Front cover image for Mathematical reflections : in a room with many mirrors

Mathematical reflections : in a room with many mirrors

We are, in fact, trying to give effect to what we call, in Section 9.3, our basic principle of mathematical instruction, asserting that "mathematics must be taught so that students comprehend how and why mathematics is qone by those who do it successfully./I However, our second purpose is quite as important.
Print Book, English, ©1997
Springer, New York, ©1997
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xvi, 351 p. : il. ; 24 cm.
9780387947709, 0387947701
318175415
1 Going Down the Drain.- 1.1 Constructions.- 1.2 Cobwebs.- 1.3 Consolidation.- 1.4 Fibonacci Strikes.- 1.5 Dénouement.- 2 A Far Nicer Arithmetic.- 2.1 General Background: What You Already Know.- 2.2 Some Special Moduli: Getting Ready for the Fun.- 2.3 Arithmetic mod p: Some Beautiful Mathematics.- 2.4 Arithmetic mod Non-primes: The Same But Different.- 2.5 Primes, Codes, and Security.- 2.6 Casting Out 9’s and 11’s: Tricks of the Trade.- 3 Fibonacci and Lucas Numbers.- 3.1 A Number Trick.- 3.2 The Explanation Begins.- 3.3 Divisibility Properties.- 3.4 The Number Trick Finally Explained.- 3.5 More About Divisibility.- 3.6 A Little Geometry!.- 4 Paper-Folding and Number Theory.- 4.1 Introduction: What You Can Do With—and Without—Euclidean Tools.- 4.2 Going Beyond Euclid: Folding 2-Period Regular Polygons.- 4.3 Folding Numbers.- 4.4 Some Mathematical Tidbits.- 4.5 General Folding Procedures.- 4.6 The Quasi-Order Theorem.- 4.7 Appendix: A Little Solid Geometry.- 5 Quilts and Other Real-World Decorative Geometry.- 5.1 Quilts.- 5.2 Variations.- 5.3 Round and Round.- 5.4 Up the Wall.- 6 Pascal, Euler, Triangles, Windmills.- 6.1 Introduction: A Chance to Experiment.- 6.2 The Binomial Theorem.- 6.3 The Pascal Triangle and Windmill.- 6.4 The Pascal Flower and the Generalized Star of David.- 6.5 Eulerian Numbers and Weighted Sums.- 6.6 Even Deeper Mysteries.- 7 Hair and Beyond.- 7.1 A Problem with Pigeons, and Related Ideas.- 7.2 The Biggest Number.- 7.3 The Big Infinity.- 7.4 Other Sets of Cardinality ?0.- 7.5 Schröder and Bernstein.- 7.6 Cardinal Arithmetic.- 7.7 Even More Infinities?.- 8 An Introduction to the Mathematics of Fractal Geometry.- 8.1 Introduction to the Introduction: What’s Different About Our Approach.- 8.2 Intuitive Notion of Self-Similarity.- 8.3The lént Map and the Logistic Map.- 8.4 Some More Sophisticated Material.- An Introduction to the Mathematics of Fractal Geometry.- 8.1 Introduction to the Introduction: What’s Different About Our Approach.- 8.2 Intuitive Notion of Self-Similarity.- 8.3 The tent Map and and the Logistic Map.- 8.4 Some more Sophisticated Material.- 9 Some of Our Own Reflections.- 9.1 General Principles.- 9.2 Specific Principles.- 9.3 Appendix: Principles of Mathematical Pedagogy.