# VARIABLE MATHEMATICAL OBJECTS

In many mathematical texts, the variable $x$ may denote a real number, although which real number may not be specified. This is an example of a variable mathematical object. This point of view and terminology is not widespread, but I think it is worth understanding because it provides a deeper understanding of some aspects about how math is done.

## Specific and variable mathematical objects

It is useful to distinguish between specific math objects and variable math objects.

#### Examples of specific math objects

• The number $42$ (the math object represented as “42” in base $10$, “2A” in hexadecimal and “XLII” as a Roman numeral) is a specific math object. It is an abstract math object. It is not any of the representations just listed — they are just strings of letters and numbers.
• The ordered pair $(4,3)$ is a specific math object. It is not the same as the ordered pair $(7,-2)$, which is another specific math object.
• The sine function $\sin:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ is a specific math object. You may know that the sine function is also defined for all complex numbers, which gives another specific math object $\sin:\mathbb{C}\to\mathbb{C}$.
• The group of symmetries of a square is a specific math object. (If you don’t know much about groups, the link gives a detailed description of this particular group.)

#### Variable math objects

Math books are full of references to math objects, typically named by a letter or a name, that are not completely specified. Some mathematicians call these variable objects (not standard terminology). The idea of a variable mathe­mati­cal object is not often taught as such in under­graduate classes but it is worth pondering. It has certainly clari­fied my thinking about expres­sions with variables.

#### Examples

• If an author or lecturer says “Let $x$ be a real variable”, you can then think of $x$ as a variable real number. In a proof you can’t assume that $x$ is any particular real number such as $42$ or $\pi$.
• If a lecturer says, “Let $(a,b)$ be an ordered pair of integers”, then all you know is that $a$ and $b$ are integers. This makes $(a,b)$ a variable ordered pair, specifically a pair of integers. The lecturer will not say it is a variable ordered pair since that terminology is not widely used. You have to understand that the phrase “Let $(a,b)$ be an ordered pair of integers” implies that it is a variable ordered pair just because “a” and “b” are letters instead of numbers.
• If you are going to prove a theorem about functions, you might begin, "Let $f$ be a continuous function", and in the proof refer to $f$ and various objects connected to $f$. This makes $f$ a variable mathematical object. When you are proving things about $f$ you may use the fact that it is continuous. But you cannot assume that it is (for example) the sine function or any other particular function.
• If someone says, “Let $G$ be a group” you can think of $G$ as a variable group. If you want to prove something about $G$ you are free to use the definition of “group” and any theorems you know of that apply to all groups, but you can’t assume that $G$ is any specific group.

#### Terminology

A logician would refer to the symbol $f$, thought of as denoting a function, as a vari­able, and likewise the symbol $G$, thought of as denoting a group. But mathe­maticians in general would not use the word “vari­able” in those situa­tions.

## How to think about variable objects

The idea that $x$ is a variable object means thinking of $x$ as a genuine mathematical object, but with limitations about what you can say or think about it. Specifically,

Some assertions about a variable math object
may be neither true nor false.

##### Example

The statement, “Let $x$ be a real number” means that $x$ is to be regarded as a variable real number (usually called a “real variable”). Then you know the following facts:

• The statement “${{x}^{2}}$ is not negative” is true.
• The assertion “$x=x+1$” is false.
• The assertion “$x\gt 0$” is neither true nor false.
##### Example

Suppose you are told that $x$ is a real number and that ${{x}^{2}}-5x=-6$.

• You know (because it is given) that the statement “${{x}^{2}}-5x=-6$” is true.
• By doing some algebra, you can discover that the statement “$x=2$ or $x=3$” is true.
• The statement “$x=2$ and $x=3$” is false, because $2\neq3$.
• The statement “$x=2$” is neither true nor false, and similarly for “$x=3$”.
• This situation could be described this way: $x$ is a variable real number varying over the set $\{2,3\}$.
##### Example

This example may not be easy to understand. It is intended to raise your consciousness.

A prime pair is an ordered pair of integers $(n,n+2)$ with the property that both $n$ and $n+2$ are prime numbers.

Definition: $S$ is a PP set if $S$ is a set of pairs of integers with the property that every pair is a prime pair.

• “$\{(3,5),(11,13)\}$ is a PP set” is true.
• “$\{(5,7),(111,113),(149,151)\}$ is a PP set” is false.

Now suppose $SS$ is a variable PP set.

• “$SS$ is a set” is true by definition.
• “$SS$ contains $(7,9)$” is false.
• “$SS$ contains $(3,5)$” is neither true nor false, as the examples just above show.
• “$SS$ is an infinite set”:
• This is certainly not true (see finite examples above).
• This claim may be neither true nor false, or it may be plain false, because no one knows whether there is an infinite number of prime pairs.
• The point of this example is to show that “we don’t know” doesn’t mean the same thing as “neither true nor false”.

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# The two languages of math

Mathematics is communicated using two languages: Mathematical English and the symbolic language of math (more about them in two languages).

This post is a collection of examples of the sorts of trouble that the two languages cause beginning abstract math students. I have gathered many of them here since they are scattered throughout the literature. I would welcome suggestions for other references to problems caused by the languages of math.

In many of the examples, I give links to the literature and leave you to fish out the details there. Almost all of the links are to documents on the internet.

There is an extensive list of references.

### Conjectures

Scattered through this post are conjectures. Like most of my writing about difficulties students have with math language, these conjectures are based on personal observation over 37 years of teaching mostly computer engineering and math majors. The only hard research of any sort I have done in math ed consists of the 426 citations of written mathematical writing included in the Handbook of Mathematical Discourse.

### Disclaimer

This post is an attempt to gather together the ways in which math language causes trouble for students. It is even more preliminary and rough than most of my other posts.

• The arrangement of the topics is unsatisfactory. Indeed, the topics are so interrelated that it is probably impossible to give a satisfactory linear order to them. That is where writing on line helps: Lots of forward and backward references.
• Other people and I have written extensively about some of the topics, and they have lots of links. Other topics are stubs and need to be filled out. I have probably missed important points about and references to many of them.
• Please note that many of the most important difficulties that students have with understanding mathematical ideas are not caused by the languages of math and are not represented here.

I expect to revise this article periodically as I find more references and examples and understand some of the topics better. Suggestions would be very welcome.

## Intricate symbolic expressions

I have occasionally had students tell me that have great difficulty understanding a complicated symbolic expression. They can’t just look at it and learn something about what it means.

### Example

Consider the symbolic expression $\displaystyle\left(\frac{x^3-10}{3 e^{-x}+1}\right)^6$

Now, I could read this expression aloud as if it were text, or more precisely describe it so that someone else could write it down. But if I am in math mode and see this expression I don’t “read” it, even to myself.

I am one of those people who much of the time think in pictures or abstractions without words. (See references here.)

In this case I would look at the expression as a structured picture. I could determine a number of things about it, and when I was explaining it I would point at the board, not try to pronounce it or part of it:

• The denominator is always positive so the expression is defined for all reals.
• The exponent is even so the value of the expression is always nonnegative. I would say, “This (pointing at the exponent) is an even power so the expression is never negative.”
• It is zero in exactly one place, namely $x=\sqrt[3]{10}$.
• Its derivative is also $0$ at $\sqrt[3]{10}$. You can see this without calculating the formula for the derivative (ugh).

There is much more about this example in Zooming and Chunking.

### Algebra in high school

There are many high school students stymied by algebra, never do well at it, and hate math as a result. I have known many such people over the years. A revealing remark that I have heard many times is that “algebra is totally meaningless to me”. This is sometimes accompanied by a remark that geometry is “obvious” or something similar. This may be because they think they have to “read” an algebraic expression instead of studying it as they would a graph or a diagram.

### Conjecture

Many beginning abstractmath students have difficulty understanding a symbolic expression like the one above. Could this be cause by resistance to treating the expression as a structure to be studied?

## Context-sensitive pronunciation

A symbolic assertion (“formula” to logicians) can be embedded in a math English sentence in different ways, requiring the symbolic assertion to be pronounced in different ways. The assertion itself is not modified in any way in these different situations.

I used the phrase “symbolic assertion” in abstractmath.org because students are confused by the logicians’ use of “formula“.
In everyday English, “$\text{H}_2\text{O}$” is the “formula” for water, but it is a term, not an assertion.

#### Example

“For every real number $x\gt0$ there is a real number $y$ such that $x\gt y\gt0$.”

• In the sentence above, the assertion “$x\gt0$” must be pronounced “$x$ that is greater than $0$” or something similar.
• The standalone assertion “$x\gt0$” is pronounced “$x$ is greater than $0$.”
• The sentence “Let $x\gt0$” must be pronounced “Let $x$ be greater than $0$”.

The consequence is that the symbolic assertion, in this case “$x\gt0$”, does not reveal that role it plays in the math English sentence that it is embedded in.

Many of the examples occurring later in the post are also examples of context-sensitive pronunciation.

### Conjectures

Many students are subconsciously bothered by the way the same symbolic expression is pronounced differently in different math English sentences.

This probably impedes some students’ progress. Teachers should point this phenomenon out with examples.

Students should be discouraged from pronouncing mathematical expressions.

For one thing, this could get you into trouble. Consider pronouncing “$\sqrt{3+5}+6$”. In any case, when you are reading any text you don’t pronounce the words, you just take in their meaning. Why not take in the meaning of algebraic expressions in the same way?

