# Very early difficulties II

This is the second part of a series of posts about certain difficulties math students have in the very early stages of studying abstract math. The first post, Very early difficulties in studying abstract math, gives some background to the subject and discusses one particular difficulty: Some students do not know that it is worthwhile to try starting a proof by rewriting what is to be proved using the definitions of the terms involved.

## Math StackExchange

The website Math StackExchange is open to any questions about math, even very easy ones. It is in contrast with Math OverFlow, which is aimed at professional mathematicians asking questions in their own field.

Math SE contains many examples of the early difficulties discussed in this series of posts, and I recommend to math ed people (not just RUME people, since some abstract math occurs in advanced high school courses) that they might consider reading through questions on Math SE for examples of misunderstanding students have.

There are two caveats:

• Most questions on Math SE are at a high enough level that they don’t really concern these early difficulties.
• Many of the questions are so confused that it is hard to pinpoint what is causing the difficulty that the questioner has.

## Connotations of English words

The terms(s) defined in a definition are often given ordinary English words as names, and the beginner automatically associates the connotations of the meaning of the English word with the objects defined in the definition.

### Infinite cardinals

If $A$ if a finite set, the cardinality of $A$ is simply a natural number (including $0$). If $A$ is a proper subset of another set $B$, then the cardinality of $A$ is strictly less than the cardinality of $B$.

In the nineteenth century, mathematicians extended the definition of cardinality for infinite sets, and for the most part cardinality has the same behavior as for finite sets. For example, the cardinal numbers are well-ordered. However, for infinite sets it is possible for a set and a proper subset of the set to have the same cardinality. For example, the cardinality of the set of natural numbers is the same as the cardinality of the set of rational numbers. This phenomenon causes major cognitive dissonance.

Question 1331680 on Math Stack Exchange shows an example of this confusion. I have also discussed the problem with cardinality in the abstractmath.org section Cardinality.

### Morphism in category theory

The concept of category is defined by saying there is a bunch of objects called objects (sorry bout that) and a bunch of objects called morphisms, subject to certain axioms. One requirement is that there are functions from morphisms to objects choosing a “domain” and a “codomain” of each morphism. This is spelled out in Category Theory in Wikibooks, and in any other book on category theory.

The concepts of morphism, domain and codomain in a category are therefore defined by abstract definitions, which means that any property of morphisms and their domains and codomains that is true in every category must follow from the axioms. However, the word “morphism” and the talk about domains and codomains naturally suggests to many students that a morphism must be a function, so they immediately and incorrectly expect to evaluate it at an element of its domain, or to treat it as a function in other ways.

#### Example

If $\mathcal{C}$ is a category, its opposite category $\mathcal{C}^{op}$ is defined this way:

• The objects of $\mathcal{C}^{op}$ are the objects of $\mathcal{C}$.
• A morphism $f:X\to Y$ of $\mathcal{C}^{op}$ is a morphism from $Y$ to $X$ of $\mathcal{C}$ (swap the domain and codomain).

In Question 980933 on Math SE, the questioner is saying (among other things) that in $\text{Set}^{op}$, this would imply that there has to be a morphism from a nonempty set to the empty set. This of course is true, but the questioner is worried that you can’t have a function from a nonempty set to the empty set. That is also true, but what it implies is that in $\text{Set}^{op}$, the morphism from $\{1,2,3\}$ to the empty set is not a function from $\{1,2,3\}$ to the empty set. The morphism exists, but it is not a function. This does not any any sense make the definition of $\text{Set}^{op}$ incorrect.

Student confusion like this tends to make the teacher want to have a one foot by six foot billboard in his classroom saying

A MORPHISM DOESN’T HAVE TO BE A FUNCTION!

However, even that statement causes confusion. The questioner who asked Question 1594658 essentially responded to the statement in purple prose above by assuming a morphism that is “not a function” must have two distinct values at some input!

That questioner is still allowing the connotations of the word “morphism” to lead them to assume something that the definition of category does not give: that the morphism can evaluate elements of the domain to give elements of the codomain.

So we need a more elaborate poster in the classroom:

The definition of “category” makes no requirement
that an object has elements
or that morphisms evaluate elements.

As was remarked long long ago, category theory is pointless.

### English words implementing logic

There are lots of questions about logic that show that students really do not think that the definition of some particular logical construction can possibly be correct. That is why in the abstractmath.org chapter on definitions I inserted this purple prose:

A definition is a totalitarian dictator.

It is often the case that you can explain why the definition is worded the way it is, and of course when you can you should. But it is also true that the student has to grovel and obey the definition no matter how weird they think it is.

#### Formula and term

In logic you learn that a formula is a statement with variables in it, for example “$\exists x((x+5)^3\gt2)$”. The expression “$(x+5)^3$” is not a formula because it is not a statement; it is a “term”. But in English, $H_2O$ is a formula, the formula for water. As a result, some students have a remarkably difficult time understanding the difference between “term” and “formula”. I think that is because those students don’t really believe that the definition must be taken seriously.

#### Exclusive or

Question 804250 in MathSE says:

“Consider $P$ and $Q$. Let $P+Q$ denote exclusive or. Then if $P$ and $Q$ are both true or are both false then $P+Q$ is false. If one of them is true and one of them is false then $P+Q$ is true. By exclusive or I mean $P$ or $Q$ but not both. I have been trying to figure out why the truth table is the way it is. For example if $P$ is true and $Q$ is true then no matter what would it be true?”

I believe that the questioner is really confused by the plus sign: $P+Q$ ought to be true if $P$ and $Q$ are both true because that’s what the plus sign ought to mean.

Yes, I know this is about a symbol instead of an English word, but I think the difficulty has the same dynamics as the English-word examples I have given.

If I have understood this difficulty correctly, it is similar to the students who want to know why $1$ is not a prime number. In that case, there is a good explanation.

#### Only if

The phrase “only if” simply does not mean the same thing in math as it does in English. In Question 17562 in MathSE, a reader asks the question, why does “$P$ only if $Q$” mean the same as “if $P$ then $Q$” instead of “if $Q$ then $P$”?

Many answerers wasted a lot of time trying to convince us that “$P$ only if $Q$” mean the same as “if $P$ then $Q$” in ordinary English, when in fact it does not. That’s because in English, clauses involving “if” usually connote causation, which does not happen in math English.

Consider these two pairs of examples.

1. “I take my umbrella only if it is raining.”
2. “If I take my umbrella, then it is raining.”
3. “I flip that switch only if a light comes on.”
4. “If I flip that switch, a light comes on.”

The average non-mathematical English speaker will easily believe that (1) and (4) are true, but will balk and (2) and (3). To me, (3) means that the light coming on makes me flip the switch. (2) is more problematical, but it does (to me) have a feeling of causation going the wrong way. It is this difference that causes students to balk at the equivalence in math of “$P$ only if $Q$” and “If $P$, then $Q$”. In math, there is no such thing as causation, and the truth tables for implication force us to live with the fact that these two sentences mean the same thing.

Henning Makholm’ answer to Question 17562 begins this way: “I don’t think there’s really anything to understand here. One simply has to learn as a fact that in mathematics jargon the words ‘only if’ invariably encode that particular meaning. It is not really forced by the everyday meanings of ‘only’ and’ if’ in isolation; it’s just how it is.” That is the best way to answer the question. (Other answerers besides Makholm said something similar.)

I have also discussed this difficulty (and other difficulties with logic) in the abmath section on “only if“.

## References

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# CONDITIONAL ASSERTIONS

This section is concerned with logical construc­tions made with the connective called the conditional operator. In mathe­matical English, applying the conditional operator to $P$ and $Q$ produces a sentence that may bewritten, “If $P$, then $Q$”, or “$P$ implies$Q$”. Sentences of this form are conditional assertions.

Conditional assertions are at the very heart of mathematical reasoning. Mathematical proofs typically consist of chains of conditional assertions.

Some of the narrative formats used for proving conditional assertions are discussed in Forms of Proof.

## The truth table for conditional assertions

A conditional assertion “If $P$ then $Q$” has the precise truth table shown here.

 $P$ $Q$ If $P$ then $Q$ T T T T F F F T T F F T

The meaning of “If $P$ then $Q$” is determined entirely by the truth values of $P$ and $Q$ and this truth table. The meaning is not determined by the usual English meanings of the words “if” and “then”.

The truth table is summed up by this purple pronouncement:

The Prime Directive of conditional assertions:
A conditional assertion is true unless
the hypothesis is true and the conclusion is false.
That means that to prove “If $P$ then $Q$” is  FALSE
you must show that $P$ is TRUE(!) and $Q$ is FALSE.

The Prime Directive is harder to believe in than leprechauns. Some who are new to abstract math get into an enormous amount of difficulty because they don’t take it seriously.

##### Example

The statement “if $n\gt 5$, then $n\gt 3$” is true for all integers
$n$.

• This means that “If $7\gt 5$ then $7\gt 3$” is true.
• It also means that “If $2\gt 5$ then $2\gt 3$” is true!  If you really believe that “If $n\gt 5$, then $n\gt 3$” is true for all integers n, then you must in particular believe that  “If $2\gt 5$ then $2\gt 3$” is true.  That’s why the truth table for conditional assertions takes the form it does.
• On the other hand, “If $n\gt 5$, then $n\gt 8$” is not true for all integers $n$.  In particular, “If $7\gt 5$, then $7\gt 8$” is false. This fits what the truth table says, too.

