Proofs Plumpton

With BriTheMathGuy!

This monograph considers several well-known mathematical theorems and asks the question, “Why prove it again?” while examining alternative proofs. It explores the different rationales mathematicians may have for pursuing and presenting new proofs of previously established results, as well as how they judge whether two proofs of a given result are different. While a number of books have examined alternative proofs of individual theorems, this is the first that presents comparative case studies of other methods for a variety of different theorems.

“Proofs and Fundamentals: A First Course in Abstract Mathematics” 2nd edition is designed as a "transition" course to introduce undergraduates to the writing of rigorous mathematical proofs, and to such fundamental mathematical ideas as sets, functions, relations, and cardinality. The text serves as a bridge between computational courses such as calculus, and more theoretical, proofs-oriented courses such as linear algebra, abstract algebra and real analysis. This 3-part work carefully balances Proofs, Fundamentals, and Extras. Part 1 presents logic and basic proof techniques; Part 2 thoroughly covers fundamental material such as sets, functions and relations; and Part 3 introduces a variety of extra topics such as groups, combinatorics and sequences.

This book ?nds new things to do with an old idea. The proofs-as-programs paradigm constitutes a set of approaches to developing programs from proofs in constructive logic. It has been over thirty years since the paradigm was ?rst conceived. At that time, there was a belief that proofs-as-programs had the - tential for practical application to semi-automated software development. I- tial applications were mostly concerned with ?ne-grain, mathematical program synthesis. For various reasons, research interest in the area eventually tended toward more theoretic issues of constructive logic and type theory. However, in recent years, the situation has become more balanced, and there is increasingly active research in applying constructive techniques to industrial-scale, complex software engineering problems. Thismonographdetailsseveralimportantadvancesinthisdirectionofpr- tical proofs-as-programs. One of the central themes of the book is a general, abstract framework for developing new systems of program synthesis by adapting proofs-as-programs to new contexts.

This is a textbook on proof writing in the area of analysis, balancing a survey of the core concepts of mathematical proof with a tight, rigorous examination of the specific tools needed for an understanding of analysis. Instead of the standard "transition" approach to teaching proofs, wherein students are taught fundamentals of logic, given some common proof strategies such as mathematical induction, and presented with a series of well-written proofs to mimic, this textbook teaches what a student needs to be thinking about when trying to construct a proof. Covering the fundamentals of analysis sufficient for a typical beginning Real Analysis course, it never loses sight of the fact that its primary focus is about proof writing skills.