## Parenthetic assertions

A parenthetic assertion is a symbolic assertion embedded in a sentence in math English in such a way that is a subordinate clause.

### Example

In the math English sentence

“For every real number $x\gt0$ there is a real number $y$ such that $x\gt y\gt0$”

mentioned above, the symbolic assertion “$x\gt0$” plays the role of a subordinate clause.

It is not merely that the pronunciation is different compared to that of the independent statement “$x\gt0$”. The math English sentence is hard to parse. The obvious (to an experienced mathematician) meaning is that the beginning of the sentence can be read this way: “For every real number $x$, which is bigger than $0$…”.

But new student might try to read it is “For every real number $x$ is greater than $0$ …” by literally substituting the standalone meaning of “$x\gt0$” where it occurs in the sentence. This makes the text what linguists call a garden path sentence. The student has to stop and start over to try to make sense of it, and the symbolic expression lacks the natural language hints that help understand how it should be read.

Note that the other two symbolic expressions in the sentence are not parenthetic assertions. The phrase “real number” needs to be followed by a term, and it is, and the phrase “such that” must be followed by a clause, and it is.

### More examples

• “Consider the circle $S^1\subseteq\mathbb{C}=\mathbb{R}^2$.” This has subordinate clauses to depth 2.
• “The infinite series $\displaystyle\sum_{k=1}^\infty\frac{1}{k^2}$ converges to $\displaystyle\zeta(2)=\frac{\pi^2}{6}\approx1.65$”
• “We define a null set in $I:=[a,b]$ to be a set that can be covered by a countable of intervals with arbitrarily small total length.” This shows a parenthetical definition.
• “Let $F:A\to B$ be a function.”
A type declaration is a function? In any case, it would be better to write this sentence simply as “Let $F:A\to B$”.

David Butler’s post Contrapositive grammar has other good examples.

Math texts are in general badly written. Students need to be taught how to read badly written math as well as how to write math clearly. Those that succeed (in my observation) in being able to read math texts often solve the problem by glancing at what is written and then reconstructing what the author is supposedly saying.

### Conjectures

Some students are baffled, or at least bothered consciously or unconsciously, by parenthetic assertions, because the clues that would exist in a purely English statement are missing.

Nevertheless, many if not most math students read parenthetic assertions correctly the first time and never even notice how peculiar they are.

What makes the difference between them and the students who are stymied by parenthetic assertions?

There is another conjecture concerning parenthetic assertions below.

## Context-sensitive meaning

### “If” in definitions

#### Example

The word “if” in definitions does not mean the same thing that it means in other math statements.

• In the definition “An integer is even if it is divisible by $2$,” “if” means “if and only if”. In particular, the definition implies that a function is not even if it is not divisible by $2$.
• In a theorem, for example “If a function is differentiable, then it is continuous”, the word “if” has the usual one-way meaning. In particular, in this case, a continuous function might not be differentiable.

Context-sensitive meaning occurs in ordinary English as well. Think of a strike in baseball.

### Conjectures

The nearly universal custom of using “if” to mean “if and only if” in definitions makes it a harder for students to understand implication.

This custom is not the major problem in understanding the role of definitions. See my article Definitions.

### Underlying sets

#### Example

In a course in group theory, a lecturer may say at one point, “Let $F:G\to H$ be a homomorphism”, and at another point, “Let $g\in G$”.

In the first sentence, $G$ refers to the group, and in the second sentence it refers to the underlying set of the group.

This usage is almost universal. I think the difficulty it causes is subtle. When you refer to $\mathbb{R}$, for example, you (usually) are referring to the set of real numbers together with all its canonical structure. The way students think of it, a real number comes with its many relations and connections with the other real numbers, ordering, field properties, topology, and so on.

But in a group theory class, you may define the Klein $4$-group to be $\mathbb{Z}_2\times\mathbb{Z}_2$. Later you may say “the symmetry group of a rectangle that is not a square is the Klein $4$-group.” Almost invariably some student will balk at this.

Referring to a group by naming its underlying set is also an example of synecdoche.

### Conjecture

Students expect every important set in math to have a canonical structure. When they get into a course that is a bit more abstract, suddenly the same set can have different structures, and math objects with different underlying sets can have the same structure. This catastrophic shift in a way of thinking should be described explicitly with examples.

Way back when, it got mighty upsetting when the earth started going around the sun instead of vice versa. Remind your students that these upheavals happen in the math world too.

### Overloaded notation

#### Identity elements

A particular text may refer to the identity element of any group as $e$.

This is as far as I know not a problem for students. I think I know why: There is a generic identity element. The identity element in any group is an instantiation of that generic identity element. The generic identity element exists in the sketch for groups; every group is a functor defined on that sketch. (Or if you insist, the generic identity element exists in the first order theory for groups.) I suspect mathematicians subconsciously think of identity elements in this way.

#### Matrix multiplication

Matrix multiplication is not commutative. A student may forget this and write $(A^2B^2=(AB)^2$. This also happens in group theory courses.

This problem occurs because the symbolic language uses the same symbol for many different operations, in this case the juxtaposition notation for multiplication. This phenomenon is called overloaded notation and is discussed in abstractmath.org here.

### Conjecture

Noncommutative binary operations written using juxtaposition cause students trouble because going to noncommutative operations requires abandoning some overlearned reflexes in doing algebra.

Identity elements seem to behave the same in any binary operation, so there are no reflexes to unlearn. There are generic binary operations of various types as well. That’s why mathematicians are comfortable overloading juxtaposition. But to get to be a mathematician you have to unlearn some reflexes.

## Negation

Sometimes you need to reword a math statement that contains symbolic expressions. This particularly causes trouble in connection with negation.

### Ordinary English

The English language is notorious among language learners for making it complicated to negate a sentence. The negation of “I saw that movie” is “I did not see that movie”. (You have to put “d** not” (using the appropriate form of “do”) before the verb and then modify the verb appropriately.) You can’t just say “I not saw that movie” (as in Spanish) or “I saw not that movie” (as in German).

### Conjecture

The method in English used to negate a sentence may cause problems with math students whose native language is not English. (But does it cause math problems with those students?)

### Negating symbolic expressions

#### Examples

• The negation of “$n$ is even and a prime” is “$n$ is either odd or it is not a prime”. The negation should not be written “$n$ is not even and a prime” because that sentence is ambiguous. In the heat of doing a proof students may sometimes think the negation is “$n$ is odd and $n$ is not a prime,” essentially forgetting about DeMorgan. (He must roll over in his grave a lot.)
• The negation of “$x\gt0$” is “$x\leq0$”. It is not “$x\lt0$”. This is a very common mistake.

These examples are difficulties caused by not understanding the math. They are not directly caused by difficulties with the languages of math.

#### Negating expressions containing parenthetic assertions

Suppose you want to prove:

“If $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ is differentiable, then $f$ is continuous”.

A good way to do this is by using the contrapositive. A mechanical way of writing the contrapositive is:

“If $f$ is not continuous, then $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ is not differentiable.”

That is not good. The sentence needs to be massaged:

“If $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ is not continuous, then $f$ is not differentiable.”

Even better would be to write the original sentence as:

“Suppose $f:\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$. Then if $f$ is differentiable, then $f$ is continuous.”

This is discussed in detail in David Butler’s post Contrapositive grammar.

### Conjecture

Students need to be taught to understand parenthetic assertions that occur in the symbolic language and to learn to extract a parenthetic assertion and write it as a standalone assertion ahead of the statement it occurs in.

## Scope

The scope of a word or variable consists of the part of the text for which its current definition is in effect.

#### Examples

• “Suppose $n$ is divisible by $4$.” The scope is probably the current paragraph or perhaps the current proof. This means that the properties of $n$ are constrained in that section of the text.
• “In this book, all rings are unitary.” This will hold for the whole book.

There are many more examples in the abstractmath.org article Scope.

If you are a grasshopper (you like to dive into the middle of a book or paper to find out what it says), knowing the scope of a variable can be hard to determine. It is particularly difficult for commonly used words or symbols that have been defined differently from the usual usage. You may not suspect that this has happened since it might be define once early in the text. Some books on writing mathematics have urged writers to keep global definitions to a minimum. This is good advice.

Finding the scope is considerably easier when the text is online and you can search for the definition.

### Conjecture

Knowing the scope of a word or variable can be difficult. It is particular hard when the word or variable has a large scope (chapter or whole book.)

## Variables

Variables are often introduced in math writing and then used in the subsequent discussion. In a complicated discussion, several variables may be referred to that have different statuses, some of them introduced several pages before. There are many particular ways discussed below that can cause trouble for students. This post is restricted to trouble in connection with the languages of math. The concept of variable is difficult in itself, not just because of the way the math languages represent them, but that is not covered here.

Much of this part of the post is based on work of Susanna Epp, including three papers listed in the references. Her papers also include many references to other work in the math ed literature that have to do with understanding variables.

See also Variables in abstractmath.org and Variables in Wikipedia.

### Types

Students blunder by forgetting the type of the variable they are dealing with. The example given previously of problems with matrix multiplication is occasioned by forgetting the type of a variable.

### Conjecture

Students sometimes have problems because they forget the data type of the variables they are dealing with. This is primarily causes by overloaded notation.

