Proofs

Casting Out Nines: Why It Works

Last week we looked at how to “cast out nines” to check arithmetic, and touched only briefly on its relationship with modular arithmetic and remainders. Here we’ll look at several explanations of why it works, aimed at different levels of students, with varying levels of success..

Frustums: Not Frustrating but Fascinating

We’ve looked in the past at volumes and surface areas of familiar geometric shapes like spheres, pyramids, and cones; but more can be done. If we cut parallel to the base of a pyramid or cone, the result is called a frustum (no, not a frustrum!). Let’s derive some formulas, which will be remarkably simple.

How to Think About the Product and Quotient Rules

Last time, we considered the Chain Rule for derivatives. This time, we’ll look at the product and quotient rules, focusing on how to keep the formulas straight, and make them easier to apply. We’ll look primarily at the quotient rule to start with, and then examine the product rule at the end.

Is Zero Really a Number?

A recent comment on the site raised questions about zero, beyond what we have discussed in the past about division by zero. Here we’ll look at basic questions about whether zero is actually a number at all, and then about multiplication by zero, which confuses a lot of people.

Euler’s Formula: Complex Numbers as Exponents

Last week we explored how the polar form of complex numbers gives multiplication a simple geometric meaning. Here we’ll go one more step, and express polar form exponentially, which makes DeMoivre’s theorem trivial, and gives us a simple notation to replace “cis”.

Negative x Negative = Positive? Abstract Proofs

Last time we looked at explanations for the product of negative numbers in terms of various concrete models or examples. But it really requires a mathematical proof, as we’ll explain and demonstrate here, first with a couple different proofs, then with the bigger picture, giving the context of such proofs.