By Assad Ebrahim, on January 21st, 2018 (52,109 views) |
Topic: Maths--Technical
2nd ed. January 21, 2018; 1st ed. Feb 8th, 2010
Abstract
This three part paper explores solving the sum of powers problem  using discrete maths techniques (recurrence relations, matrix systems) to obtain a solution polynomials whose coefficients turn out to be exactly the Bernoulli numbers  .
Part 1 (this paper) solves the problem using recurrence relations in a way which a high school student could emulate for small  . In Part 2, we develop a general recursive solution that works for arbitrary , from which we can build a table of values to assist in finding the coefficients of the solution polynomial, coefficients that are precisely the Bernoulli numbers discovered in 1713. In Part 3, we show how by transforming the problem into a linear system, we may obtain a direct (non-recursive) solution which directly calculates the Bernoulli number for any power . Source code is provided for all solutions.
Readers who are interested in this topic are referred also to lovely paper by Bearden (March 1996, American Mathematical Monthly), which tells the mathematical story and fills in the history (thanks to a reader for this great reference).
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By Assad Ebrahim, on January 20th, 2018 (21,731 views) |
Topic: Maths--Technical
By Assad Ebrahim, on January 31st, 2010 (8,435 views) |
Topic: Education, Maths--Philosophy
The mathematician Alfred North Whitehead observed that “[Advancement occurs] by extending the number of important operations which we can perform without thinking of them.” (Introduction to Mathematics, 1911 ) This is certainly true in mathematics where the development of judicious notation, accompanied by good mathematical technique, extends the capability to perform chains of complex reasoning accurately and efficiently. Through proper problem formulation (tractable yet generalizable), one can sometimes pass from a single insight to the solution of a family of problems, and in some cases, to the solution to the general question itself.
Here, mathematical computing can provide a useful benefit: helping to efficiently explore conjectures, dispatch with false directions, and save time during the development, error-checking and validation stages of obtaining general results. In industry, where specific or semi-general results are needed fast, such tools allow rapidly working up the required material and providing the necessary certainty before the fully general results or complete proof are ready.
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for arbitrary 
, the coefficients of whose solution are the famous Bernoulli numbers (1716). In this paper we show to how obtain a 
for any given