For more about this, see Understanding conditionals.

### Remark

Most of the time in mathematical writing the conditional assertions which are actually stated involve assertions containing variables, and the claim is typically that the assertion is true for all instances of the variables. Assertions involving statements without variables occur only implicitly in the process of checking instances of the assertions. That is why a statement such as, “If $2\gt 5$ then $2\gt 3$” seems awkward and unfamiliar.

It is unfamiliar and occurs rarely. I mention it here because of the occurrence of vacuous truths, which do occur in mathematical writing.

## Conditionals and Truth Sets

The set $\{x|P(x)\}$ is the set of exactly all $x$ for which $P(x)$ is true. It is called the truth set of $P(x)$.

##### Examples
• If $n$ is an integer variable, then the truth set of “$3\lt n\lt9$” is the set $\{4,5,6,7,8\}$.
• The truth set of “$n\gt n+1$” is the empty set.

### Weak and strong

“If $P(x)$ then $Q(x)$” means that $\{x|P(x)\}\subseteq \{x|Q(x)\}$.  We say $P(x)$ is stronger than $Q(x)$, meaning that $P$ puts more requirements on $x$ than $Q$ does.  The objects $x$ that make $P$ true necessarily make $Q$ true, so there might be objects making $Q$ true that don’t make $P$ true.

##### Example

The statement “$x\gt4$” is stronger than the statement “$x\gt\pi$”. That means that $\{x|x\gt4\}$ is a proper subset of $\{x|x\gt\pi\}$. In other words, $\{x|x\gt4\}$ is “smaller” than $\{x|x\gt\pi\}$ in the sense of subsets. For example, $3.5\in\{x|x\gt\pi\}$ but $3.5\notin\{x|x\gt4\}$. This is a kind of reversal (a Galois correspondence) that confused many of my students.

“Smaller” means the truth set of the stronger statement omits elements that are in the truth set of the weaker statement. In the case of finite truth sets, “smaller” also means it has fewer elements, but that does not necessarily work for infinite sets, such as in the example above, because the two truth sets $\{x|x\gt4\}$ and $\{x|x\gt\pi\}$ have the same cardinality.

Making a statement stronger
makes its truth set “smaller”.

### Terminology and usage

#### Hypothesis and conclusion

In the assertion “If $P$, then $Q$”:

• P is the hypothesis or antecedent
of the assertion.  It is a constraint or condition that holds in the very narrow context of the assertion.  In other words, the assertion, “If $P$, then $Q$” does not say that $P$ is true. The idea of the direct method of proof is to assume that $P$ is true during the proof.
• $Q$ is the conclusion or consequent. It is also incorrect to assume that $Q$ is true anywhere else except in the assertion “If $P$, then $Q$”.

#### “Implication”

Conditionals such as “If $P$ then $Q$” are also called implications , but be wary: “implication” is a technical term and does not fit the meaning of the word in conversational English.

• In ordinary English, you might ask, “What are the implications of knowing that $x\gt4$? Answer: “Well, for one thing, $x$ is bigger that $\pi$.”
• In the terminology of math and logic, the whole statement “If $x\gt4$ then $x\gt\pi$” is called an “implication”.

## Vacuous truth

The last two lines of the truth table for conditional assertions mean that if the hypothesis of the assertion is false, then the assertion is automatically true.
In the case that “If $P$ then $Q$” is true because $P$ is false, the assertion is said to be vacuously true.

The word “vacuous” refers to the fact that in the vacuous case the conditional assertion says nothing interesting about either $P$ or $Q$. In particular, the conditional assertion may be true even if the conclusion is false (because of the last line of the truth table).

##### Example

Both these statements are vacuously true!

• If $4$ is odd, then $3 = 3$.
• If $4$ is odd, then $3\neq3$.
##### Example

If $A$ is any set then $\emptyset\subseteq A.$ Proof (rewrite by definition): You have to prove that if $x\in\emptyset$, then $x\in A$. But the statement “$x\in\emptyset$” is false no matter what $x$ is, so the statement “$\emptyset\subseteq A$” is vacuously true.

### Definitions involving vacuous truth

Vacuous truth can cause surprises in connection with certain concepts which are defined using a conditional assertion.

##### Example
• Suppose $R$ is a relation on a set $S$. Then $R$ is antisymmetric if the following statement is true: If for all $x,y\in S$, $xRy$ and $yRx$, then $x=y$.
• For example, the relation “$\leq$” on the real numbers is antisymmetric, because if $x\leq y$ and $y\leq x$, then $x=y$.
• The relation “$\lt$” on the real numbers is also antisymmetric. It is vacuously antisymmetric, because the statement

(AS) “if $x\gt y$ and $y\gt x$, then $x = y$”

is vacuously true. If you say it can’t happen that $x\gt y$ and $y\gt x$, you are correct, and that means precisely that (AS) is vacuously true.

### Remark

Although vacuous truth may be disturbing when you first see it, making either statement in the example false would result in even more peculiar situations. For example, if you decided that “If $P$ then $Q$” must be false when $P$ and $Q$ are both false, you would then have to say that this statement

“For any integers $m$ and $n$, if $m\gt 5$ and $5\gt n$, then $m\gt n$”

is not always true (substitute $3$ for $m$ and $4$ for $n$ and you get both $P$ and $Q$ false). This would surely be an unsatisfactory state of affairs.

## How conditional assertions are worded

A conditional assertion may be worded in various ways.  It takes some practice to get used to understanding all of them as conditional.

Our habit of swiping English words and phrases and changing their meaning in an unintuitive way causes many problems for new students, but I am sure that the worst problem of that kind is caused by the way conditional assertions are worded.

### In math English

The most common ways of wording a conditional assertion with hypothesis $P$ and conclusion $Q$ are:

• If $P$, then $Q$.
• $P$ implies $Q$.
• $P$ only if $Q$.
• $P$ is sufficient for $Q$.
• $Q$ is necessary for $P$.

### In the symbolic language

• $P(x)\to Q(x)$
• $P(x)\Rightarrow Q(x)$
• $P(x)\supset Q(x)$

Math logic is notorious for the many different symbols used by different authors with the same meaning. This is in part because it developed separately in three different academic areas: Math, Philosophy and Computing Science.

##### Example

All the statements below mean the same thing. In these statements $n$ is an integer variable.

• If $n\lt5$, then $n\lt10$.
• $n\lt5$ implies $n\lt10$.
• $n\lt5$ only if $n\lt10$.
• $n\lt5$ is sufficient for $n\lt10$.
• $n\lt10$ is necessary for $n\lt5$.
• $n\lt5\to n\lt10$
• $n\lt5\Rightarrow n\lt10$
• $n\lt5\supset n\lt10$

Since “$P(x)\supset Q(x)$” means that $\{x|P(x)\}\subseteq \{x|Q(x)\}$, there is a notational clash between implication written “$\supset$” and inclusion written “$\subseteq$”. This is exacerbated by the two meanings of the inclusion symbol “$\subset$”.

These ways of wording conditionals cause problems for students, some of them severe. They are discussed in the section Understanding conditionals.

#### Usage of symbols

The logical symbols “$\to$”, “$\Rightarrow$”,
“$\supset$” are frequently used when writing on the blackboard, but are not common in texts, except for texts in mathematical logic.

#### More about implication in logic

If you know some logic, you may know that there is a subtle difference between the statements

• “If $P$ then $Q$”
• “$P$ implies $Q$”.

Here is a concrete example:

1. “If $x\gt2$,  then $x$ is positive.”
2. “$x\gt2$ implies that $x$ is positive.”

Note that the subject of sentence (1) is the (variable) number $x$, but the subject of sentence (2) is the assertion
“$x\lt2$”.   Behind this is a distinction made in formal logic between the material conditional “if $P$ then $Q$” (which means that $P$ and $Q$ obey the truth table for “If..then”) and logical consequence ($Q$ can be proved given $P$). I will ignore the distinction here, as most mathematicians do except when they are proving things about logic.

In some texts, $P\Rightarrow Q$ denotes the material conditional and $P\to Q$ denotes logical consequence.

## Universal conditional assertions

A conditional assertion containing a variable that is true for any value of the correct type of that variable is a universally true conditional assertion. It is a special case of the general notion of universally true assertion.

##### Examples
1. For all $x$, if $x\lt5$, then $x\lt10$.
2. For any integer $n$, if $n^2$ is even, then $n$ is even.
3. For any real number $x$, if $x$ is an integer, then $x^2$ is an integer.

These are all assertions of the form “If $P(x)$, then $Q(x)$”. In (1), the hypothesis is the assertion “$x\lt5$”; in (2), it is the assertion “$n^2$ is even”, using an adjective to describe property that $n^2$ is even; in (3), it is the assertion “$x$ is an integer”, using a noun to assert that $x$ has the property of being an integer. (See integral.)

### Expressing universally true conditionals in math English

The sentences listed in the example above provide ways of expressing universally true conditionals in English. They use “for all” or “for any”, You may also use these forms (compare in this discussion of universal assertions in general.)

• For all functions $f$, if $f$ is differentiable then it is continuous.
• For (every, any, each) function $f$, if $f$ is differentiable then it is continuous.
• If $f$ is differentiable then it is continuous, for any function $f$.
• If $f$ is differentiable then it is continuous, where $f$ is any function.
• If a function $f$ is differentiable, then it is continuous. (See indefinite article.)

