Course Description -- Math 300 -- Fall 2002

Instructor: Louis H. Kauffman

Office: 533 SEO

Phone: (312) 996-3066

E-mail: kauffman@uic.edu

Web page: http://www.math.uic.edu/~kauffman

This is a course devoted to writing mathematics, and writing about mathematics. You will write three essays, with plenty of time to complete them. We will later make the decisions about when the essays are finally due. You will be asked to hand in drafts of each essay and there will be ample feedback and discussion before the work is completed. In this way, each essay will give you an opportunity to improve your writing skills.

While this is a one-class-hour per week course, there will be a lot of work to accomplish. This course is an important opportunity for you to improve your ability to write and to communicate. Skill in writing and communication is invaluable for all jobs and all professions.

First Assignment: (Due in the second week of the course.)

1. Find an example of one or two pages of writing that you feel to be really excellent. Make a photo-copy of this sample and bring it to class. Please be prepared to read from your writing sample! This writing sample need not be about mathematics. It can be from any part of your reading experience.

2. Choose a simple piece of mathematics that you know well.

Find someone with whom you can discuss this topic or to whom you can teach the topic. Discuss or teach as the case may be. Then write a one page explanation of the topic, in your own words.

(Examples: a proof of the Pythagorean Theorem, why the sum of the angles of triangle is pi, how to solve a quadratic equation, what is a set and what is an infinite set, Euclid's proof that there are infinitely many prime numbers, the concept of probability, what is calculus, what is projective geometry ...)

Again, it will be best if you choose your own topic. The point is simplicity, not complexity. Choose a simple direct message in relation to the topic. Write a concise and readable single page.

3. Think about topics that you would like to explore for the first essay. We will brainstorm about that essay in the second class.

Choose a topic for the first essay and prepare a first draft to be discussed on September 11.

Continue working on the first essay. Prepare a second draft to hand in on September 18 (and keep a copy for yourself).

Prepare a one page essay on a new topic

and hand it in on September 25.

Continue working on first essay.

Hand in completed first essay on October 2,

Choose topic for second essay and prepare a first draft to hand in on October 9.

Proof of Pythagorean Theorem without direct use of picutures due on October 16.

Ideas for third essay due on October 23.

Second essay due on October 30.

First draft of Essay Number Three is due and also first draft of the Box Algebra exercise is due on November 6.

Final draft of Box Algebra exercise is due on November 13.

Essay Number Three is due on November 20.

You can hand in Essay number 3 on November 27.

Final Assignment is due on December 4. In this assigment you are asked to write a concise essay (no more than five pages) describing your exploration of one of the following two topics. 1. The Box Algebra (see the website for information on this). OR 2. The Euler Product Formula for Sin(x) (see the handout for more information on this).