Many students, when they take an elementary differential equations course for the first time, bring with them misconceptions from numerical methods that they had learnt in their calculus courses, most notable of which concerns the mesh width in using a numerical method. It is important that we strive to dispel any of these misconceptions as well…

The author describes a card trick that failed when he tried it with the student chapter at his university. Computations show that the chance of this happening is about 1 in 25.

A result known as the Borel-Cantelli lemma is about probabilities of sequences of events. This article presents an example in which it appears that the hypotheses of the lemma are satisfied but the conclusion is not. The explanation of why not combines elements of probability theory, number theory, and analysis.

At each point of an ellipse one can attach a normal vector and a radial vector, the latter defined as the vector from the center of the ellipse. At the ends of the major and minor axes, the two vectors coincide, but at all other points they are separated by an angle [delta]. What is the maximum value that [delta] can attain, and where does it…

There is a strange fact that many works written with the purpose to explain what is mathematics, somehow avoid the issue. This paper is aimed at filling this gap. After discussing various descriptions of mathematics as they appear in literature, it is suggested that mathematics is an essentially linguistic activity characterized by association of…

The term "random" is frequently used in discussion of the theory of evolution, even though the mathematical concept of randomness is problematic and of little relevance in the theory. Therefore, since the core concept of the theory of evolution is the non-random process of natural selection, the term random should not be used in teaching the…

Jean Poiseuille, a physician, developed a mercury filled U-tube to measure blood pressure in 1828. He discovered that pressure in veins is significantly lower than pressure in arteries. As a result, he studied liquid flow in small tubes. A few years later he established Poiseuille's Law, which states the resistance, "p," of the flow of blood as…

Packing an infinite number of cubes into a box of finite volume is the focus of this article. The results and diagrams suggest two ways of packing these cubes. Specifically suppose an infinite number of cubes; the side length of the first one is 1; the side length of the second one is 1/2 , and the side length of the nth one is 1/n. Let n approach…

A simple, direct condition is formulated for determining the mode(s) of a probability mass function. This condition is then applied to the Poisson and hypergeometric mass functions.

The paper shows an alternative way of presenting differential calculus. It is shown that the Race Track Principles (RTP) (or any of the variants) is, in fact, equivalent to the Mean Value Theorem. Moreover, it is demonstrated how major theorems of differential calculus can be derived using RTP. The benefits of using RTP as a means to introduce…

Euler gave a simple method for showing that [zeta](2)=1/1[superscript 2] + 1/2[superscript 2] + 1/3[superscript 2] + ... = [pi][superscript 2]/6. He generalized his method so as to find [zeta](4), [zeta](6), [zeta](8),.... His computations became increasingly more complex as the arguments increased. In this note we show a different generalization…

The main research question in this paper is whether a climbing discourse can be a resource for a school-geometry discourse. The text is based on a 12-year old girl's story from an exciting climbing trip during her summer holiday. The girl uncovers some of her knowledge that had been invisible to her; she is guided to see some relations between her…

The purpose of this paper is to re-examine the relationships between mathematical problem solving and learning mathematics. After introducing a diagram representing the notion of problem solving, four types of problem solving approaches used in mathematics classrooms will be distinguished according to which aspect of that diagram is attended to.…

We discuss application of the Thomas-Reiche-Kuhn sum rule to simple quantum-mechanical models and its apparent violation by the rigid rotator.

This article gives examples of elementary teachers using physical models of function machines with their K-5 students. (Contains 13 figures and 4 online resources.)