Volume 3, Number 43A  -  October 1998 Discussions

28 October 1998 Vol. 3, No. 43A THE MATH FORUM INTERNET NEWS - OCTOBER 1998 DISCUSSIONS This special issue of the Math Forum's weekly newsletter highlights interesting conversations taking place during October of 1998 on Internet math discussion groups. For a full list of these groups, with links to topics covered and information on how to subscribe, see: http://mathforum.org/discussions/ ______________________________ + ______________________________ OCTOBER SUGGESTIONS AP-CALC - the Advanced Placement Calculus mailing list, hosted by the Educational Testing Service (ETS) and archived at http://mathforum.org/epigone/ap-calc/. - "Function Composition Question (4 Oct. 1998) http://mathforum.org/epigone/ap-calc/glermgrorkon/ "I am curious as to the response list members might have to these questions: TRUE or FALSE and EXPLAIN your answer: 1. If f(x) = sqrt(x) and g(x) = x^2 then f(g(x)) = x. 2. If f(x) = sqrt(x) and g(x) = x^2 then g(f(x)) = x. [these were questions on my recent AP Calc test...] - Sheila King --- + --- - "Points of inflection/extrema" (8 Oct. 1998) http://mathforum.org/epigone/ap-calc/tolplendvay/ "Today in class a kid asked if there is a point of inflection at x = c, then can there be a relative extrema at x = c ? I did some hand waving and picture drawing showing points of inflection and the behavior of the function near c, arguing that the point cannot be a relative extrema also. What is bothering me is -- how could one prove that?" - Tom Hussey --- + --- - "piecewise" (22 Oct. 1998) http://mathforum.org/epigone/ap-calc/stalyimphend/ "Is the greatest integer function considered a piecewise function? This was the topic of conversation the other day...." - Mary Harrison ______________________________ + ______________________________ APSTAT-L - the Advanced Placement Statistics mailing list, archived by the Math Forum at http://mathforum.org/epigone/apstat-l/. - "n-1 on standard deviation" (7 Oct. 1998) http://mathforum.org/epigone/apstat-l/narwhublil/ "Can someone explain to me why we divide by n-1 in sample standard deviations and n in populations?" - Liz Joseph (Also see "n-1" from 22 Sept. 1998 at http://mathforum.org/epigone/apstat-l/cloisweesking/.) ______________________________ + ______________________________ MATHEDU, a mailing list set up to discuss issues in Mathematics/ Education at the post-calculus level, and archived at http://mathforum.org/epigone/mathedu/. - "geometric means" (2 Oct. 1998) http://mathforum.org/epigone/mathedu/pharshencling/ "Students are used to the arithmetic mean as an average. Does anyone know any easy application where it is natural to use the geometric mean?... this material comes up alongside regular analysis material and is intended for the strongest and most enthusiastic students in a class which is already very able." - David Epstein ______________________________ + ______________________________ SCI.MATH.NUM-ANALYSIS, a discussion group focused on numerical analysis that can be read as a Usenet newsgroup or on the Web: http://mathforum.org/epigone/sci.math.num-analysis/. - "MATH and PAIN" (16 Oct. 1998) http://mathforum.org/epigone/sci.math.num-analysis/kherdherdbrex/ "I ask all of you engineers, scientists, and hobbyists... All the Taylor series, trigonometric formulas, integration methods, etc. Do you truly understand them at a concrete 'visual' level? Could you reproduce their derivation in ten minutes or so or less? If you see a completely brand new equation without any easily recognized sub-expressions (e.g. Euler's identity for the natural logarithm in relation to the sin and cosine functions, or the natural logarithm being used as a radial basis function) can you read it like words on a page and immediately know what it does? Or do you look it up when needed to solve a particular problem and that is that?" - Peter Immarco "Another interesting question is, why does math become difficult at different stages for different people? For some it is plain arithmetic, for others algebra, for some differentiation,... what is the factor - abstraction?" - Jon Campbell ______________________________ + ______________________________ We hope you will find these selections useful, and that you will browse and participate in the discussion group(s) of your choice. CHECK OUT OUR WEB SITE: The Math Forum http://mathforum.org/ Ask Dr. Math http://mathforum.org/dr.math/ Problems of the Week http://mathforum.org/pow/ Internet Resources http://mathforum.org/~steve/ Teacher2Teacher http://mathforum.org/t2t/ Discussion Groups http://mathforum.org/discussions/ Join the Math Forum http://mathforum.org/join.forum.html Send comments to the Math Forum Internet Newsletter editors

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