Main Menu

Description Table of Contents Order Information
Homepage Books  

Description

This book is designed to reduce the time and frustration involved in learning how to read, think about, understand, and "do" mathematical proofs. This goal is accomplished by identifying and describing the various techniques used in virtually all proofs, independent of subject matter. Students are taught not only how to use the techniques, but also when each technique is likely to be used, based on certain keywords that appear in the statement under consideration. Students are also taught how to understand a written proof by learning to identify the sequence of techniques that are used.

This undergraduate-level book is suitable as a text for a transition-to-advanced-math course, as a supplement to any course involving proofs, or for self-guided reading.

Return to Main Menu


Table of Contents

1. The Truth of It All
2. The Forward-Backward Method
3. On Definitions and Mathematical Terminology
4. Quantifiers I: The Construction Method
5. Quantifiers II: The Choose Method
6. Quantifiers III: Specialization
7. Quantifiers IV: Nested Quantifiers
8. Nots of Nots Lead to Knots
9. The Contradiction Method
10. The Contrapositive Method
11. Uniqueness Methods and Induction
12. Either/Or and Max/Min Methods
13. Summary
Appendix A. Examples of Proofs from Discrete Mathematics
Appendix B. Examples of Proofs from Linear Algebra
Appendix C. Examples of Proofs from Modern Algebra
Appendix D. Examples of Proofs from Real Analysis
Solutions to Selected Exercises

Return to Main Menu


Order Information

Title: How to Read and Do Proofs
Edition/Year: Fourth Edition, 2005
Author: Daniel Solow
ISBN #: 0-471-68058-3
Publisher: John Wiley and Sons, Inc.
  http://www.wiley.com

Return to Main Menu