### Dependent and independent

If you define $y=x^2+1$, then $x$ is an independent variable and $y$ is a dependent variable. But dependence and independence of variablesare more general than that example suggests.
In an epsilon-delta proof of the limit of a function (example below,) $\varepsilon$ is independent and $\delta$ is dependent on $\varepsilon$, although not functionally dependent.

### Conjecture

Distinguishing dependent and independent variables causes problems, particularly when the dependence is not clearly functional.

I recently ran across a discussion of this on the internet but failed to record where I saw it. Help!

### Bound and free

This causes trouble with integration, among other things. It is discussed in abstractmath.org in Variables and Substitution. I expect to add some references to the math ed literature soon.

## Instantiation

Some of these variables may be given by existential instantiation, in which case they are dependent on variables that define them. Others may be given by universal instantiation, in which case the variable is generic; it is independent of other variables, and you can’t impose arbitrary restrictions on it.

### Existential instantiation

A theorem that an object exists under certain conditions allows you to name it and use it by that name in further arguments.

#### Example

Suppose $m$ and $n$ are integers. Then by definition, $m$ divides $n$ if there is an integer $q$ such that $n=qm$. Then you can use “$q$” in further discussion, but $q$ depends on $m$ and $n$. You must not use it with any other meaning unless you start a new paragraph and redefine it.

So the following (start of a) “proof” blunders by ignoring this restriction:

Theorem: Prove that if an integer $m$ divides both integers $n$ and $p$, then $m$ divides $n+p$.

“Proof”: Let $n = qm$ and $p = qm$…”

### Universal instantiation

It is a theorem that for any integer $n$, there is no integer strictly between $n$ and $n+1$. So if you are given an arbitrary integer $k$, there is no integer strictly between $k$ and $k+1$. There is no integer between $42$ and $43$.

By itself, universal instantiation does not seem to cause problems, provided you pay attention to the types of your variables. (“There is no integer between $\pi$ and $\pi+1$” is false.)

However, when you introduce variables using both universal and existential quantification, students can get confused.

#### Example

Consider the definition of limit:

Definition: $\lim_{x\to a} f(x)=L$ if and only if for every $\epsilon\gt0$ there is a $\delta\gt0$ for which if $|x-a|\lt\delta$ then $|f(x)-L|\lt\epsilon$.

A proof for a particular instance of this definition is given in detail in Rabbits out of a Hat. In this proof, you may not put constraints on $\epsilon$ except the given one that it is positive. On the other hand, you have to come up with a definition of $\delta$ and prove that it works. The $\delta$ depends on what $f$, $a$ and $L$ are, but there are always infinitely many values of $\delta$ which fit the constraints, and you have to come up with only one. So in general, two people doing this proof will not get the same answer.

### Reference

Susanna Epp’s paper Proof issues with existential quantification discusses the problems that students have with both existential and universal quantification with excellent examples. In particular, that paper gives examples of problems students have that are not hinted at here.

## References

A nearly final version of The Handbook of Mathematical Discourse is available on the web with links, including all the citations. This version contains some broken links. I am unable to recompile it because TeX has evolved enough since 2003 that the source no longer compiles. The paperback version (without the citations) can be bought as a book here. (There are usually cheaper used versions on Amazon.)

Abstractmath.org is a website for beginning students in abstract mathematics. It includes most of the material in the Handbook, but not the citations. The Introduction gives you a clue as to what it is about.

### Two languages

My take on the two languages of math are discussed in these articles:

The Language of Mathematics, by Mohan Ganesalingam, covers these two languages in more detail than any other book I know of. He says right away on page 18 that mathematical language consists of “textual sentences with symbolic material embedded like ‘islands’ in the text.” So for him, math language is one language.

I have envisioned two separate languages for math in abstractmath.org and in the Handbook, because in fact you can in principle translate any mathematical text into either English or logical notation (first order logic or type theory), although the result in either case would be impossible to understand for any sizeable text.

### Topics in abstractmath.org

Context-sensitive interpretation.

Mathematical English.

Scope

Semantic contamination.

The symbolic language of math

Variables.

Zooming and Chunking.

### Topics in the Handbook of mathematical discourse.

These topics have a strong overlap with the topics with the same name in abstractmath.org. They are included here because the Handbook contains links to citations of the usage.

### Posts in Gyre&Gimble

Names

Naming mathematical objects

Rabbits out of a Hat.

Semantics of algebra I.

Syntactic and semantic thinkers

Technical meanings clash with everyday meanings

Three kinds of mathematical thinkers

### Other references

Contrapositive grammar, blog post by David Butler.

Proof issues with existential quantification, by Susanna Epp.

The role of logic in teaching proof, by Susanna Epp (2003).

The language of quantification in mathematics instruction, by Susanna Epp (1999).

The Language of Mathematics: A Linguistic and Philosophical Investigation
by Mohan Ganesalingam, 2013. (Not available from the internet.)

On the communication of mathematical reasoning, by Atish Bagchi, and Charles Wells (1998a), PRIMUS, volume 8, pages 15–27.

Variables in Wikipedia.

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# Notation for sets

This is a revision of the section of abstractmath.org on notation for sets.

## Sets of numbers

The following notation for sets of numbers is fairly standard.

### Remarks

• Some authors use $\mathbb{I}$ for $\mathbb{Z}$, but $\mathbb{I}$ is also used for the unit interval.
• Many authors use $\mathbb{N}$ to denote the nonnegative integers instead
of the positive ones.
• To remember $\mathbb{Q}$, think “quotient”.
• $\mathbb{Z}$ is used because the German word for “integer” is “Zahl”.

Until the 1930’s, Germany was the world center for scientific and mathematical study, and at least until the 1960’s, being able to read scientific German was was required of anyone who wanted a degree in science. A few years ago I was asked to transcribe some hymns from a German hymnbook — not into English, but merely from fraktur (the old German alphabet) into the Roman alphabet. I sometimes feel that I am the last living American to be able to read fraktur easily.

## Element notation

The expression “$x\in A$” means that $x$ is an element of the set $A$. The expression “$x\notin A$” means that $x$ is not an element of $A$.

“$x\in A$” is pronounced in any of the following ways:

• “$x$ is in $S$”.
• “$x$ is an element of $S$”.
• “$x$ is a member of $S$”.
• “$S$ contains $x$”.
• “$x$ is contained in $S$”.

### Remarks

• Warning: The math English phrase “$A$ contains $B$” can mean either “$B\in A$” or “$B\subseteq A$”.
• The Greek letter epsilon occurs in two forms in math, namely $\epsilon$ and $\varepsilon$. Neither of them is the symbol for “element of”, which is “$\in$”. Nevertheless, it is not uncommon to see either “$\epsilon$” or “$\varepsilon$” being used to mean “element of”.
##### Examples
• $4$ is an element of all the sets $\mathbb{N}$, $\mathbb{Z}$, $\mathbb{Q}$, $\mathbb{R}$, $\mathbb{C}$.
• $-5\notin \mathbb{N}$ but it is an element of all the others.

## List notation

### Definition: list notation

A set with a small number of elements may be denoted by listing the elements inside braces (curly brackets). The list must include exactly all of the elements of the set and nothing else.

##### Example

The set $\{1,\,3,\,\pi \}$ contains the numbers $1$, $3$ and $\pi$ as elements, and no others. So $3\in \{1,3,\pi \}$ but $-3\notin \{1,\,3,\,\pi \}$.

### Properties of list notation

#### List notation shows every element and nothing else

If $a$ occurs in a list notation, then $a$ is in the set the notation defines.  If it does not occur, then it is not in the set.

##### Be careful

When I say “$a$ occurs” I don’t mean it necessarily occurs using that name. For example, $3\in\{3+5,2+3,1+2\}$.

#### The order in which the elements are listed is irrelevant

For example, $\{2,5,6\}$ and $\{5,2,6\}$ are the same set.

#### Repetitions don’t matter

$\{2,5,6\}$, $\{5,2,6\}$, $\{2,2,5,6 \}$ and $\{2,5,5,5,6,6\}$ are all different representations of the same set. That set has exactly three elements, no matter how many numbers you see in the list notation.

Multisets may be written with braces and repeated entries, but then the repetitions mean something.

### When elements are sets

When (some of) the elements in list notation are themselves sets (more about that here), care is required.  For example, the numbers $1$ and $2$  are not elements of the set $S:=\left\{ \left\{ 1,\,2,\,3 \right\},\,\,\left\{ 3,\,4 \right\},\,3,\,4 \right\}$The elements listed include the set $\{1, 2, 3\}$ among others, but not the number $2$.  The set $S$ contains four elements, two sets and two numbers.

Another way of saying this is that the element relation is not transitive: The facts that $A\in B$ and $B\in C$ do not imply that $A\in C$.

### Sets are arbitrary

• Any mathematical object can be the element of a set.
• The elements of a set do not have to have anything in common.
• The elements of a set do not have to form a pattern.
##### Examples
• $\{1,3,5,6,7,9,11,13,15,17,19\}$ is a set. There is no point in asking, “Why did you put that $6$ in there?” (Sets can be arbitrary.)
• Let $f$ be the function on the reals for which $f(x)=x^3-2$. Then $\left\{\pi^3,\mathbb{Q},f,42,\{1,2,7\}\right\}$ is a set. Sets do not have to be homogeneous in any sense.

