(A new question of the week) Having written last week about the definitions of trigonometric functions, I want to look at a question from a few months ago that illustrates a rather common mistake students make in applying those definitions. It also demonstrates the patience required to find out what is in a student’s mind, …
(A new question of the week) Having discussed trigonometric identities on Monday, let’s make this Trig Week, by looking at a discussion from two months ago in which we were asked about alternative routes to a proof.
(New Question of the Week) This recent question involves an ordinary differential equation (ODE) and the relation between different solutions. It illustrates common difficulties in interpreting what a problem is asking for, as well as some communication problems involving language and notation.
(New Question of the Week) We recently had a long discussion about a very common question from a somewhat different perspective: What do exponents (zero, negative, fractional, …) actually mean? The hard part, in the end, was to decide what “mean” means. What does it mean to define something in math? I will pick out the main thread of the …
(New question of the week) A conversation last week went through a number of interesting questions, starting with a couple on percentages, and moving into some that I would call rate questions. I will extract these, which I think will be useful for others. (The rest could, too, but there was just too much there …
(New Question of the Week) Many of the questions we answer are primarily about “how do you solve this problem?”, but at the same time ask deeper, more general questions: “How do you solve problems like this, and are there alternatives?” Today’s question is a good example of this, and raises an interesting point or …
(New Question of the Week) I love it when students want to know why something has to be the way it is, and are not satisfied just being told to use a formula. Last month, Shunya asked this kind of question, which gave me a chance to refer to our archive and go beyond it.
(New Question of the Week) Sometimes a problem leads to a very interesting discussion that brings out many good ideas – but then turns out to be something entirely different, which brings out even more (and simpler) ideas. This polynomial equation problem we helped with last week was like that. I will not be quoting …
(New Question of the Week) Last month we had a question from a Czech student asking about a geometry problem. The discussion illustrates language issues that can arise, and how we try to guide a student to solve a problem himself. I will fill in some gaps as we examine how to approach an interesting …
(New Question of the Week) From time to time we get a question that is more about words than about math; usually these are about the meaning or origin of mathematical terms. Fortunately, some of us love words as much as we love math. But the question I want to look at here, which came …