Sometimes mathematicians write, “If the function $f$ is differentiable, then it is continuous.” At least sometimes, they mean that every function that is differentiable is continuous. I suspect that this usage occurs in texts written by non-native-English speakers.

### Disguised conditionals

There are other ways of expressing universal conditionals that are disguised, because they are not conditional assertions in English.

Let $C(f)$ mean that $f$ is continuous and and $D(f)$ mean that $f$ is differentiable. The (true) assertion

“For all $f$, if $D(f)$, then $C(f)$”

can be said in the following ways:

1. Every (any, each) differentiable function is continuous.
2. All differentiable functions are continuous.
3. Differentiable functions are continuous. Or: “…are always continuous.”
4. A differentiable function is continuous.
5. The differentiable functions are continuous.

#### Notes

• Watch out for (4). Beginning abstract math students sometimes don’t recognize it as universal. They may read it as “Some differentiable function is continuous.” Authors often write, “A differentiable function is necessarily continuous.”
• I believe that (5) is obsolescent. I don’t think younger native-English-speaking Americans would use it. (Warning: This claim is not based on lexicographical research.)

## Assertions related to a conditional assertion

### Converse

The converse of a conditional assertion “If $P$ then $Q$” is “If $Q$ then $P$”.

Whether a conditional assertion is true
has no bearing on whether its converse it true.

##### Examples
• The converse of “If it’s a cow, it eats grass” is “If it eats grass, it’s a cow”. The first statement is true (let’s ignore the Japanese steers that drink beer or whatever), but the second statement is definitely false. Sheep eat grass, and they are not cows..
• The converse of “For all real numbers $x$, if $x > 3$, then $x > 2$.” is “For all real numbers $x$, if $x > 2$, then $x > 3$.” The first is true and the second one is false.
• “For all integers $n$, if $n$ is even, then $n^2$ is even.” Both this statement and its converse are true.
• “For all integers $n$, if $n$ is divisible by $2$, then $2n +1$ is divisible by $3$.” Both this statement and its converse are false.

### Contrapositive

The contrapositive of a conditional assertion “If $P$ then $Q$” is “If not $Q$ then not $P$.”

A conditional assertion and its contrapositive
are both true or both false.

##### Example

The contrapositive of
“If $x > 3$, then $x > 2$”
is (after a little translation)
“If $x\leq2$ then $x\leq3$.”
For any number $x$, these two statements are both true or both false.

This means that if you prove “If not $P$ then not $Q$”, then you have also proved “If $P$ then $Q$.”

You can prove an assertion by proving its contrapositive.

This is called the contrapositive method and is discussed in detail in this section.

So a conditional assertion and its contrapositive have the same truth value. Two assertions that have the same truth value are said to be equivalent. Equivalence is discussed with examples in the Wikipedia article on necessary and sufficient.

## Understanding conditional assertions

As you can see from the preceding discussions, statements of the form “If $P$ then Q” don’t mean the same thing in math that they do in ordinary English. This causes semantic contamination.

### Examples

#### Time

In ordinary English, “If $P$ then $Q$” can suggest order of occurrence. For example, “If we go outside, then the neighbors will see us” implies that the neighbors will see us after we go outside.

Consider “If $n\gt7$, then $n\gt5$.” If $n\gt7$, that doesn’t mean $n$ suddenly gets greater than $7$ earlier than $n$ gets greater than $5$. On the other hand, “$n\gt5$ is necessary for $n\gt7$” (which remember means the same thing as “If $n\gt7$, then $n\gt5$) doesn’t mean that $n\gt5$ happens earlier than $n\gt7$. Since we are used to “if…then” having a timing implication, I suspect we get subconscious dissonance between “If $P$ then $Q$” and “$Q$ is necessary for $P$” in mathematical statements, and this dissonance makes it difficult to believe that that can mean the same thing.

#### Causation

“If $P$ then $Q$” can also suggest causation. The the sentence, “If we go outside, the neighbors will see us” has the connotation that the neighbors will see us because we went outside.

The contrapositive is “If the neighbors won’t see us, then we don’t go outside.” This English sentence seems to me to mean that if the neighbors are not around to see us, then that causes us to stay inside. In contrast to contrapositive in math, this means something quite different from the original sentence.

#### Wrong truth table

For some instances of the use of “if…then” in English, the truth table is different.

Consider: “If you eat your vegetables, you can have dessert.” Every child knows that this means they will get dessert if they eat their vegetables and not otherwise. So the truth table is:

 $P$ $Q$ If $P$ then $Q$ T T T T F F F T F F F T

In other words, $P$ is equivalent to $Q$. It appears to me that this truth table corresponds to English “if…then” when a rule is being asserted.

These examples show:

The different ways of expressing conditional assertions
may mean different things in English.

How can you get to the stage where you automatically understand the meaning of conditional assertions in math English?

You need to understand the equivalence of these formulations so well that it is part of your unconscious reaction to conditionals.

How can you gain that intuitive understanding? One way is by doing abstract math regularly for several years! (Of course, this is how you gain expertise in anything.) In other words, Practice, Practice!

### Rigor

But it may help to remember that when doing proofs, we must take the rigorous view of mathematical objects:

• Math objects don’t change.
• Math objects don’t cause anything to happen.

The integers (like all math objects) just sit there, not doing anything and not affecting anything. $10$ is not greater than $4$ “because” it is greater than $7$. There is no “because” in rigorous math. Both facts, $10\gt4$ and $10\gt7$, are eternally true.

Eternal is how we think of them – I am not making a claim about “reality”.

• When you look at the integers, every time you find one that is greater than $7$ it turns out to be greater than $4$. That is how to think about “If $n > 7$, then $n > 4$”.
• You can’t find one that is greater than $7$ unless it is greater than $4$: It happens that $n > 7$ only if $n > 4$.
• Every time you look at one less than or equal to $4$ it turns out to be less than or equal to $7$ (contrapositive).

These three observations describe the same set of facts about a bunch of things (integers) that just sit there in their various relationships without changing, moving or doing anything. If you keep these remarks in mind, you will eventually have a natural, unforced understanding of conditionals in math.

#### Remark

None of this means you have to think of mathematical objects as dead and fossilized all the time. Feel free to think of them using all the metaphors and imagery you know, except when you are reading or formulating a proof written in mathematical English. Then you have to be rigorous!

## Modus ponens

The truth table for conditional assertions may be summed up by saying: The conditional assertion “If $P$, then $Q$” is true unless $P$ is true and $Q$ is false.

This fits with the major use of conditional assertions in reasoning:

### Modus Ponens

• If you know that a conditional assertion is true
• and
you know that its hypothesis is true,
• then you know its conclusion is true.

In symbols:

(1) When “If $P$ then $Q$” and $P$ are both true,

(2) then $Q$ must be true as well.

Modus Ponens is the most used method of deduction of all.

#### Remark

Modus ponens is not a method of proving conditional assertions. It is a method of using a conditional assertion in the proof of another assertion. Methods for proving conditional assertions are found in the chapter Forms of proof.

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# The role of proofs in mathematical writing

This post outlines the way that proofs are used in mathematical writing. I have been revising the chapter on Proofs in abstractmath.org, and I felt that giving an overview would keep my mind organized when I was enmeshed in writing up complicated details.

#### Proofs are the sole method for ensuring that a math statement is correct.

• Evidence that something is true gooses us into trying to prove it, but as all research mathematicians know, evidence only means that some instances are true, nothing else.
• Intuition, metaphors, analogies may lead us to come up with conjectures. If the gods are smiling that day, they may even suggest a method of proof. And that method may even (miracle) work. Sometimes. If it does, we get a theorem, but not a Fields medal.
• Students may not know these facts about proof. Indeed, students at the very beginning probably don’t know what a proof actually is: “Proof” in math is not at all the same as “proof” in science or “proof” in law.

#### The logical structure of a proof consists of methods of compounding and quantifying assertions and methods of deduction.

• The logical structure is usually expressed as a mathematical object.
• The most familiar such math objects are the predicate calculus and type theory.
• Mathematical logic does not have standard terminology (see Math reasoning.) Because of that, the chapter on Proofs uses English words, for example “or” instead of symbols such as $P\lor Q$ or $P+Q$ or $P||Q$.
• For beginning students, throwing large chunks of mathematical logic at them doesn’t work. The expressions and the rules of deduction need to be introduced to them in context, and in my opinion using few or no logical symbols.
• Students vary widely in their ability to grasp foreign languages, and symbolic logic in any of its forms is a foreign language. (So is algebra; see my rant.)
• The rules of deduction do not come naturally to the students, and yet they need to have the rules operate automatically and subconsciously. They should know the names of the nonobvious rules, like “proof by contradiction” and “induction”, but teaching them to be fluent with logical notation is probably a waste of time, since they would have to learn the rules of deduction and a new foreign language at the same time.
• I hasten to add, a waste of time for beginning students. There are good reasons for students aiming at certain careers to be proficient in type theory, and maybe even for predicate calculus.