## Setbuilder notation

### Definition:

Suppose $P$ is an assertion. Then the expression “$\left\{x|P(x) \right\}$” denotes the set of all objects $x$ for which $P(x)$ is true. It contains no other elements.

• The notation “$\left\{ x|P(x) \right\}$” is called setbuilder notation.
• The assertion $P$ is called the defining condition for the set.
• The set $\left\{ x|P(x) \right\}$ is called the truth set of the assertion $P$.
##### Examples

In these examples, $n$ is an integer variable and $x$ is a real variable..

• The expression “$\{n| 1\lt n\lt 6 \}$” denotes the set $\{2, 3, 4, 5\}$. The defining condition is “$1\lt n\lt 6$”.  The set $\{2, 3, 4, 5\}$ is the truth set of the assertion “n is an integer and $1\lt n\lt 6$”.
• The notation $\left\{x|{{x}^{2}}-4=0 \right\}$ denotes the set $\{2,-2\}$.
• $\left\{ x|x+1=x \right\}$ denotes the empty set.
• $\left\{ x|x+0=x \right\}=\mathbb{R}$.
• $\left\{ x|x\gt6 \right\}$ is the infinite set of all real numbers bigger than $6$.  For example, $6\notin \left\{ x|x\gt6 \right\}$ and $17\pi \in \left\{ x|x\gt6 \right\}$.
• The set $\mathbb{I}$ defined by $\mathbb{I}=\left\{ x|0\le x\le 1 \right\}$ has among its elements $0$, $1/4$, $\pi /4$, $1$, and an infinite number of
other numbers. $\mathbb{I}$ is fairly standard notation for this set – it is called the unit interval.

### Usage and terminology

• A colon may be used instead of “|”. So $\{x|x\gt6\}$ could be written $\{x:x\gt6\}$.
• Logicians and some mathematicians called the truth set of $P$ the extension of $P$. This is not connected with the usual English meaning of “extension” as an add-on.
• When the assertion $P$ is an equation, the truth set of $P$ is usually called the solution set of $P$. So $\{2,-2\}$ is the solution set of $x^2=4$.
• The expression “$\{n|1\lt n\lt6\}$” is commonly pronounced as “The set of integers such that $1\lt n$ and $n\lt6$.” This means exactly the set $\{2,3,4,5\}$. Students whose native language is not English sometimes assume that a set such as $\{2,4,5\}$ fits the description.

### Setbuilder notation is tricky

#### Looking different doesn’t mean they are different.

A set can be expressed in many different ways in setbuilder notation. For example, $\left\{ x|x\gt6 \right\}=\left\{ x|x\ge 6\text{ and }x\ne 6 \right\}$. Those two expressions denote exactly the same set. (But $\left\{x|x^2\gt36 \right\}$ is a different set.)

#### Russell’s Paradox

In certain areas of math research, setbuilder notation can go seriously wrong. See Russell’s Paradox if you are curious.

### Variations on setbuilder notation

An expression may be used left of the vertical line in setbuilder notation, instead of a single variable.

#### Giving the type of the variable

You can use an expression on the left side of setbuilder notation to indicate the type of the variable.

##### Example

The unit interval $I$ could be defined as $\mathbb{I}=\left\{x\in \mathrm{R}\,|\,0\le x\le 1 \right\}$making it clear that it is a set of real numbers rather than, say rational numbers.  You can always get rid of the type expression to the left of the vertical line by complicating the defining condition, like this:$\mathbb{I}=\left\{ x|x\in \mathrm{R}\text{ and }0\le x\le 1 \right\}$

#### Other expressions on the left side

Other kinds of expressions occur before the vertical line in setbuilder notation as well.

##### Example

The set$\left\{ {{n}^{2}}\,|\,n\in \mathbb{Z} \right\}$consists of all the squares of integers; in other words its elements are 0,1,4,9,16,….  This definition could be rewritten as $\left\{m|\text{ there is an }n\in \mathrm{}\text{ such that }m={{n}^{2}} \right\}$.

##### Example

Let $A=\left\{1,3,6 \right\}$.  Then $\left\{ n-2\,|\,n\in A\right\}=\left\{ -1,1,4 \right\}$.

##### Warning

Be careful when you read such expressions.

##### Example

The integer $9$ is an element of the set $\left\{{{n}^{2}}\,|\,n\in \text{ Z and }n\ne 3 \right\}$It is true that $9={{3}^{2}}$ and that $3$ is excluded by the defining condition, but it is also true that $9={{(-3)}^{2}}$ and $-3$ is not an integer ruled out by the defining condition.

## Reference

Sets. Previous post.

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# Sets

I have been working my way through abstractmath.org, revising the articles and turning them into pure HTML so they will be easier to update. In some cases I am making substantial revisions. In particular, many of the articles need a more modern point of view.

The math community’s understanding of sets and structures has changed because of category theory and will change
because of homotopy type theory.

This post considers some issues and possibilities concerning the chapter on sets.

The references listed at the end of the article include several about homotopy type theory. They provide different viewpoints and require different levels of sophistication.

## A specification of the concept of set

The abmath article Specification of sets specifies what a set is in this way:

A set is a single math object distinct from but completely determined by what its elements are.

I have used this specification for sets since the eighties, first in my Discrete Math lecture notes and then in abstractmath.org. It has proved useful because it is quite simple and the statement implies lots of immediate consequences. Each of the first four consequences in this list below exposes a confusion that some students have.

### Consequences of the specification

1. A set is a math object. It has the same status as the number “$143$” and the sine function and the real line: they are all objects of math. A set is not merely a typographically convenient way to define a certain collection of things.
2. A set is a single object. Many beginners seem to have in their head that the set $\{3,4\}$ is two things.
3. A set is distinct from its elements. The set $\{3,4\}$ is not $3$, it is not $4$, it is not a number at all.
4. The spec implies that $\{3,4\}$ is the same set as $\{4,3\}$. Some students think they understand this but some of their mistakes show that they don’t really understand it.
5. On the other hand, $\{3,5\}$ is a different set from $\{3,4\}$. I haven’t noticed this bothering students but it bothers me. See the discussion on ursets below.

Those consequences make the spec a useful teaching tool. But if a beginning abstract math student gets very far in their studies, some complications come up.

## Defining “set”

In the late nineteenth century, math people started formally defining particular math structures such as groups and various
kinds of spaces. This was normally done by starting with a set and adding structure.

You may think that “starting with a set and adding structure” brushes a lot of complications under the rug. Well, don’t look under the rug, at least not right now.

The way they thought about sets was a informal version of what is now called naive set theory. In particular, they freely defined particular sets using what is essentially setbuilder notation, producing sets in a way which (I claim) satisfies my specification.

### Bertrand Russell wakes everyone up

Then along came Russell’s paradox. In the context of this discussion, the paradox implied that the spec for sets is not a definition.The spec provides a set of necessary conditions for being a set. But it is not sufficient. You can say “Let $S$ be the set of all sets that…[satisfy some condition]” until you are blue in the face, but there are conditions (including the empty condition) that don’t define a set.

### The Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms

The Zermelo-Fraenkel axioms were designed to provide a definition that didn’t create contradictions. The axioms accomplish this by creating a sort of hierarchy that requires that each set must be defined in terms of sets defined previously. They provide a good way (but not the only one) of providing a way of legitimizing our use of sets in math.

Observe that the “set of all sets” is certainly not “defined” in terms of previously defined sets!

## Sets as a foundation

During those days there was a movement to provide a solid foundation for mathematics. After Zermelo-Fraenkel came along, the progress of thinking seemed to be:

1. Sets are in trouble.
2. Zermelo-Fraenkel solves our set difficulties.
3. So let’s require that every math object be a set.

That list is oversimplified. In particular, the development of predicate logic was essential to this approach, but I can’t write about everything at once.

This leads to monsters such as the notorious definition of ordered pair:

The ordered pair $(a,b)$ is the set $\{a,\{b\}\}$.

This leads to the ludicrous statement that $a$ is an element of $(a,b)$ but that $b$ is not.

By saying every math object may be modeled as a set with structure, ZF set theory becomes a model of all of math. This approach gives a useful proof that all of math is as consistent as ZF set theory is.

But many mathematicians jumped to the conclusion that every math object must be a set with structure. This approach does not match the way mathematicians think about math objects. In particular, it makes computerized proof assistance hard to use because you have to translate your thinking into sets and first order logic.

## Sets by category theory

“A mathematical object is determined by the role it plays in a category.” — A. Grothendieck

In category theory, you define math structures in terms of how they relate to other math structures. This shifts the emphasis from

What is it?

to

What are its properties?

For example, an ordered pair is a mathematical object $p$ determined by these properties:

• It determines mathematical objects $p_1$ and $p_2$.
• $p$ is completely determined by what $p_1$ is and what $p_2$ is.
• If $p$ and $q$ are ordered pairs and $p_1=q_1$ and $p_2=q_2$ then $p=q$.

### Categorical definition of set

“Categorical” here means “as understood in category theory”. It unfortunately has a very different meaning in model theory (set of axioms with only one model up to isomorphism) and in general usage, as in “My answer is categorically NO” said by someone who is red in the face. The word “categorial” has an entirely different meaning in linguistics. *Sigh*.

