a 13-key pure analog electronic piano.
  9. TinyPhoto: Embedded Graphics and Low-Fat Computing
  10. Computing / Software Toolkits
  11. Assembly Language programming (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)
  12. Bare Bones Programming: The C Language

Pure & Applied Mathematics

  1. Fuzzy Classifiers & Quantile Statistics Techniques in Continuous Data Monitoring
  2. LOGIC in a Nutshell: Theory & Applications (including a FORTH simulator and digital circuit design)
  3. Finite Summation of Integer Powers: (Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3)
  4. The Mathematics of Duelling
  5. A Radar Tracking Approach to Data Mining
  6. Analysis of Visitor Statistics: Data Mining in-the-Small
  7. Why Zero Raised to the Zero Power IS One

Technology: Sensors & Intelligent Systems

  1. Knowledge Engineering & the Emerging Technologies of the Next Decade
  2. Sensors and Systems
  3. Unmanned Autonomous Systems & Networks of Sensors
  4. The Advance of Marine Micro-ROVs

Math Education

  1. Teaching Enriched Mathematics, Part 1
  2. Teaching Enriched Mathematics, Part 2: Levelling Student Success Factors
  3. A Course in the Philosophy and Foundations of Mathematics
  4. Logic, Proof, and Professional Communication: five reflections
  5. Good mathematical technique and the case for mathematical insight

Explore…

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