#### Presentation of proofs

• Proofs are usually written in narrative form
• A major source of difficulties is that the presentation of a proof (the way it is written in narrative form) omits the reasons that most of the proof steps follow from preceding ones.
• Some of the omitted reasons may depend on knowledge the reader does not have. “Let $S\subset\mathbb{Q}\times\mathbb{Q}$. Let $i:S\to\mathbb{N}$ be a bijection…” Note: I am not criticizing someone who writes an argument like this, I am just saying that it is a problem for many beginning students.
• Some reasons are given for some of the steps, presumably ones that the writer thinks might not be obvious to the reader.
• Sometimes the narrative form gives a clue to the form of proof to be used. Example: “Prove that the length $C$ of the hypotenuse of a right triangle is less than the sum of the other two sides $A$ and $B$. Proof: Assume $C\geq A+B$…” So you immediately know that this is going to be a proof by contradiction. But you have to teach the student to recognize this.
• Another example: in proving $P$ implies $Q$, the author will assume that $Q$ is false implies $P$ is false without further comment. The reader is suppose to recognize the proof by contrapositive.

#### Translation problem

• The Translation problem is the problem of translating a narrative proof into the logical reasoning needed to see that it really is a proof.
• Many experienced professional mathematicians say it is so hard for them to read a narrative proof that they read the theorem and the try to recreate the proof by thinking about it and glancing at the written proof for hints from time to time. That is a sign of how difficult the translation problem really is.
• Nevertheless, the students need to learn the unfamiliar proof techniques such as contrapositive and contradiction and the wording tricks that communicate proof methodology. Learning this is hard work. It helps for teachers to be more explicit about the techniques and tricks with students who are beginning math major courses.

### References

Added 2014-12-19

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# Proofs using diagrams

## Introduction

This post gives a proof of an easy theorem in category theory using the graph-based logic approach of Graph based logic and sketches, (GBLS) by Atish Bagchi and me.

Formal logic is typically defined in terms of formulas and terms, defined recursively as strings of characters, together with rules of inference. GBLS proposes a new approach to logic where diagrams are used instead of strings of characters. The exposition here spells out the proof in more detail than GBLS does and uses various experimental ways of drawing diagrams using Mathematica.

To follow this proof, you need to be familiar with basic category theory. Most special definitions that are needed are defined in this post where they are first used. Section 1 of GBLS also gives the definitions you need with more context.

## The theorem

The Theorem to be proved (it is Theorem 8.3.1 of GBLS) says that, in any category, if the triangles in the diagram below commute, then the outside square commutes. This is easy using the associative law: If $xf=h$ and $kx=g$, then $kh=k(xf)=(kx)f=gf$.

Subject Diagram

### So what?

This theorem is not interesting. The point of this post is to present a new approach to proving such theorems, using diagrams instead of strings. The reason that exhibiting the dig
rammatic proof is interesting is that many different kinds of categories have a FL cattheory, including these:

Essentially algebraic string-based logic is described in detail in Partial Horn logic and cartesian categories, by E. Palmgren and Steven Vickers.

#### Commercial

My concept of form in A generalization of the concept of sketch generalizes sketches to all the categories that can be defined as models of FL cattheories. So the method of proof using diagrams can be applied to theorems about the objects defined by forms.

## Concepts needed for the graph-based proof

To prove the theorem, I will make use of $\mathbf{ThCat}$, the FL cattheory for categories.

• An FL category is a category with all finite limits.
• GLBS uses the word cattheory for what Category theory for computing science and Toposes, triples and theories call the theory of a sketch.
• In many books and articles, and in nLab, a “sketch” is what we call the cattheory (or the theory) of a sketch. For us, the sketch is a generating collection of objects, arrows, diagrams, cones and cocones for the cattheory. The category of models of the sketch and the cattheory are equivalent.
• $\mathbf{ThCat}$ is a category with finite limits freely generated by certain designated objects, arrows, commutative diagrams and limit cones, listed below.
• A model of $\mathbf{ThCat}$ in $\mathbf{Set}$ (the category of sets, whichever one you like) is an FL functor $\mathfrak{C}:\mathbf{ThCat}\to\mathbf{Set}.$
• Such a model $\mathfrak{C}$ is a small category, and every small category is such a model. If this statement worries you, read Section 3.4 of GBLS.
• Natural transformations between models are FL-preserving functors that preserve the structure on the nose.
• The category of models of $\mathbf{ThCat}$ in $\mathbf{Set}$ is equivalent to the category of small categories and morphisms, which, unlike the category of models, includes functors that don’t preserve things on the nose.
• $\mathbf{ThCat}$ is an example of the theory of an FL sketch. Chapter 4 of GBLS describes this idea in detail. The theory has the same models as the sketch.
• The sketch generating $\mathbf{ThCat}$ is defined in detail in section 7.2 of GBLS.

### Some objects and arrows of $\mathbf{ThCat}$

I will make use of the following objects and arrows that occur in $\mathbf{ThCat}.$ A formal thing is a construction in $\mathbf{ThCat}$ that becomes an actual thing in a model. So for example a model $\mathfrak{C}$ of $\mathbf{ThCat}$ in $\mathbf{Set}$ is an actual (small) category, and $\mathfrak{C}(\mathsf{ar_2})$ is the set of all composable pairs of arrows in the category $\mathfrak{C}$.

• $\mathsf{ob}$, the formal set of objects.
• $\mathsf{ar}$, the formal set of arrows.
• $\mathsf{ar}_2$, the formal set of composable pairs of arrows.
• $\mathsf{ar}_3$, the formal set of composable triples of arrows.
• $\mathsf{unit} : \mathsf{ob}\to \mathsf{ar}$ that formally picks out the identity arrow of an object.
• $\mathsf{dom},\mathsf{cod} : \mathsf{ar}\to \mathsf{ob}$ that formally pick out the domain and codomain of an arrow.
• $\mathsf{comp} : \mathsf{ar}_2\to \mathsf{ar}$ that picks out the composite of a composable pair.
• $\mathsf{lfac}, \mathsf{rfac} :\mathsf{ar}_2\to \mathsf{ar}$ that pick out the left and right factors in a composable pair.
• $\mathsf{lfac}, \mathsf{mfac},\mathsf{rfac} :\mathsf{ar}_3 \to\mathsf{ar}$ that pick out the left, middle and right factors in a composable triple of arrows.
• $\mathsf{lass}, \mathsf{rass} : \mathsf{ar}_3 \to \mathsf{ar}_2$: $\mathsf{lass}$ formally takes $\langle{h,g,f}\rangle$ to $\langle{hg,f}\rangle$ and $\mathsf{rass}$ takes it to $\langle{h,gf}\rangle$.

$\mathsf{ob}$, $\mathsf{ar}$, $\mathsf{unit}$, $\mathsf{dom}$, $\mathsf{cod}$ and $\mathsf{comp}$ are given primitives and the others are defined as limits of finite diagrams composed of those objects. This is spelled out in Chapter 7.2 of GBLS. The definition of $\mathbf{ThCat}$ also requires certain diagrams to be commutative. They are all provided in GBLS; the one enforcing associativity is shown later in this post.

### Color coding

I will use color coding to separate syntax from semantics.

• Syntax consists of constructions in $\mathbf{ThCat}.$ The description will always be a commutative diagram in black, with annotations as explained later.
• The limit of the description will be an object in $\mathbf{ThCat}$ (the form) whose value in a model $\mathfrak{C}$ will be shown in green, because being an element of the value of a model makes it semantics.
• When a limit cone is defined, the projections (which are arrows in $\mathbf{ThCat}$) will be shown in blue.

## Descriptions

In graph-based logic, a type of construction that can be made in a category has a description, which (in the case of our Theorem) is a finite diagram in $\mathbf{ThCat}$. The value of the limit of the description in a model $\mathfrak{C}$ is the set of all instances of that type of construction in $\mathfrak{C}$.

### The Subject Diagram

• This diagram is the subject matter of the Theorem. It is not assumed to be commutative.
• As in most diagrams in category theory texts, the labels in this diagram are variables, so the diagram is implicitly universally quantified. The Subject Diagram is a generic diagram of its shape.
• “Any diagram of its shape” includes diagrams in which some of the nodes may represent the same object. An extreme example is the graph in which every node is an object $\mathsf{E}$ and every arrow is its identity arrow. The diagram below is nevertheless an example of the Subject Diagram:
• Shapes of diagrams are defined properly in Section 2.3 of
GBLS and in Section 4.1 of Category Theory for Computing Science.

### The description of the Subject Diagram

Diagram SDD below shows the Subject Diagram as the limit of its description. The description is the black diagram.

Diagram SDD

### Definition of $\mathsf{ar}_2$

The object $\mathsf{ar}_2$ of composable pairs of arrows is defined as a pullback:

In the usual categorical notation this would be shown as

This makes use of the fact that the unnamed blue arrow is induced by the other two projection arrows. In the rest of the post, projection arrows that are induced are normally omitted.

### An enrichment of the description

Because $\mathsf{ar}_2$ is defined as a pullback, we can enrich the description of Diagram SDD by adjoining two pullbacks as shown below. This is Diagram 8.10 in GBLS. The enriched diagram has the same limit as the description of Diagram SDD.

Enriched Diagram SDD

Note that the projections from the limit to the two occurrences of $\mathsf{ar}_2$ induce all the other projections. This follows by diagram chasing; remember that the description must be a commutative diagram.

### Make the triangles commute

To make the triangles commute, we add two comp arrows to the enriched diagram as shown below. These two arrows are not induced by the description; they are therefore additions to the description — they describe a more restrictive (green) diagram with commutative triangles and so are shown in black.

Diagram TC: The triangles commute

The left comp makes $xf=h$ and the right comp makes $kx=g$.

### The outside square commutes

Now we enrich Diagram TC with four objects, <comp,id>, <id,comp> and three comp arrows as shown in bolder black. These objects and arrows already exist in $\mathbf{ThCat}$ and therefore do not change the limit, which must be the same as the limit of Diagram TC.