William Lawvere has produced an axiomatization of the category of sets.
The most accessible introduction to it that I know of is the article Rethinking set theory, by Tom Leinster. This axiomatization defines sets by their relationship with each other and other math objects in much the same way as the categorical definition of (for example) groups gives a definition of groups that works in any category.

### “Set” means two different things

The word set as used informally has two different meanings.

• According to my specification of sets, $\{3,4\}$ is a set and so is $\{3,5\}$.
• $\{3,4\}$ and $\{3,5\}$ are not the same set because they don’t have the same elements.
• But in the category of sets, any two $2$-element sets are isomorphic. (So are any two seven element sets.)
• From a categorical point of view, two isomorphic objects in a category can be be thought of as the same object, with a caveat that you have better make it clear which isomorphism you are thinking of.

One of the great improvements in mathematics that homotopy type theory supplies is a systematic way of keeping track of the isomorphisms, the isomorphisms between the isomorphisms, and so on ad infinitum (literally). But note: I am just beginning to understand htt, so regard this remark as something to be suspicious of.

• But $\{3,4\}$ and $\{3,5\}$ may not be thought of as the same object according to the spec I gave, because they don’t have the same elements.
• This means that the traditional idea of set is not the same as the strict categorical idea of set.

I suggest that we keep the word “set” for the traditional concept and call the strict categorical concept an urset.

### A traditional set is a structure on an urset

The traditional set $\{3,5\}$ consists of the unique two-element urset coindexed on the integers.

A (ur)set $S$ coindexed by a math structure $A$ is a monic map from $S$ to the underlying set of $A$. In this example, the map has codomain the integers and takes one element of the two-element urset to $3$ and the other to $5$.

Note added 2014-10-05 in response to Toby Bartels’ comment: I am inclined to use the names “abstract set” for “urset” and “concrete set” for coindexed sets when I revise the articles on sets. But most of the time we can get away with just “set”.

There is clearly no isomorphism of coindexed sets from $\{3,4\}$ to $\{3,5\}$, so those two traditional sets are not equal in the category of coindexed sets.

I made up the phrase “coindexed set” to use in this sense, since it is a kind of opposite of indexed set. If terminology for this already exists, lemme know. Linguists will tell you they use the word “coindexed” in a different sense.

## Elements

The concept of “element” in categorical thinking is very different from the traditional idea, where an element of a set can be any mathematical object. In categorical thinking, an element of an object $A$ of a category $\mathbf{C}$ is an arrow $1\to A$ where $1$ is the terminal object. Thus $4$ as an integer is the arrow $1\to \mathbb{Z}$ whose unique value is the number $4$.

### An object is an element of only one set

In the usage of category theory, the arrow $1\to\mathbb{R}$ whose value is the real number $4$ is a different math object from the arrow $1\to\mathbb{Z}$ whose value is the integer $4$.

A category theorist will probably agree that we can identify the integer $4$ with the real number $4$ via the well known canonical embedding of the ring of integers into the field of real numbers. But in categorical thinking you have to keep all such embeddings in mind; you don’t say the integer $4$ is the same thing as the real number $4$. (Most computer languages keep them distinct, too.)

This difference is actually not hard to get used to and is in fact an improvement over traditional set theory. When you do category theory you use lots of commutative diagrams. The embeddings show up as monic arrows and are essential in keeping the different objects ($\mathbb{Z}$ and $\mathbb{R}$ in the example) separate.

The paper Relating first-order set theory and elementary toposes, by Awodey, Butz, Simpson and Streicher, introduces a concept of “structural system of inclusions” that appears to me to restore the idea of object being an element of more than one set for many purposes.

Homotopy type theory allows an object to have only one type, with much the same effect as in the categorical approach.

### Variable elements

The arrow $1\to \mathbb{Z}$ that picks out the integer $4$ is a constant function. It is useful to think of any arrow $A\to B$ of any category as a variable element (or generalized element) of the object $B$. For example, the function $f:\mathbb{R}\to \mathbb{R}$ defined by $f(x)=x^2$ allows you to
think of $x^2$ as a variable number with real parameter. This is another way of thinking about the “$y$” in the equation $y=x^2$, which is commonly called a dependent variable.

One way to think about $y$ is that some statements about it are true, some are false, and many statements are neither true nor false.

• $y\geq 0$ is true.
• $y\lt0$ is false.
• $y\leq1$ is neither true nor false.

This way of thinking about variable objects clears up a lot of confusion about variables and deserves to be more widely used in teaching.

The book Category theory for computing science provides some examples of the use of variable elements as a way of thinking about categorical ideas.

### References

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# The only axiom of algebra

This is one of a series of posts I am writing to help me develop my thoughts about how particular topics in my book Abstracting Algebra (“AbAl“) should be organized. This post concerns the relation between substitution and evaluation that essentially constitutes the definition of algebra. The Mathematica code for the diagrams is in Subs Eval.nb.

## Substitution and evaluation

This post depends heavily on your understanding of the ideas in the post Presenting binary operations as trees.

### Notation for evaluation

I have been denoting evaluation of an expression represented as a tree like this:

In standard algebra notation this would be written:$(6-4)-1=2-1=1$

#### Comments

This treatment of evaluation is intended to give you an intuition about evaluation that is divorced from the usual one-dimensional (well, nearly) notation of standard algebra. So it is sloppy. It omits fine points that will have to be included in AbAl.

• The evaluation goes from bottom up until it reaches a single value.
• If you reach an expression with an empty box, evaluation stops. Thus $(6-3)-a$ evaluates only to $3-a$.
• $(6-a)-1$ doesn’t evaluate further at all, although you can use properties peculiar to “minus” to change it to $5-a$.
• I used the boxed “1” to show that the value is represented as a trivial tree, not a number. That’s so it can be substituted into another tree.

### Notation for substitution

I will use a configuration like this

to indicate the data needed to substitute the lower tree into the upper one at the variable (blank box). The result of the substitution is the tree

In standard algebra one would say, “Substitute $3\times 4$ for $a$ in the expression $a+5$.” Note that in doing this you have to name the variable.

#### Example

“If you substitute $12$ for $a$ in $a+5$ you get $12+5$”:

results in

#### Example

“If you substitute $3\times 4$ for $a$ in $a+b$ you get $3\times4+b$”:

results in

#### Comments

Like evaluation, this treatment of substitution omits details that will have to be included in AbAl.

• You can also substitute on the right side.
• Substitution in standard algebraic notation often requires sudden syntactic changes because the standard notation is essentially two-dimensional. Example: “If you substitute $3+ 4$ for $a$ in $a\times b$ you get $(3+4)\times b$”.
• The allowed renaming of free variables except when there is a clash causes students much trouble. This has to be illustrated and contrasted with the “binop is tree” treatment which is context-free. Example: The variable $b$ in the expression $(3\times 4)+b$ by itself could be changed to $a$ or $c$, but in the sentence “If you substitute $3+ 4$ for $a$ in $a\times b$ you get $(3+4)\times b$”, the $b$ is bound. It is going to be difficult to decide how much of this needs explaining.

## The axiom

The Axiom for Algebra says that the operations of substitution and evaluation commute: if you apply them in either order, you get the same resulting tree. That says that for the current example, this diagram commutes:

The Only Axiom for Algebra

In standard algebra notation, this becomes:

• Substitute, then evaluate: If $a=3\times 4$, then $a+5=3\times 4+5=12+5$.
• Evaluate, then substitute: If $a=3\times 4$, then $a=12$, so $a+5=12+5$.

Well, how underwhelming. In ordinary algebra notation my so-called Only Axiom amounts to a mere rewording. But that’s the point:

 The Only Axiom of Algebra is what makes algebraic manipulation work.

### Miscellaneous comments

• In functional notation, the Only Axiom says precisely that $\text{eval}∘\text{subst}=\text{subst}∘(\text{eval},\text{id})$.
• The Only Axiom has a symmetric form: $\text{eval}∘\text{subst}=\text{subst}∘(\text{id},\text{eval})$ for the right branch.
• You may expostulate: “What about associativity and commutativity. They are axioms of algebra.” But they are axioms of particular parts of algebra. That’s why I include examples using operations such as subtraction. The Only Axiom is the (ahem) only one that applies to all algebraic expressions.
• You may further expostulate: Using monads requires the unitary or oneidentity axiom. Here that means that a binary operation $\Delta$ can be applied to one element $a$, and the result is $a$. My post Monads for high school III. shows how it is used for associative operations. The unitary axiom is necessary for representing arbitrary binary operations as a monad, which is a useful way to give a theoretical treatment of algebra. I don’t know if anyone has investigated monads-without-the-unitary-axiom. It sounds icky.
• The Only Axiom applies to things such as single valued functions, which are unary operations, and ternary and higher operations. They also apply to algebraic expressions involving many different operations of different arities. In that sense, my presentation of the Only Axiom only gives a special case.
• In the case of unary operations, evaluation is what we usually call evaluation. If you think about sets the way I do (as a special kind of category), evaluation is the same as composition. See “Rethinking Set Theory”, by Tom Leinster, American Mathematical Monthly, May, 2014.
• Calculus functions such as sine and the exponential are unary operations. But not all of calculus is algebra, because substitution in the differential and integral operators is context-sensitive.

## References

### Preceding posts in this series

##### Remarks concerning these posts
• Each of the posts in this series discusses how I will present a small part of AbAl.
• The wording of some parts of the posts may look like a first draft, and such wording may indeed appear in the text.
• In many places I will talk about how I should present the topic, since I am not certain about it.

