Fall 2024 MTCA Workshop #3

Fall 2024 MTCA Workshop #3

Thursday, December 5, 2024
6-8 pm
PMA 12.166

Rene Cabrera

Beginning with the Basics: Understanding the Natural Numbers

We will revisit an elementary concept that many of you are already familiar with, but this time with a more rigorous approach. We will begin by examining the very foundation of numbers and their properties. While you've been working with numbers for years and know how to manipulate algebraic expressions, we will shift our focus to a more fundamental question: Why do the rules of algebra work?

For instance, why is it true that a(b+c)=ab+ac for any numbers a, b, and c? This isn't just an arbitrary rule—it's a result that can be derived from more basic principles. By exploring these foundational properties, you'll gain insight into how more complex results can be proven starting from simpler properties. Even though certain statements may seem "obvious," you'll find that proving them can be surprisingly challenging. One essential skill that we will use is that of mathematical induction, which is a basic tool used to prove things in many areas of mathematics.

We validate campus parking and provide dinner, and participants earn CPE hours (TEA approved) for this workshop.

Register by noon on 12/4 here.

Free parking is provided in the Speedway Garage (SWG). Enter the garage on Speedway, between Dean Keaton and 27th Street. Pull a ticket when you enter the garage. We will give participants cards to exit. (If there is a campus event using the Speedway Garage, park next-door in the 27th Street Garage.)