|
|
Re: How teaching factors rather than multiplicand & multiplier
confuses kids!
Posted:
Nov 11, 2012 10:16 AM
|
|
Excuse me, but I feel the need to clarify the post copied below. Clyde was saying his description of "zooming" and "convergence" (see below) was the "common sense view" of a continuous functions, to which I say WHAT?
The common sense view of a continuous function is as I sate further below -- the graph of which I can draw without lifting the pencil. I think the conversion of that intuitive view into a definition involving limits was a great achievement for mathematics, and took some time to hit upon, nothing common sense about it. One must first struggle with Zeno's paradox to appreciate it.
Joe N
- ---------------------------------------
Clyde Greeno says:
>But the essence is that: (1) students first must grasp that the line of rational numbers is dense ... but also having a density of "irrational" holes, and (2) also perceive how the "zoom in" squeeze on a function, at each point within or outside its domain, converges to a (sometimes empty, sometimes single-point, sometimes otherwise) "vertical" interval.
I would say the common sense view is that a continuous function is one whose graph can be drawn without lifting the pencil off the page. What you describe is a mental picture to go with the more advanced understanding. All well and good and I wouldn't be surprised if someone has created a nice interactive computer animation to illustrate.
Joe N
- -------------------------------------------
|
|