### Other references

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# Binary operations as trees

This is one of a series of posts I am writing to help me develop my thoughts about how particular topics in my book Abstracting Algebra (“AbAl“) should be organized. In some parts, I present various options that I have not decided between.

This post concerns the presen­ta­tion of binary operations as trees. The Mathematica code for the diagrams is in Substitution in algebra.nb

## Binary operations as functions

A binary operation or binop $\Delta$ is a function of two variables whose value at $(a,b)$ is traditionally denoted by $a\Delta b$. Most commonly, the function is restricted to having inputs and outputs in the same set. In other words, a binary operation is a function $\Delta:S\times S\to S$ defined on some set $S$. $S$ is the underlying set of the operation. For now, this will be the definition, although binops may be generalized to multiple sets later in the book.

In AbAl:

• Binops will be defined as functions in the way just described.
• Algebraic expressions will be represented
as trees, which exhibit more clearly the structure of the expressions that is encoded in algebraic notation.
• They will also be represented using the usual infix expressions such as “$3\times 5$” and “$3-5$”,

### Fine points

The definition of a binop as a function has termi­no­logical consequences. The correct point of view concerning a function is that it determines its domain and its codomain. In particular:

A binary operation determines its underlying set.

Thus if we talk about an arbitrary binop $\Delta$, we don’t have to give a name to its underlying set. We can just say “the underlying set of $\Delta$” or “$U(\Delta)$”.

#### Examples

“$+$” is not one binary operation.

• $+:\mathbb{Z}\times\mathbb{Z}\to\mathbb{Z}$ is a binary operation.
• $+:\mathbb{R}\times\mathbb{R}\to\mathbb{R}$ is another binary operation.

Mathematicians commonly refer to these particular binops as “addition on the integers” and “addition on the reals”.

#### Remark

You almost never see this attitude in textbooks on algebra. It is required by both category theory and type theory, two Waves flooding into math. Category theory is a middle-aged Wave and type theory, in the version of homo­topy type theory, is a brand new baby Wave. Both Waves have changed and will change our under­standing of math in deep ways.

## Trees

An arbitrary binop $\Delta$ can be represented as a binary tree in this way:

generic binop

This tree represents the expression that in standard algebraic notation is “$a\Delta b$”.

In more detail, the tree is an ordered rooted binary tree. The “ordered” part means that the leaves (nodes with no descendants) are in a specific left to right order. In AbAl, I will define trees in some detail, with lots of pictures.

The root shows the operation and the two leaves show elements of the underlying set. I follow the custom in computing science to put the root at the top.

Metaphors should not dictate your life by being taken literally.

#### Remark

The Wikipedia treatment of trees is scat­tered over many articles and they almost always describe things mostly in words, not pictures. Describing math objects in words when you could use pictures is against my religion. Describing is not the same as defining, which usually requires words.

#### Some concrete examples:

3trees

These are represen­ta­tions of the expressions “$3+5$”, “$3\times5$”, and “$3-5$”.

Just as “$5+3$” is a different expression from “$3+5$”, the left tree in 3trees above is a different expression from this one:

switch

They have the same value, but they are distinct as expressions — otherwise, how could you state the commutative law?

#### Fine points

I regard an expression as an abstract math object that can have many repre­sentations. For example “$3+5$” and the left tree in 3trees are two different represen­ta­tions of the same (abstract) expression. This deviates from the usual idea that “expression” refers to a typographical construction.

In previous posts, when the operation is not commutative, I have sometimes labeled the legs like this:

I have thought about using this notation consistently in AbAl, but I suspect it would be awkward in places.

## Evaluation and substitution

 The two basic operations on algebraic expressions are evaluation and substitution.

They and the Only Axiom of Algebra, which I will discuss in a later post, are all that is needed to express the true nature of algebra.

### Evaluation

• If you evaluate $3+5$ you get $8$.
• If you evaluate $3\times 5$ you get $15$.
• If you evaluate $3-5$ you get $-2$.

I will show evaluation on trees like this:

#### Evaluation with trace

A more elaborate version, valuation with trace, would look like this. This allows you to keep track of where the valuations come from.

You could also keep track of the operation used at each node. An interactive illustration of this is in the post Visible algebra I supplement. That illustration requires CDF Player to be installed on your computer. You can get it free from the Mathematica website.

### Variables

In the tree above, the $a$ and $b$ are variables, just as they are in the equivalent expression $a\Delta b$. Algebra beginners have a hard time understanding variables.

• You can’t evaluate an expression until you substitute numbers for the letters, which produces an instance of expression. (“Instance” is the preferable name for this, but I often refer to such a thing as an “example”.)
• If a variable is repeated you have to substitute the same value for each occurrence. So $a\Delta b$ is a different expression from $a\Delta a$: $2+3$ is an instance of $a+b$ but it is not an instance of $a+a$. But $a\Delta a$ and $b\Delta b$ are the same expression: any instance of one is an instance of the other.
• Substitute $a\Delta b$ for $a$ in $a\Delta b$ and you get $(a\Delta b)\Delta b$. You may have committed variable clash. You might have meant $(a\Delta b)\Delta c$. (Somebody please tell me a good link that describes variable clash.)
• Later, you will deal with multiplication tables for algebraic structures. There the elements are denoted by letters of the alphabet. They can’t be substituted for.

#### Empty boxes

A straightforward way to denote variables would be to use empty boxes:

The idea is that a number (element of the underlying set) can be inserted in each box. If $3$ (left) and $5$ (right) are placed in the boxes, evaluation would place the value of $3\Delta5$ in the root. Each empty box represents a separate variable.

Empty boxes could also be used in the standard algebraic notation: $\Delta$ or $+$ or $-$.
I have seen that notation in texts explaining variables, but I don’t know a reference. I expect to use this notation with trees in AbAl.

To achieve the effect of one variable in two different places, as in

we can cause it to repeat, as below, where “$\text{id}$” denotes the identity function on the underlying set:

To evaluate at a number (member of the underlying set) you insert a number into the only empty box

which evaluates to

which of course evaluates to $3\Delta3$.

This way of treating repeated variables exhibits the nature of repeated variables explicitly and naturally, putting the values automatically in the correct places. This process, like everything in this section, comes from monad theory. It also reminds me of linear logic in that it shows that if you want to use a value more than once you have to copy it.

### Substitution

Given two binary trees

you could attach the root of the first one to one of the leaves of the second one, in two different ways, to get these trees:

2trees

which in standard algebra notation would be written $(a-b)-c)$ and $a-(b-c)$ respectively. Note that this tree

would be represented in algebra as $(a-b)-b$.

In general, substituting a tree for an input (variable or empty box) consists of replacing the empty box by the whole tree, identifying the root of the new tree with the empty box. In graph theorem, “substitution” may be called “grafting”, which is a good metaphor.

You can evaluate the left tree in 2trees at particular numbers to evaluate it in two stages:

Of course, evaluating the right one at the same values would give you a different answer, since subtraction is not associative. Here is another example:

#### Binary trees in general

By repeated substitution, you can create general binary trees built up of individual trees of this form:

In AbAl I will give examples of such things and their counterparts in algebraic notation. This will include binary trees involving more than one binop, as well. I showed an example in the previous post, which example I repeat here:

It represents the precise unsimplified expression

$A=wh+\frac{1}{2}\left(\pi(\frac{1}{2}w)^2\right)$

Some of the operations in that tree are associative and commutative, which is why the expression can be simplified. The collection of all (finite) binary trees built out of a single binop with no assumption that it satisfies laws (associative, commutative and so on) is the free algebra on that binary operation. It is the mother of all binary operations, so it plays the same role for an arbitrary binop that the set of lists plays for associative operations, as described in Monads for High School III: Algebras. All this will be covered in later chapters of AbAl.

## References

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# Rigorous proofs

## Rich and rigorous

When we try to understand a math statement, we visualize what the statement says using metaphors, images and kinetic feelings to feel how it is true, or to suggest that the statement is not true.

If we are convinced that it is true, we may then want to prove it. Doing that involves pitching out all the lovely pictures and metaphors and gestures and treating the mathematical objects involved in the proof as static and inert. “Static” means the object does not change. “Inert” means that it does not affect anything else. I am saying how we think about math objects for the purpose of rigorous proof. I am not saying anything about “what math objects are”.

In this post I give a detailed example of a proof of the rigorous sort.

## Example

### Informal statement

First, I’ll describe this example in typical spoken mathematical English. Suppose you suspect that the following statement is true:

Claim: Let $f(x)$ be a differentiable function with $f'(a)=0$.
Going from left to right, suppose the graph of $f(x)$ goes UP before $x$ reaches $a$ and then DOWN for $x$ to the right of $a$
Then $a$ has to be a local maximum of the function.

This claim is written in informal math English. Mathematicians talk like that a lot. In this example they will probably wave their hands around in swoops.

The language used is an attempt to get a feeling for the graph going up to $(a,f(a))$ and then falling away from it. It uses two different metaphors for $x\lt a$ and $x\gt a$. I suspect that most of us would want to clean that up a bit even in informal writing.

### A more formal statement

Theorem: Let $f$ be a real valued differentiable function defined on an open interval $R$. Let $a$ be a number in $R$ for which $f'(a)=0$. Suppose that for all $x\in R$, $f$ increases for $x\lt a$ and decreases for $x\gt a$. Then $f(a)$ is a maximum of $f$ in $R$.