The outside square commutes

The diagram in bold black is exactly the commutative diagram that requires associativity for these particular objects and arrows, which immediately implies that $gf=kh$, as the Theorem requires.

By the definitions of $\mathsf{ar_2}$ and $\mathsf{ar_3}$, the part of the description in bold black induces the rest of the diagram. Omitting the rest of the diagram would make $\mathsf{ar_2}$ and $\mathsf{ar_3}$ modules in the sense of GBLS, Chapter 7.4. Modules would be vital to deal with proofs more complicated than the one given here.

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# Extensional and Intensional

This post uses the word intensional, which is not the word "intentional" and doesn't mean the same thing.

The connection between rich view/rigorous view and intensional/extensional

In the abmath article Images and Metaphors I wrote about the rigorous view of math, in contrast to the rich view which allows metaphors, images and intuition. F. Kafi has proposed the following thesis:

The rigorous mode of thinking deals with the extensional meaning of mathematical objects while the metaphoric mode of thinking deals with the intensional meaning of mathematical objects.

This statement is certainly suggestive as an analogy. I have several confused and disjointed thoughts about it.

### What does "intensional" mean?

#### Philosophy

Philosophers say that "the third largest planet in the solar system" has intensional meaning and "Neptune" has extensional meaning. Among other things we might discover a planet ridiculously far out that is bigger than Neptune. But the word "Neptune" denotes a specific object.

The intensional meaning of "the third largest planet in the solar system" has a hidden time dimension that, if made overt, makes the statement more nearly explicit. (Don't read this paragraph as a mathematical statement; it is merely thrashing about to inch towards understanding.)

#### Computing science

Computer languages are distinguishes as intensional or extensional, but their meaning there is technical, although clearly related to the philosophers' meaning.

I don't understand it very well, but in Type Theory and in Logic, an intensional language seems to make a distinction between declaring two math objects to be equal and proving that they are equal. In an extensional language there is no such distinction, with the effect that in a typed language typing would be undecidable.

Here is another point: If you define the natural numbers by the Peano axioms, you can define addition and then prove that addition is commutative. But for example a vector space is usually defined by axioms and one of the axioms is a declaration that addition of vectors is commutative. That is an imposed truth, not a deduced one. So is the difference between intensional and extensional languages really a big deal or just a minor observation?

### What is "dry-bones rigor"?

Another problem is that I have never spelled out in more than a little detail what I mean by rigor, dry-bones rigor as I have called it. This is about the process mathematicians go through to prove a theorem, and I don't believe that process can be given a completely mathematical description. But I could go into much more detail than I have in the past.

Suppose you set out to prove that if $f(x)$ is a differentiable function and $f(a)=0$ and the graph going from left to right goes UP before $x$ reaches $a$ and then DOWN for $x$ to the right of $a$, then $a$ has to be a maximum of the function. That is a metaphorical description based on the solid physical experience of walking up to the top of a hill. But when you get into the proof you start using lots of epsilons and deltas. This abandons ideas of moving up and down and left to right and so on. As one of the members of Bourbaki said, rigorous math is when everything goes dead. That sounds like extensionality, but isn't their work really based on the idea that everything has to be reduced to sets and logic? (This paragraph was modified on 2013.11.07)

Many perfectly rigorous proofs are based on reasoning in category theory. You can define an Abelian group as a categorical diagram with the property that any product preserving functor to any category will result in a group. This takes you away from sets altogether, and is a good illustration of the axiomatic method. It is done by using nodes, arrows and diagrams. The group is an object and the binary operation is an arrow from the square of the object. Commutativity is required by stating that a certain diagram must commute. But when you prove that two elements in an Abelian group (an Abelian topological group, an Abelian group in the category of differentiable manifolds, or whatever) can be added in either order, then you find yourself staring at dead arrows and diagrams rather than dead collections of things and so you are still in rigor mortis mode.

I will write a separate post describing these examples in much more detail than you might want to think about.

### Metaphors and intensionality

One other thing I won't go into now: How are thinking in metaphors and intensional descriptions related? It seems to me the two ideas are related somehow, but I don't know how to formulate it.

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# A mathematical saga

This post outlines some of the intellectual developments in the history of math. I call it a saga because it is like one:

• It is episodic, telling one story after another.
• It does not try to give an accurate history, but its episodes resemble what happened in math in the last 3000 years.
• It tells about only a few of the things that happened.

## Early techniques

### We represented numbers by symbols.

Thousands of years ago, we figured out how to write down words and phrases in such a way that someone much later could read and understand them.

Naturally, we wanted to keep records of the number of horses the Queen owned, so we came up with various notations for numbers (number representing count). In some societies, these symbols were separate from the symbols used to represent words.

### We invented algorithms

We discovered positional notation. We write $213$, which is based on a system: it means $2\times100+1\times10+3\times 1$. This notation encapsulates a particular computation of a number (its base-10 representation). (The expression $190+23$ is another piece of notation that encapsulates a computation that yields $213$.)

Compare that to the Roman notation $CCXIII$, which is an only partly organized jumble.
Try adding $CCXIII+CDXXIX$. (The answer is $DCXLII$.)

Positional notation allowed us to create the straightforward method of addition involving adding single digits and carrying:
$\overset{\hspace{6pt}1\phantom{1}} {\frac {\overset{\displaystyle{213}}{429}}{642} }$
Measuring land requires multiplication, which positional notation also allows us to perform easily.
The invention of such algorithms (methodically manipulating symbols) made it easy to calculate with numbers.

### Geometry: Direct construction of mathematical objects

We discovered geometry in ancient times, in laying out plots of land and designing buildings. We had a bunch of names for different shapes and for some of them we knew how to calculate their area, perimeter and other things.

Euclid showed how to construct new geometric figures from given ones using specific methods (ruler and compasses) that preserve some properties.

##### Example

We can bisect a line segment (black) by drawing two circles (blue) centered at the endpoints with radius the length of the line segment. We then construct a line segment (red) between the points of intersection of the circle that intersects the given line segment at its midpoint. These constructions can be thought of as algorithms creating and acting on geometric figures rather than on symbols.

It is true that diagrams were drawn to represent line segments, triangles and so on.
But the diagrams are visualization helpers. The way we think about the process is that we are operating directly on the geometric objects to create new ones. We are thinking of the objects Platonically, although we don’t have to share Plato’s exact concept of their reality. It is enough to say we are thinking about the objects as if they were real.

### Axioms and theorems

Euclid came up with the idea that we should write down axioms that are true of these figures and constructions, so that we can systematically use the constructions
to prove theorems about figures using axioms and previously proved theorems. This provided documented reasoning (in natural language, not in symbols) for building up a collection of true statements about math objects.

##### Example

After creating some tools for proving triangles are congruent, we can prove the the intersection of red and black lines in the figure really is the midpoint of the black line by constructing the four green line segments below and making appeals to congruences between the triangles that show up:

Note that the green lines have the same length as the black line.

Euclid thought about axioms and theorems as applying to geometry, but he also proved theorems about numbers by representing them as ratios of line segments.

### Algebra

People in ancient India and Greece knew how to solve linear and quadratic equations using verbal descriptions of what you should do.
Later, we started using a symbolic language to express numerical problems and symbolic manipulation to solve (some of) them.

##### Example

The quadratic formula is an encapsulated computation that provides the roots of a quadratic equation. Newton’s method is a procedure for finding a root of an arbitrary polynomial. It is recursive in the loose sense (it does not always give an answer).

The symbolic language is a vast expansion of the symbolic notation for numbers. A major innovations was to introduce variables to represent unknowns and to state equations that are always true.

### Logic

Aristotle developed an early form of logic (syllogisms) aimed at determining which arguments in rhetoric were sound. “All men are mortal. Socrates is a man. Therefore Socrates is mortal.” This was written in sentences, not in symbols.

By explicit analogy with algebra, we introduced symbolism and manipulation rules for logical reasoning, with an eye toward making mathematical reasoning sound and to some extent computable. For example, in one dialect of logical notation, modus ponens (used in the Socrates syllogism) is expressed as $(P\rightarrow Q,\,P)\,\,\vdash\,\, Q$. This formula is an encapsulated algorithm: it says that if you know $P\rightarrow Q$ and $P$ are valid (are theorems) then $Q$ is valid as well.

## Crises of understanding

We struggled with the notion of function as a result of dealing with infinite series. For example, the limit of a sequence of algebraic expressions may not be an algebraic expression. It would no longer do to think of a function as the same thing as an algebraic expression.

We realized that Euclid’s axioms for geometry lacked clarity. For example, as I understand it, the original version of his axioms didn’t imply that the two circles in the proof above had to intersect each other. There were other more subtle problems. Hilbert made a big effort to spell out the axioms in more detail.

We refined our understanding of logic by trying to deal with the mysteries of calculus, limits and spaces. An example is the difference between continuity and uniform continuity.
We also created infinitesimals, only to throw up our hands because we could not make a logic that fit them. Infinitesimals were temporarily replaced by the use of epsilon-delta methods.

We began to understand that there are different kinds of spaces. For example, there were other models of some of Euclid’s axioms than just Euclidean space, and some of those models showed that the parallel axiom is independent of the other axioms. And we became aware of many kinds of topological spaces and manifolds.

We started to investigate sets, in part because spaces have sets of points. Then we discovered that a perfectly innocent activity like considering the set of all sets resulted in an impossibility.

