What is Math?: The Beginnings of the End
Again, I find myself using this blog! Last time, I was an aspiring teacher, bright-eyed and ready for my junior year. Now I'm a senior, a semester away from BEING that aspiring teacher (how exciting!) and ready to finish learning about mathematics! So, in introduction to developing a relationship between every single mathematical concept I've covered in my four years at Grand Valley, I was asked: What is math? What is Math? I would define math as using given information and prior knowledge to draw conclusions. Take the following logic question for example: Suppose there is a basket full of 14 apples and we take 3 apples from it. How many apple do we have? Of course, we have to use our assumptions and given information to determine the answer to this. We know that we definitely have at least 3 apples, but was the basket in our possession as well? In this case, we have at most 14 apples. So, the answer is that we have between 3 and 14 apples. In this way, we were able to draw...