(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 …
Recall that the domain of a function is the set of all valid input values (x), and the range is the set of all possible output values (y). It is reasonably easy to find the domain: look for what could make it impossible to evaluate, such as dividing by zero or taking the square root …
Questions about geometric proofs have often been handicapped by the inability to show us the associated figure (until we made that easier to do on this new site). In principle, that should not be a problem, because the statement to be proved should contain all the necessary information. It should never be necessary to refer …
(New Question of the Week) An interesting trigonometry problem came through about a month ago, answered by Doctor Rick. It gives a nice example of how our process works at its best. It is also an interesting problem!
From time to time, a student will write to us asking for advice on studying, rather than on math itself. As either successful students, or teachers, or (quite often) as adults who recall overcoming difficulties in the past, we have some good advice to offer. Today, I want to look at three answers, by three …
Early in our history, we answered many questions about geometric proofs, particularly the “two-column” variety. Many of these were collected into a FAQ page. I want to briefly survey just some of what we have said about the big picture – an overall view of how to approach a proof, and how to work your …