We were led to consider how to understand the Axiom of Choice from several upsetting discoveries. For example, the Banach-Tarski “paradox” implies that you can rearrange the points in a sphere of radius $1$ to make two spheres of radius $1$.

## Mathematics adopts a new covenant… for awhile

These problems caused a kind of tightening up, or rigorizing.
For a period of time, less than a century, we settled into a standard way of practicing research mathematics called new math or modern math. Those names were used mostly by math educators. Research mathematicians might have called it axiomatic math based on set theory. Although I was around for the last part of that period I was not aware of any professional mathematicians calling it anything at all; it was just what we did.

First, we would come up with a new concept, type of math object, or a new theorem. In this creative process we would freely use intuition, metaphors, images and analogies.

##### Example

We might come up with the idea that a function reaches its maximum when its graph swoops up from the left, then goes horizontally for an infinitesimal amount of time, then swoops down to the right. The point at which it was going horizontally would obviously have to be the maximum.

But when we came to publish a paper about the subject, all these pictures would disappear. All our visual, metaphorical/conceptual and kinetic feelings that explain the phenomenon would have to be suppressed.

Rigorizing consisted of a set of practices, which I will hint at:

### Orthodox behavior among mathematicians in 1950

#### Definition in terms of sets and axioms

Each mathematical object had to be defined in some way that started with a set and some other data defined in terms of the set. Axioms were imposed on these data. Everything had to be defined in terms of sets, including functions and relations. (Multiple sets were used occasionally.)

Definitions done in this way omit a lot of the intuition that we have concerning the object being defined.

##### Examples
• The definition of group as a set with a binary operation satisfying some particular axioms does not tell you that groups constitute the essence of symmetry.
• The definitions of equivalence relation and of partition do not even hint that they define the same concept.

Even so, definitions done in this way have an advantage: They tend to be close to minimal in the sense that to verify that something fits the definition requires checking no more (or not much more) than necessary.

#### Proofs had to be clearly translatable into symbolic logic

First order logic (and other sorts of logic) were well developed and proofs were written in a way that they could in principle be reduced to arguments written in the notation of symbolic logic and following the rules of inference of logic. This resulted in proofs which did not appeal to intuition, metaphors or pictures.

##### Example

In the case of the theorem that the maximum of a (differentiable) function occurs only where the derivative is zero, that meant epsilon-delta proofs in which the proof appeared as a thick string of symbols. Here, “thick” means it had superscripts, subscripts, and other things that gave the string a fractal dimension of about $1.2$ (just guessing!).

##### Example

When I was a student at Oberlin College in 1959, Fuzzy Vance (Elbridge P. Vance) would sometimes stop in the middle of an epsilon-delta proof and draw pictures and provide intuition. Before he started that he would say “Shut the door, don’t tell anyone”. (But he told us!)

##### Example

A more famous example of this is the story that Oscar Zariski, when presenting a proof in algebraic geometry at the board, would sometimes remind himself of a part of a proof by hunching over the board so the students couldn’t see what he was doing and drawing a diagram which he would immediately erase. (I fault him for not telling them about the diagram.)

It doesn’t matter whether this story is true or not. It is true in the sense that any good myth is true.

##### Commercial

I wrote about rigor in these articles:

Rigorous view in abstractmath.org.

Dry bones, post in this blog.

### Logic and sets clarify but get in the way

The orthodox method of “define it by sets and axioms” and “makes proofs at least resemble first order logic” clarified a lot of suspect proofs. But it got in the way of intuition and excessive teaching by using proofs made it harder to students to learn.

• The definition of a concept can make you think of things that are foreign to your intuition of the concept. A function is a mapping,. The ordered pairs are a secondary construction; you should not think of ordered pairs as essential to your intuition. Even so the definition of function in terms of ordered pairs got rid of a lot of cobwebs.
• The cartesian product of sets is obviously an associative binary operation. Except that if you define the cartesian product of sets in terms of ordered pairs then it is not associative.
• Not only that, but if you define the ordered pair $(a,b)$ as $\{\{a,b\},a\}$ the you have to say that $a$ is an element of $(a,b)$ but $b$ is not That is not merely an inconvenient definition of ordered pair, it is wrong. It is not bad way to show that the concept of ordered pair is consistent with ZF set theory, but that is a minor point mathematicians hardly ever worry about.

## Mathematical methods applied to everything

The early methods described at the beginning of this post began to be used everywhere in math.

### Algorithms on symbols

Algorithms, or methodical procedures, began with the addition and multiplication algorithms and Euclid’s ruler and compass constructions, but they began to be used everywhere.

They are applied to the symbols of math, for example to describe rules for calculating derivatives and integrals and for summing infinite series.

Algorithms are used on strings, arrays and diagrams of math symbols, for example concatenating lists, multiplying matrices, and calculating binary operations on trees.

### Algorithms as definitions

Algorithms are used to define the strings that make up the notation of symbolic logic. Such definitions include something like: “If $E$ and $F$ are expressions than $(E)\land (F)$ and $(\forall x)(E)$ are expressions”. So if $E$ is “$x\geq 3$” then $(\forall x)(x\geq 3)$ is an expression. This had the effect of turning an expression in symbolic logic into a mathematical object. Deduction rules such as “$E\land F\vdash E$” also become mathematical objects in this way.

We can define the symbols and expressions of algebra, calculus, and other part of math using algorithms, too. This became a big deal when computer algebra programs such as Mathematica came in.

##### Example

You can define the set $RP$ of real polynomials this way:

• $0\in RP$
• If $p\in RP$ then $p+r x^n\in RP$, where $x$ is a variable and $n$ a nonnegative integer.

That is a recursive definition. You can also define polynomials by pattern recognition:

Let $n$ be a positive integer, $a_0,\,a_1\,\ldots a_n$ be real numbers and $k_0,\,k_1\,\ldots k_n$ be nonnegative integers. Then $a_0 x^{k_0}+a_1 x^{k_1}+\ldots+ a_n x^{k_n}$ is a polynomial.

The recursive version is a way of letting a compiler discover that a string of symbols is a polynomial. That sort of thing became a Big Deal when computers arrived in our world.

### Algorithms on mathematical objects

I am using the word “algorithm” in a loose sense to mean any computation that may or may not give a result. Computer programs are algorithms, but so is the quadratic formula. You might not think of a formula as an algorithm, but that is because if you use it in a computer program you just type in the formula; the language compiler has a built-in algorithm to execute calculations given by formulas.

It has not been clearly understood that mathematicians apply algorithms not only to symbols, but also directly to mathematical objects. Socrates thought that way long ago, as I described in the construction of a midpoint above. The procedure says “draw circles with center at the endpoints of the line segment.” It doesn’t say “draw pictures of circles…”

In the last section and this one, I am talking about how we think of applying an algorithm. Socrates thought he was talking about ideal lines and circles that exist in some other universe that we can access by thought. We can think about them as real things without making a metaphysical claim like Socrates did about them. Our brains are wired to think of abstract ideas in some many of the same ways we think about physical objects.

##### Example

The unit circle (as a topological space at least) is the quotient space of the space $\mathbb{R}$ of real numbers mod the equivalence relation defined by: $x\sim y$ if and only if $x-y$ is an integer.

Mathematicians who understand that construction may have various images in their mind when they read this. One would be something like imagining the real line $\mathbb{R}$ and then gluing all the points together that are an integer apart. This is a distinctly dizzying thing to think about but mathematicians aren’t worried because they know that taking the quotient of a space is a well-understood construction that works. They might check that by imagining the unit circle as the real line wrapped around an infinite number of times, with points an integer apart corresponding to the same point on the unit circle. (When I did that check I hastily inserted the parenthetical remark saying “as a topological space” because I realized the construction doesn’t preserve the metric.) The point of this paragraph is that many mathematicians think of this construction as a construction on math objects, not a construction on symbols.

### Everything is a mathematical object

A lot of concepts start out as semi-vague ideas and eventually get defined as mathematical objects.

#### Examples

• A function was originally thought of as a formula, but then get formalized in the days of orthodoxy as a set of ordered pairs with the functional property.
• The concept of equation has been turned into a math object many times, for example in universal algebra and in logic. I suspect that some practitioners in those fields might disagree with me. This requires further research.
• Propositions are turned into math objects by Boolean Algebra.
• Perhaps numbers were always thought of as math objects, but much later the set $\mathbb{N}$ of all natural numbers and the set $\mathbb{R}$ of all real numbers came to be thought of explicitly as math objects, causing some mathematicians to have hissy fits.
• Definitions are math objects. This has been done in various ways. A particular theory is a mathematical object, and it is essentially a definition by definition (!): Its models are what the theory defines. A particular example of “theory” is first-order theory which was the gold standard in the orthodox era. A classifying topos is also a math object that is essentially a definition.

## Category Theory

The introduction of categories broke the orthodoxy of everything-is-a-set. It has become widely used as a language in many branches of math. It started with problems in homological algebra arising in at least these two ways:

• Homotopy classes of continuous functions are not functions in the set theory sense. So we axiomatized the concept of function as an arrow (morphism) in a category.
• The concept of mathematical object is axiomatized as an object in a category. This forces all properties of an object to be expressed in terms of its external relations with other objects and arrows.
• Categories capture the idea of “kind of math”. There is a category of groups and homomorphisms, a category of topological spaces and homeomorphisms, and so on. This is a new level of abstraction. Before, if someone said “I work in finite groups”, their field was a clear idea and people knew what they were talking about, but now the category of finite groups is a mathematical object.
• Homology maps one kind of math (topology) into another kind (algebra). Since categories capture the general notion of “kind of math”, we invented the idea of functor to capture the idea of modeling or representing one branch of math in another one. So Homology became a mathematical object.
• The concept of functor allowed the definition of natural transformation as a mathematical object. Before categories, naturality was only an informal idea.