### Proof

1. By definition of derivative, $\lim_{x\to a}\frac{f(x)-f(a)}{x-a}=0.$
2. By definition of limit, then for any positive $\epsilon$ there is a positive $\delta$ for which if $0\lt|x-a|\lt\delta$ then $\left|\frac{f(x)-f(a)}{x-a}\right|\lt\epsilon.$
3. By requiring that $\delta\lt 1$, it follows from (2) that for any positive $\epsilon$, there is a positive $\delta$ for which if $0\lt|x-a|\lt\delta$, then $|f(x)-f(a)|\lt\epsilon$.
4. “$f$ increases for $x\lt a$” means that if $x$ and $y$ are numbers in $R$ and $x\lt y\lt a$, then $f(x)\lt f(y)$.
5. “$f$ decreases for $x\gt a$” means that if $x$ and $y$ are numbers in $R$ and $a\lt x\lt y$, then $f(x)\gt f(y)$.
6. “$f(a)$ is a maximum of $f$ in $R$” means that for $x\in R$, if $x\neq a$, then $f(x)\lt f(a)$.
7. Suppose that $x\in R$ and $x\lt a$. (The case that $x\gt a$ has a symmetric proof.)
8. Given $\epsilon\gt0$ with $\delta$ as given by (3), choose $y\in R$ such that $x\lt y\lt a$ and $|f(y)-f(a)|\lt\epsilon$.
9. By (4), $f(x)\lt f(y)$. So by (8), \begin{align*} f(x)-f(a)&= f(x)-f(y)+f(y)-f(a)\\ &\lt f(y)-f(a)\\ &\leq|f(y)-f(a)|\lt\epsilon\end{align*}
so that $f(x)\lt f(a)+\epsilon$. By inserting “$-f(y)+f(y)$” into the second formula, I am “adding zero cleverly”, an example of pulling a rabbit out of a hat. Students hate that. But you have to live with it; as long as the statements following are correct, it makes a valid proof. Rabbit-out-of-a-hat doesn’t make a proof wrong, but it does make you wonder how the author thought of it. Live with it.
10. Since (9) is true for all positive $\epsilon$, it follows that $f(x)\leq f(a)$.
11. By the same argument as that leading up to (10), $f(\frac{x-a}{2})\leq f(a)$.
12. Since $f(x)\lt f(\frac{x-a}{2})$, it follows that $f(x)\lt f(a)$ as required.

## About the proof

This proof is intended to be a typical “rigorous” proof. I suspect it tends to be more rigorous than most mathematicians would find necessary,

### Extensionality

The point about “rigor”, about insisting that the objects be static and inert, is that this causes symbols and expression to retain the same meaning throughout the text. This is one aspect of extensionality.

Of course, some of the symbols denote variables, or variable objects. This does not mean they are “varying”. I am taking this point of view: A variable refers to a math object but you don’t know what it is. Constraints such as $x\lt a$ rule out some possible values but don’t generally tell you exactly what $x$ is. There is more about this in Variable Objects

The idea in (6), for example, is that $y$ denotes a real number. You don’t know which number it is, but you do know some facts about it: $x\lt y\lt a$, $|f(y)\lt f(a)|\lt\epsilon$ and so on. Similarly you don’t know what function $f$ is, but you do know some facts about it: It is differentiable, for example, and $f'(a)=0$.

My statement that the variables aren’t “varying” means specifically that each unbound occurrence of the variable refers to the same value as any other occurrence, unless some intervening remark changes its meaning. For example, the references to $x$ in (7) through (10) refer to the same value it has in (6), and (10), in particular, constitutes a statement that the claim about $x$ is correct.

### Checkability

The elimination of metaphors that lets the proof achieve rigor is part of a plan in the back of the mind of at least some mathematicians who write proofs. The idea is that the proof be totally checkable:

• Every statement in the proof has a semantics, a meaning, that is invariant (given the remark about variables above).
• Each statement is justified by some of the previous statements. This justification is given by two systems that the reader is supposed to understand.
• One system is the rules of symbol manipulation that are applied to the symbolic expressions, ordinary algebra, and higher-level manipulations used in particular branches of math.
• The other system consists of the rules of logical reasoning that justify the claims that each statement follows logically from preceding ones.
• These two systems are really branches of one system, the entire system of math computation and reasoning. It can be obscure which system is being used in a particular step.

## Suppression of reasons

The logical and symbolic-manipulation reasons justifying the deductions may not be made completely explicit. In fact, for many steps they may not be mentioned at all, and for others, one or two phrases may be used to give a hint. This is standard practice in writing “rigorous” proofs. That is a descriptive statement, made without criticism. Giving all the reasons is essentially impossible without a computer.

I am aware that some work has been done to write proof checkers that can read a theorem like the one we are considering, stated in natural language, and correctly implement the semantics I have described in this list. I don’t know of any references to such work and would appreciate information about it.

Suppression of reasons makes it difficult to mechanically check a proof written in this standard “rigorous” writing style. Basically, you must be at at least the graduate student level to be able to make sense of what is said, and even experienced math research people find it difficult to read a paper in a very different field. Writing the proof so that it can be checked by a proof checker requires understanding of the same sort, and it typically makes the proof much longer.

One hopeful new approach is to write the proofs using homotopy type theory. The pioneers in that field report that the proofs don’t expand nearly as much as is required by first order logic.

### Examples of suppression

Here are many examples of suppression in the $\epsilon$-$\delta$ proof above. This is intended to raise your consciousness concerning how nearly opaque writing in math research is to anyone but the cognoscenti.

• The first sentence of the theorem names $R$ and $f$ and puts constraints on them that can be used to justify statements in the proof. The naming of $R$ and $f$ requires that every occurrence of $R$ in the proof refers to the same mathematical object, and similarly for $f$.

Remark: The savvy reader “knows” the facts stated in (a), possibly entirely subconsciously. For many of us there is no conscious thought of constraints and permanence of naming. My goal is to convince those who teach beginning abstract math course to become conscious of these phenomena. This remark applies to all the following items as well.

• The second sentence gives $a$ a specific meaning that will be maintained throughout the proof. It also puts constraints on $a$ and an additional constraint on $f$.
• The third sentence gives a constraint on $R$, $f$ and $a$. It does not give a constraint on $x$, which is a bound variable. Nor does it name $x$ as a specific number with the same meaning in the rest of the proof. (That happens later).
• The fact that the first three sentences impose constraints on various objects is signaled by the fact that the sentences are introduced by “let” and “suppose”. The savvy reader knows this.
• The fourth sentence announces that “$f(a)$ is a maximum of $f$ in $R$” is a consequence of the constraints imposed by the preceding three sentences. (In other words, it follows from the context.) This is signaled by the word “then”.
• The fact that the paragraph is labeled “Theorem” informs us that the fourth sentence is therefore a statement of what is to be proved, and that every constraint imposed by the first three sentences of the Theorem may be used in the proof.
• In the proof, statements (1), (4), (5) and (6) rewrite the statements in the theorem according to the definitions of the words involved, namely “derivative: “increases”, “decreases” and “maximum”. Rewriting statements according to the definitions of the words involved is a fundamental method for starting a proof.
• (2) follows from (1) by rewriting using the definition of “limit”. Note that pattern-matching against the definition of limit requires understanding that there is a zero inside the absolute value signs that is not written down. Could a computer proof-checker handle that?
• (3) follows from (2). The reader or proof-checker must:
• Know that it is acceptable to put an upper bound on $\delta$ in the definition of limit.
• Notice that you can move $|x-a|$ out of the denominator because $x\neq a$ by (2).
• The conclusion in (6) that we much show that $f(x)\lt f(a)$ is now the statement we must prove.

Remark: In the following items, I mention the context of the proof. I am using the word informally here. It is used in some forms of formal logic with a related but more precise meaning. The context consists of the variables you must hold in your head as you read each part of the proof, along with their current constraints. “Current” means the “now” that you are in when considering the step of the proof you are reading right now. I give some references at the end of the post.

