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Category Archives: teaching
Mathematical Structures: the aftermath
The academic year finished off with two rather different events: my LMS–Gresham lecture about the Mathematical Structures course, and marking the approximately 270 scripts. The LMS–Gresham Lecture Last week I gave the annual LMS–Gresham lecture. When they asked me to … Continue reading
Fear of mathematics, 2
“Letter to my younger self” is a regular feature of the Big Issue, but apparently it is more widely distributed. My new colleague Richard Cormack circulated to the department a link to a rant by the Australian statistician Ron Sandland, … Continue reading
The future of universities
Film was one of the great inventions of the nineteenth century. For a century and a half, it was developed and improved, innovations such as colour and moving pictures were made, and photographers used it in artistic and creative ways. … Continue reading
Mathematical Structures: coda
At the end of last term, my colleague Konstantin Ardakov took the final week of lectures in Mathematical Structures so I could go to Lisbon. This week, I am repaying the debt. The module is Introduction to Algebra; many of … Continue reading
Mathematical Structures, 10
I will be in Portugal next week, and one of my colleagues has offered to take the lectures in the final week of term. But I managed to get to where I wanted to get; the last few lectures will … Continue reading
History
Ten years ago, Queen Mary had a study programme in Discrete Mathematics. We were one of the first universities in Britain to do this, and I believe they invented a special UCAS code for the course. The study programme was … Continue reading
Posted in mathematics, teaching
Tagged codes, designs, discrete mathematics, finite geometry
1 Comment
Mathematical Structures, 9
The last two weeks of the course are about proofs: how to construct them, how to read them, how to spot false proofs, and so on. In keeping with the spirit of the course, we have seen many proofs along … Continue reading
Mathematical Structures, 8
Complex numbers this week bring us to the end of our journey through the number systems. I found this much easier going, and I hope the students did too. Complex numbers provided conceptual difficulties for mathematicians, who were reluctant to … Continue reading
Posted in exposition, teaching
Tagged complex numbers, De Moivre's Theorem, Euler's formula, solving the cubic
4 Comments
Mathematical Structures, 7
This week, the test is over, and it’s back to work, on the real numbers. In keeping with the general theme of the course, real numbers are not defined as Dedekind cuts or Cauchy sequences, but as something much more … Continue reading
Posted in exposition, teaching
Tagged Achilles and the tortoise, Principle of the Supremum, real numbers, square roots
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Mathematical Structures, 6.5
I wasn’t planning to post about the course this week, since it is revision week. But there are a few things to report: we had the test (more about that later); and I got back the summary of the student … Continue reading
