In my “intro-to-proofs” class, I like to have my students work on some induction problems that are not the usual proof of sums and products of integers. One lovely example is the following problem about tiling a grid with “trominoes” (three squares joined in an el-shape). Prove that for any n ≥ 1, a 2nx2n grid with…
Tag: induction
Thoughts on how to teach induction
In their article “Some observations on teaching induction,” (MAA Focus, May/June 2008, pp. 9–10) Mary Flahive and John Lee give tips on how to teach induction. For a variety of reasons, they encourage professors to downplay proofs of theorems such as the “baby Gauss” formula for all . Indeed, I have noticed that students can…
David Richeson: Division by Zero 