Help

This course has an assignment that is due by 11:55 pm Central Standard Time on Wednesday night of the first week of class.  Failure to complete this assignment will result in your removal from the course for non-participation. 

Textbooks

Chartrand, Polimeni, and Zhang, Mathematical Proofs:  A Transition to Advanced Mathematics, 2nd ed., 2008.  ISBN-13: 978-0-321-39053-0, ISBN-10: 0-321-39053-9.

Course Special Requirements

Online office hours are held using Google Hangouts/Skype, so you need to have a Google/Microsoft account and a compatible device to connect.  However, these sessions are entirely optional and not mandatory. 

Course Description

A complete survey of mathematical proofs, covering all major techniques and styles. Introduction of entirely new areas of mathematics is limited as far as possible, in favor of a focus on the process of thinking about and composing proofs in more familiar contexts. Prerequisite or Co-requisite: MA504 or instructor's permission. 3 hours.

Course Objectives

Upon successful completion of the course, each participant should be able to:

  • Effectively and clearly communicate ideas using the language and notation of higher mathematics.
  • Develop intuition about the correctness of proofs and identify mistakes.
  • Flexibly utilize various proof techniques.
  • Explain and apply knowledge in basic set theory, mathematical logic, abstract functions and relations, and cardinality of sets.
  • Precisely state the major theorems, and reproduce outlines of their proofs.