### Advantages of category theory

• Categories, in the form of toposes, quickly became candidates to replace set theory as a foundation system for math. They are more flexible and allow the kind of logic you want to use (classical, intuitionistic and others) to be a parameter in your foundational system.
• “Arrow” (morphism) replaced not only the concept of function but also the concept of “element of” (“$\in$”). It allows the concept of variable elements. (This link is to a draft of a section of abstractmath.org that has not been included in the table of contents yet.) It also requires that an “element” has to be an element of one single object; for example, the maps $1\to \mathbb{N}$ and $1\to \mathbb{R}$ that pick out the number $42$ are not the same maps, although of course they are related by the canonical inclusion map $\mathbb{N}\to\mathbb{R}$.
• Diagrams are used in proofs and give much better immediate understanding than formulas written in strings, which compress a lot of things unnecessarily into thick strings that require understanding lots of conventions and holding things in your memory.
• Categories-as-kinds-of-math makes it easy to turn an analogy, for example between products of groups and products of spaces, into two examples of the same kind of mathematical object: Namely, a product in a category.

### Disadvantages of category theory

• Category theory requires a new way of thinking. Some people think that is a disadvantage. But genuine innovation is always disruptive. New technology breaks old technology. Of course, the new technology has to turn out to be useful to win out.
• Category theory has several notions of “equal”. Objects can be the same or isomorphic. Categories can be isomorphic or equivalent. When you are doing category theory, you should never worry about whether two objects are equal: that is considered evil. Category theorists generally ignored the fuzziness of this problem because you can generally get away with it. Still, it was an example of something that had not been turned into a mathematical definition. Two ways of accomplishing this are anafunctors and homotopy type theory.

I expect to write about homotopy type theory soon. It may be the Next Revolution.

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# Unless

Mark Meckes recently wrote (private communication):

I’m teaching a fairly new transition course at Case this term, which involves explicitly teaching students the basics of mathematical English along with the obvious things like logic and proof techniques.  I had a student recently ask about how to interpret “A unless B”.  After a fairly lively discussion in class today, we couldn’t agree on the truth table for this statement, and concluded in the end that “unless” is best avoided in mathematical writing.  I checked the Handbook of Mathematical Discourse to see if you had anything to say about it there, but there isn’t an entry for it.  So, are you aware of a standard interpretation of “unless” in mathematical English?

I did not consider  “unless” while writing HMD.   What should be done to approach a subject like this is to

• think up examples  (preferably in a bull session with other mathematicians) and try to understand what they mean logically, then
• do an extensive research of the mathematical literature to see if you can find examples that do and do not correspond  with your tentative understanding.  (Usually you find other uses besides the one you thought of, and sometimes you will discover that what you came up with is completely wrong.)

What follows is an example of this process.

I can think of three possible meanings for “P unless Q”:

1.  “P if and only if not Q”,
2.  “not Q implies P”
3.  “not P implies Q”.

An example that satisfies (1) is “$x^2-x$ is positive unless $0 \leq x \leq 1$“.  I have said that specific thing to my classes — calculus students tend not to remember that the parabola is below the line $y=x$ on that interval. (And that’s the way you should show them — draw a picture, don’t merely lecture.  Indeed, make them draw a picture.)

An example of (2) that is not an example of (1) is “$x^2-x$ is positive unless $x = 1/2$“.  I don’t think anyone would say that, but they might say “$x^2-x$ is positive unless, for example, $x = 1/2$“.  I would say that is a correct statement in mathematical English.  I guess the phrase “for example” translates into telling you that this is a statement of form “Q implies not P”, where Q is now “x = 1/2”.   Using the contrapositive, that is equivalent to “P implies not Q”, but that is neither (2) nor (3).

An example of (3) that is not an example of (1) is “$x^2-x$ is positive unless $-1 < x < 1$“.  I think that any who said that (among math people) would be told that they are wrong, because for example $(\frac{-1}{2})^2-\frac{-1}{2} = \frac{3}{4}$.  That reaction amounts to saying that (3) is not a correct interpretation of “P unless Q”.

Because of examples like these, my conjecture is that “P unless Q” means “P if and only if not Q”.  But to settle this point requires searching for “unless” in the math literature and seeing if you can find instances where “P unless Q” is not equivalent to “P if and only if not Q”.  (You could also see what happens with searching for “unless” and “example” close together.)

Having a discussion such as the above where you think up examples can give you a clue, but you really need to search the literature.  What I did with the Handbook is to search JStor, available online at Case.  I have to say I had definite opinions about several usages that were overturned during the literature search. (What “brackets” means is an example.)

My proxy server at Case isn’t working right now but when I get it repaired I will look into this question.

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# A tiny step towards killing string-based math

I discussed endographs of real functions in my post  Endographs and cographs of real functions.  Endographs of finite functions also provide another way of thinking about functions, and I show some examples here.  This is not a new idea; endographs have appeared from time to time in textbooks, but they are not used much, and they have the advantage of revealing some properties of a function instantly that cannot be seen so easily in a traditional graph or cograph.

In contrast to endographs of functions on the real line, an endograph of a finite function from a set to itself contains all the information about the function.  For real functions, only some of the arrows can be shown; you are dependent on continuity to interpolate where the infinite number of intermediate arrows would be, and of course, it is easy to produce a function, with, say, small-scale periodicity, that the arrows would miss, so to speak.  But with an endograph of a finite function, WYSIATI (what you see is all there is).

Here is the endograph of a function.  It is one function.  The graph has four connected components.

You can see immediately that it is a permutation  of the set $\{1,2,3,4,5,6\}$, and that it is involution (a permutation $f$ for which $f f=\text{id}$).  In cycle notation, it is the permutation $(1 2)(5 6)$, and the connected components of the endograph correspond to the cycle structure.

Here is another permutation:

You can see that to get $f^n=\text{id}$ you would have to have $n=6$, since you have to apply the 3-cycle 3 times and the transposition twice to get the identity.   The cycle structure $(1 2 4)(0 3)$ tells you this, but you have to visualize it acting to see that.  The endograph gives the newbie a jumpstart on the visualization.  “The power to understand and predict the quantities of the world should not be restricted to those with a freakish knack for manipulating abstract symbols” (Brett Victor).   This is an argument for insisting that this permutation is the endograph, and the abstract string of symbols $(1 2 4)(0 3)$ is a representation of secondary importance.  [See Note 1.]

Here is the cograph of the same function.  It requires a bit of visualization or tracing arrows around to see its cycle structure.

If I had rearranged the nodes like this

the cycle structure would be easier to see.  This does not indicate as much superiority of the endograph metaphor over the cograph metaphor as you might think:  My endograph code [Note 2] uses Mathematica’s graph-displaying algorithm, which automatically shows cycles clearly.   The cograph code that I wrote specifies the placement of the nodes explicitly, so I rearranged them to obtain the second cograph above using my knowledge of the cycle structure.

The following endographs of functions that are not permutations exhibit the general fact that the graph of a finite function consists of cycles with trees attached.   This structure is obvious from the endographs, and it is easy to come up with a proof of this property of finite functions by tracing your finger around the endographs.

This is the endograph of the polynomial $2 n^9+5 n^8+n^7+4 n^6+9 n^5+1$ over the finite field of 11 elements.

Here is another endograph:

I constructed this explicitly by writing a list of rules, and then used Mathematica’s interpolating polynomial to determine that it is given by the polynomial

$6 x^{16}+13 x^{15}+x^{14}+3 x^{13}+10 x^{12}+5 x^{11}\\ +14 x^{10}+4 x^9+9 x^8+x^7+14 x^6\\ +15 x^5+16 x^4+14 x^3+4 x^2+15 x+11$

in GF[17].

Quite a bit is known about polynomials over finite fields that give permutations.  For example there is an easy proof using interpolating polynomials that a polynomial that gives a transposition must have degree $q-2$.  The best reference for this stuff is Lidl and Niederreiter, Introduction to Finite Fields and their Applications

The endographs above raise questions such as what can you say about the degree or coefficients of a polynomial that gives a digraph like the function $f$ below that is idempotent ($f f=f$).  Students find idempotence vs. involution difficult to distinguish between.  Digraphs show you almost immediately what is going on.  Stare at the digraph below for a bit and you will see that if you follow $f$ to a node and then follow  it again you stay where you are (the function is the identity on its image).  That’s another example of the insights you can get from a new metaphor for a mathematical object.

The following function is not idempotent even though it has only trivial loops.  But the digraph does tell you easily that it satisfies $f^4=f^3$.

### Notes

[1] Atish Bagchi and I have contributed to this goal in Graph Based Logic and Sketches, which gives a bare glimpse of the possibility of considering that the real objects of logic are diagrams and their limits and morphisms between them, rather than hard-to-parse strings of letters and logical symbols.  Implementing this (and implementing Brett Victor’s ideas) will require sophisticated computer support.  But that support is coming into existence.  We won’t have to live with string-based math forever.

[2] The Mathematica notebook used to produce these pictures is here.  It has lots of other examples.

