Mathematics poll

[ciphergoth]

Inspired by a similar poll in palmer1984's journal.

About the "proof" question below: examples of the kind of proof I mean would be a proof that there are infinitely many primes, or that the square root of two is irrational, or of Pythagoras's Theorem. A proof in computer science counts too. By "know a proof off by heart" I mean that you'd be able to convince someone of it at a party, if they had the background to follow the proof.

If you know lots of proofs, feel free to choose one you particularly like in the last question...

[Poll #1351621]

Comments

[alextiefling.livejournal.com]

How would you prove Pythagoras' Theorem? Isn't it really a metric axiom rather than a genuine theorem?

[valkyriekaren.livejournal.com]

To clarify: I find maths awful in both th old and new senseof the term. I'm moderately discalculate which means I struggled with maths at school (though fortunately being fairy bright and knowing my way around a calculator meant that I didn't suffer academically because of it), and while now I'm older I can understand how powerful and awe-inspiring the equations that keep the universe ticking are, the idea of working them out gives me the cold sweats!

[djm4]

I can also prove that root 2 is irrational. It's a proof I'm particularly partial to as Pythagoras allegedly proved it and then tried to suppress the knowledge, as it offended his mystic sensibilities of the Universe.

[aegidian]

There's an interesting subset of your friendslist!

[ali-in-london.livejournal.com]

By "know a proof off by heart" I mean that you'd be able to convince someone of it at a party, if they had the background to follow the proof.

Now I want to organise a "bring a bottle and a theorem" party.

[sphyg.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed double A-Level maths but have unfortunately forgotten most of it.

[ajva.livejournal.com]

I suggest that the proof I've nominated is the only one worth taking to parties if you want to talk maths to non-mathmos, thus getting your maths fix in but also avoiding getting stuck in the corner all night discussing group theory or diagonal proofs. :o)

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

I enjoyed mathematics at school, but the teaching of mathematics had effectively collapsed by the time I went on to Sixth form, and I missed the opportunity to cultivate a skill and a field of study which would be both profitable and fascinating to me today.

As for proofs: I can follow a simple proof in geometry, with some effort. It needs training.

[ergotia.livejournal.com]

I enjoy mental arithmetic on a simple level i.e. multiplying in hundreds is my limit and I enjoy the proofs I can understand, which are few indeed :) But generally maths has been torture all my life!

[lizw.livejournal.com]

I used to know some proofs off by heart when I was doing the German equivalent of A-levels, which rather scarily involved an oral examination. I've forgotten them all now, but can still follow things of a similar level if I encounter them in a book or an article.

[battlekitty.livejournal.com]

I definitely knew some, and could probably reconstruct them if I sat and thought about it, but as it's not something I've done for donkey's years I couldn't tell you which.

I'm pretty sure one of the gas laws (Boyle's Law, etc) I knew at some point (that'd be the one that was easy...!) and a few other physics ones and several geometric ones and the like are among them. I definitely knew the conics ones.

Bah, must be getting old!

plums and maths, a mini saga

[plumsbitch.livejournal.com]

artremis had to explain to me that 'a proof' was a specific mathematical usage, so er, no, I don't know any. ;-)

The 'have you ever' qu, I ticked other because:

-In primary school I loved what was taught as maths (coz as artremis usefully pointed out, what 'maths' is changes hugely depending on level/style of education) *and* was in a class of three people who had extra maths lessons because we whizzed through everything too quickly.

Somewhere by my teens however, I grew an utter fear of/boredom with 'maths' (whatever it had come to represent by then) and thought (erroneously - I wasn't brilliant, but certainly wasn't awful) that I was utterly and completely useless at it/it exemplified Me Being Stupid and/or Failing. (partly this might be to do with going to same school as sister who was mathsy and sporty(maths/further maths/maths degree), and being expected to be same)

Recently, a friend who is a maths academic has explained various mathsy things in ways which I have
a)understood to some degree, this as asssessed by him in our discussions and
b)found very interesting.

So maths and me have an interesting history.

[wight1984.livejournal.com]

I knew the proofs for Gödel's first incompleteness theorem well enough to write an exam paper detailing them and their implications whilst at university. Doubt that whatever I could explain now would sound very convincing though :oP

I always liked maths as a child but grew board of the teaching environment for it at about 14-16 so let myself down a lot and lost all chances of further study. Enjoyed symbolic logic at uni though :oD

[xquiq.livejournal.com]

I did first and second year maths at university, but I've possibly forgotten more than a remember, it seems since I no proofs sprang to mind other than those you've mentioned.

I'm now thinking I'll have to dig into my old maths books. I do recall spending a large amount of time messing around with Taylor series, so presumably I must've been doing it for a reason, but can't for the life of me remember what!

I often wish I'd stuck with it, rather than switching to Economics. There's definitely something pleasing about the rigor required in mathematics.

[fizzyboot.livejournal.com]

I have a rather unconventional proof, that there is a mapping that converts a number (fraction, irrational, complex, etc) into an integer.