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# Just-in-time foundations

### Introduction

In MathOverflow, statements similar to the following two occurred in comments:

1. Sets and functions do not form a category
2. Categories and functors do not form a category.

I cannot find either one of them now, but I want to talk about them anyway.

If you look at the definition of categories in various works (for example references [1] through [3] below) you find that the objects and arrows of a category must each form a “collection” or “class” together with certain operations.   The authors all describe the connection with Grothendieck’s concept of “universe” and define “large categories” and “small categories” in the usual way.  So Statement 1 above is simply wrong.

Statement 2 is more problematic.  The trouble is that if the word “categories” includes large categories then the objects do not form a set even in the second universe.  You have to go to the third universe.

Now there is a way to define categories where this issue does not come up.  It allows us to think about categories without having a particular system such as ZF and universes in mind.

### A syntactic definition of category

A category consists of objects and arrows, together with four methods of construction M1 – M4 satisfying laws L1 -L7.  I treat “object” and “arrow” as predicates:  object[f] means f is an object and arrow[a] means a is an arrow.  “=” means equals in the mathematical sense.

M1 Source If arrow[f], object[f.source].
M2 Target If arrow [f], object[f.target].
M3 Identity If object[a],  arrow[a.identity].
M4 Comp If arrow[g] and arrow[f] and  f.target = g.source, then arrow[(g,f).comp].
L1. If object[a],  a.identity.source = a.
L2. If object[a], a.identity.target = a.
L3. If arrow[g] and arrow[f] and  f.target = g.source, then (g,f).comp.source = f.source.
L4. If arrow[g] and arrow[f] and  f.target = g.source, then (g,f).comp.target = g.target.
L5. If object[a] and arrow[f] and f.source = a, then (f, a.identity) = f.
L6.  If object[a] and arrow[g] and g.target = a, then (a.identity, g) = g.
L7.  If arrow[h] and arrow[g] and arrow[f] and h.source= g.target and g.source = f.target, then (h,(g,f).comp = ((h,g).comp, f.comp).
Remarks on this definition
1. I have deliberately made this definition look like a specification in an object oriented program (see [6]), although the syntax is not the same as any particular oo language.  It is as rigorous a mathematical definition as you could want, and it could presumably be compiled in some oo language, except that I don’t know if oo languages allow the conditional definition of a method as given in M4.
2.  I could have given the definition in mathematical English, for example “If f is an arrow then the source of f is an object”.  My point in providing the impenetrable definition above is to make a connection (admittedly incompletely established) with a part of math (the theory of oo languages) that is definitely rigorous but is not logic.  An informal definition in math English of course could also be transformed rigorously into first order logic.
3.  This definition is exactly equivalent to the FL sketch for categories given in my post [5].  That sketch has models in many categories, not just Set, as well as its generic model living in the corresponding FL-cattheory (or in the classifying topos it generates).
4.  Saunders Mac Lane defined metacategory in precisely this way in [1].  That was of course before anyone every heard of oo languages.  I think he should have made that the definition of category.

### Just-in-time foundations

Mathematicians work inside the categories Set (sets and functions) and Cat (categories and functors) all the time, including functors to or from Cat or Set. When they consider a category, the use theorems that follow from the definition above.  They do not have to have foundations in mind.

Once in awhile, they are frustrated because they cannot talk about the set of objects of some category.  For example, Freyd’s solution set condition is required to prove the existence of a left adjoint because of that problem.  The ss condition is a work-around for a familiar obstruction to an easy way to prove something.  I can imagine coming up with such a work-around without ever giving a passing thought to foundations, in particular without thinking of universes.

When you work with a mathematical object, the syntax of the definitions and theorems give you all you need to justify the claim that something is a theorem.  You absolutely need models of the theory to think up and understand proofs, but the models could be sets or classes with structure, or functors (as in sketch theory), or you may work with generic models which may require you to use intuitionistic reasoning.  You don’t have to have any particular kind of model in mind when you work in Set or Cat.

When you do run into something like the impossibility of forming the set of objects of some category (which happens in any model theory environment that uses classical rather than intuitionistic reasonins) then you may want to consider an approach through some theory of foundations.  That is what most mathematicians do: they use just-in-time foundations. For example, in a particular application you may be happy to work in a topos with a set-of-all-objects, particularly if you are a certain type of computer scientists who lives in Pittsburgh.  You may be happy to explicitly consider universes, although I am not aware of any category-theoretical results that do explicitly mention universes.

But my point is that most mathematicians think about foundations only when they need to, and most mathematicians never need to think about foundations in their work. Moral: Don’t think in terms of foundations unless you have to.

This point of view is related to the recent discussions of pragmatic foundations [7] [8].

Side remark

The situation that you can’t always construct a set of somethings is analogous to the problem that you have in working with real numbers:  You can’t name most real numbers. This may get in the way of some analyst wanting to do something, I don’t know.  But in any branch of math, there are obstructions to things you want to do that really do get in your way.  For example, in beginning linear algebra, it may have occurred to you, to your annoyance, that if you have the basis of a subspace you can extend it to the basis for the whole space, but if you have a basis of the whole space, and a subspace, the basis may not contain a basis of the subspace.

### References and links

1. Saunders Mac Lane, Categories for the working mathematician. Springer-Verlag, 1971.
2. Wikipedia article on category theory
3. Michael Barr and Charles Wells, Category Theory for Computing Science, Third Edition (1999). Les Publications CRM, Montreal (publication PM023).
4. Discussion of functions in abstractmath.org.
5. Definitions into Mathematical Objects 7.
6. Object oriented programming in Wikipedia.
7. M. Gelfand, We Do Not Choose Mathematics as Our Profession, It Chooses Us: Interview with Yuri Manin.
8. Discussion in n-category cafe.
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# How "math is logic" ruined math for a generation

Mark Meckes responded to my statement

But it seems to me that this sort of thinking has mostly resulted in people thinking philosophy of math is merely a matter of logic and set theory.  That point of view has been ruinous to the practice of math.

with this comment:

I may be misreading your analysis of the second straw man, but you seem to imply that “people thinking philosophy of math is merely a matter of logic and set theory” has done great damage to mathematics. I think that’s quite an overstatement. It means that in practice, mathematicians find philosophy of mathematics to be irrelevant and useless. Perhaps philosophers of mathematics could in principle have something to say that mathematicians would find helpful but in practice they don’t; however, we’re getting along quite well without their help.

On the other hand, maybe you only meant that people who think “philosophy of math is merely a matter of logic and set theory” are handicapped in their own ability to do mathematics. Again, I think most mathematicians get along fine just not thinking about philosophy.

Mark is right that at least this aspect of philosophy of math is irrelevant and useless to mathematicians.  But my remark that the attitude that “philosophy of math is merely a matter of logic and set theory” is ruinous to math was sloppy, it was not what I should have said.    I was thinking of a related phenomenon which was ruinous to math communication and teaching.

By the 1950’s many mathematicians adopted the attitude that all math is is theorem and proof.  Images, metaphors and the like were regarded as misleading and resulting in incorrect proofs.  (I am not going to get into how this attitude came about).     Teachers and colloquium lecturers suppressed intuitive insights and motivations in their talks and just stated the theorem and went through the proof.

I believe both expository and research papers were affected by this as well, but I would not be able to defend that with citations.

I was a math student 1959 through 1965.  My undergraduate calculus (and advanced calculus) teacher was a very good teacher but he was affected by this tendency.  He knew he had to give us intuitive insights but he would say things like “close the door” and “don’t tell anyone I said this” before he did.  His attitude seemed to be that that was not real math and was slightly shameful to talk about.  Most of my other undergrad teachers simply did not give us insights.

In graduate school I had courses in Lie Algebra and Mathematical Logic from the same teacher.   He was excellent at giving us theorem-proof lectures, much better than most teachers, but he never gave us any geometric insights into Lie Algebra (I never heard him say anything about differential equations!) or any idea of the significance of mathematical logic.  We went through Killing’s classification theorem and Gödel’s incompleteness theorem in a very thorough way and I came out of his courses pleased with my understanding of the subject matter.  But I had no idea what either one of them had to do with any other part of math.

I had another teacher for several courses in algebra and various levels of number theory.   He was not much for insights, metaphors, etc, but he did do well in explaining how you come up with a proof.  My teacher in point set topology was absolutely awful and turned me off the Moore Method forever.   The Moore method seems to be based on: don’t give the student any insights whatever. I have to say that one of my fellow students thought the Moore method was the best thing since sliced bread and went on to get a degree from this teacher.

These dismal years in math teaching lasted through the seventies and perhaps into the eighties.  Apparently now younger professors are much more into insights, images and metaphors and to some extent into pointing out connections with the rest of math and science.  Since I have been retired since 1999 I don’t have much exposure to the newer generation and I am not sure how thoroughly things have changed.

One noticeable phenomenon was that category theorists (I got into category theory in the mid seventies) were very assiduous in lectures and to some extent in papers in giving motivation and insight.  It may be that attitudes varied a lot between different disciplines.

This Dark Ages of math teaching was one of the motivations for abstractmath.org.  My belief is that not only should we give the students insights, images and metaphors to think about objects, and so on, but that we should be upfront about it:   Tell them what we are doing (don’t just mutter the word “intuitive”) and point out that these insights are necessary for understanding but are dangerous when used in proofs.  Tell them these things with examples. In every class.

My other main motivation for abstractmath.org was the way math language causes difficulties.  But that is another story.

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