• At the point between (6) and (7), our context consists of $a$, $R$ and $f$ all subject to some constraints. $x$ is not yet in the context of our proof because its previous occurrences in the theorems and in (1) through (6) have been bound, mostly by an unexpressed universal quantifier. Now we are to think of $x$ as a specific number bound by some constraints.
• The statement in (7) that the case $x\gt a$ as a symmetric proof is a much higher-level claim than the other steps in this proof, even though in fact it is not very high level compared to statements such as “An application of Serre’s spectral sequence shows$\ldots$”. Most mathematicians with even a little experience will read this statement and accept it in the confidence that they will know how to swap “$\lt$” and “$\gt$” in the proof in the correct way (which is a bit picky) to provide a dual proof. Some students might write out the dual proof to make sure they understand it (more likely because writing it out was a class assignment). I await the day that an automated proof checker can handle a statement like this.
• (8) introduces three new math objects $\epsilon$, $\delta$ and $y$ subject to several constraints. The symbols occur earlier but they are all bound. $\epsilon$ will be fixed in our context from now until (10). The others don’t appear later.
• (9) consists of several steps of algebraic computation. A cognoscent (I am tired of writing “savvy”) reader first looks at the computation as a whole and notices that it deduces that $|f(x)-f(a)|\lt\epsilon$, which is almost what is to be proved. This helps the reader understand the reason for the calculation. No mention whatever is made in this step of all this stuff that should go through your mind (or the proof-checker’s “mind”).
• The computations in (9) are are basic algebra not explained step by step, except that the remark that $f(x)\lt f(y)$ explains how you get $f(x)-f(y)+f(y)-f(a) \lt f(y)-f(a)$.
• (10) banishes $\epsilon$ from the context by universally quantifying over it. That $f(x)\leq f(a)$ follows by the garbage-dump-in-Star-Wars trick that often baffles first year analysis students: Since for all positive $\epsilon$, $f(x)\lt f(a)+\epsilon$, then $f(x)\leq f(a)$. (See also Terry Tao’s article in Tricks Wiki.)
• (11) “By the same argument as leading up to (10)” puts some demands on the reader, who has to discover that you have to go back to (7) and do the following steps with a new context using a value of $x$ that is halfway closer to $a$ than the “old” $x$ was. This means in particular that the choice of $\frac{x-2}{2}$ is unnecessarily specific. But it works.
• (12) suppresses the reference to (11).
• ## References

I have written extensively on these topics. Here are some links.

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# Abstracting algebra

This post has been turned into a page on WordPress, accessible in the upper right corner of the screen.  The page will be referred to by all topic posts for Abstracting Algebra.

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# Algebra is a difficult foreign language

Note: This post uses MathJax.  If you see mathematical formulas with dollar signs around them, or badly formatted formulas, try refreshing the screen. Sometimes you have to do it two or three times.

## Algebra

In a previous post, I said that the symbolic language of mathematics is difficult to learn and that we don't teach it well. (The symbolic language includes as a subset the notation used in high school algebra, precalculus, and calculus.) I gave some examples in that post but now I want to go into more detail.  This discussion is an incomplete sketch of some aspects of the syntax of the symbolic language.  I will write one or more posts about the semantics later.

### The languages of math

First, let's distinguish between mathematical English and the symbolic language of math.

• Mathematical English is a special register or jargon of English. It has not only its special vocabulary, like any jargon, but also used ordinary English words such as "If…then", "definition" and "let" in special ways.
• The symbolic language of math is a distinct, special-purpose written language which is not a dialect of the English language and can in fact be read by mathematicians with little knowledge of English.
• It has its own symbols and rules that are quite different from spoken languages.
• Simple expressions can be pronounced, but complicated expressions may only be pointed to or referred to.
• A mathematical article or book is typically written using mathematical English interspersed with expressions in the symbolic language of math.

### Symbolic expressions

A symbolic noun (logicians call it a term) is an expression in the symbolic language that names a number or other mathematical object, and may carry other information as well.

• "3" is a noun denoting the number 3.
• "$\text{Sym}_3$" is a noun denoting the symmetric group of order 3.
• "$2+1$" is a noun denoting the number 3.  But it contains more information than that: it describes a way of calculating 3 as a sum.
• "$\sin^2\frac{\pi}{4}$" is a noun denoting the number $\frac{1}{2}$, and it also describes a computation that yields the number $\frac{1}{2}$.  If you understand the symbolic language and know that $\sin$ is a numerical function, you can recognize "$\sin^2\frac{\pi}{4}$" as a symbolic noun representing a number even if you don't know how to calculate it.
• "$2+1$" and "$\sin^2\frac{\pi}{4}$" are said to be encapsulated computations.
• The word "encapsulated" refers to the fact that to understand what the expressions mean, you must think of the computation not as a process but as an object.
• Note that a computer program is also an object, not a process.
• "$a+1$" and "$\sin^2\frac{\pi x}{4}$" are encapsulated computations containing variables that represent numbers. In these cases you can calculate the value of these computations if you give values to the variables.

symbolic statement is a symbolic expression that represents a statement that is either true or false or free, meaning that it contains variables and is true or false depending on the values assigned to the variables.

• $\pi\gt0$ is a symbolic assertion that is true.
• $\pi\lt0$ is a symbolic assertion that it is false.  The fact that it is false does not stop it from being a symbolic assertion.
• $x^2-5x+4\gt0$ is an assertion that is true for $x=5$ and false for $x=1$.
• $x^2-5x+4=0$ is an assertion that is true for $x=1$ and $x=4$ and false for all other numbers $x$.
• $x^2+2x+1=(x+1)^2$ is an assertion that is true for all numbers $x$.

### Properties of the symbolic language

The constituents of a symbolic expression are symbols for numbers, variables and other mathematical objects. In a particular expression, the symbols are arranged according to conventions that must be understood by the reader. These conventions form the syntax or grammar of symbolic expressions.

The symbolic language has been invented piecemeal by mathematicians over the past several centuries. It is thus a natural language and like all natural languages it has irregularities and often results in ambiguous expressions. It is therefore difficult to learn and requires much practice to learn to use it well. Students learn the grammar in school and are often expected to understand it by osmosis instead of by being taught specifically.  However, it is not as difficult to learn well as a foreign language is.

In the basic symbolic language, expressions are written as strings of symbols.

• The symbolic language gives (sometimes ambiguous) meaning to symbols placed above or below the line of symbols, so the strings are in some sense more than one dimensional but less than two-dimensional.
• Integral notation, limit notation, and others, are two-dimensional enough to have two or three levels of symbols.
• Matrices are fully two-dimensional symbols, and so are commutative diagrams.
• I will not consider graphs (in both senses) and geometric drawings in this post because I am not sure what I want to write about them.

## Syntax of the language

One of the basic methods of the symbolic language is the use of constructors.  These can usually be analyzed as functions or operators, but I am thinking of "constructor" as a linguistic device for producing an expression denoting a mathematical object or assertion. Ordinary languages have constructors, too; for example "-ness" makes a noun out of a verb ("good" to "goodness") and "and" forms a grouping ("men and women").

### Special symbols

The language uses special symbols both as names of specific objects and as constructors.

• The digits "0", "1", "2" are named by special symbols.  So are some other objects: "$\emptyset$", "$\infty$".
• Certain verbs are represented by special symbols: "$=$", "$\lt$", "$\in$", "$\subseteq$".
• Some constructors are infixes: "$2+3$" denotes the sum of 2 and 3 and "$2-3$" denotes the difference between them.
• Others are placed before, after, above or even below the name of an object.  Examples: $a'$, which can mean the derivative of $a$ or the name of another variable; $n!$ denotes $n$ factorial; $a^\star$ is the dual of $a$ in some contexts; $\vec{v}$ constructs a vector whose name is "$v$".
• Letters from other alphabets may be used as names of objects, either defined in the context of a particular article, or with more nearly global meaning such as "$\pi$" (but "$\pi$" can denote a projection, too).

This is a lot of stuff for students to learn. Each symbol has its own rules of use (where you put it, which sort of expression you may it with, etc.)  And the meaning is often determined by context. For example $\pi x$ usually means $\pi$ multiplied by $x$, but in some books it can mean the function $\pi$ evaluated at $x$. (But this is a remark about semantics — more in another post.)

### "Systematic" notation

• The form "$f(x)$" is systematically used to denote the value of a function $f$ at the input $x$.  But this usage has variations that confuse beginning students:
• "$\sin\,x$" is more common than "$\sin(x)$".
• When the function has just been named as a letter, "$f(x)$" is more common that "$fx$" but many authors do use the latter.
• Raising a symbol after another symbol commonly denotes exponentiation: "$x^2$" denotes $x$ times $x$.  But it is used in a different meaning in the case of tensors (and elsewhere).
• Lowering a symbol after another symbol, as in "$x_i$"  may denote an item in a sequence.  But "$f_x$" is more likely to denote a partial derivative.
• The integral notation is quite complicated.  The expression $\int_a^b f(x)\,dx$ has three parameters, $a$, $b$ and $f$, and a bound variable $x$ that specifies the variable used in the formula for $f$.  Students gradually learn the significance of these facts as they work with integrals.

### Variables

Variables have deep problems concerned with their meaning (semantics). But substitution for variables causes syntactic problems that students have difficulty with as well.

• Substituting $4$ for $x$ in the expression $3+x$ results in $3+4$.
• Substituting $4$ for $x$ in the expression $3x$ results in $12$, not $34$.
• Substituting "$y+z$" in the expression $3x$ results in $3(y+z)$, not $3y+z$.  Some of my calculus students in preforming this substitution would write $3\,\,y+z$, using a space to separate.  The rules don't allow that, but I think it is a perfectly natural mistake.

### Using expressions and writing about them

• If I write "If $x$ is an odd integer, then $3+x$ is odd", then I am using $3+x$ in a sentence. It is a noun denoting an unspecified number which can be constructed in a specified way.
• When I mention substituting $4$ for $x$ in "$3+x$", I am talking about the expression $3+x$.  I am not writing about a number, I am writing about a string of symbols.  This distinction causes students major difficulties and teacher hardly ever talk about it.
• In the section on variables, I wrote "the expression $3+x$", which shows more explicitly that I am talking about it as an expression.
• Note that quotes in novels don't mean you are talking about the expression inside the quotes, it means you are describing the act of a person saying something.
• It is very common to write something like, "If I substitute $4$ for $x$ in $3x$ I get $3 \times 4=12$".  This is called a parenthetic assertion, and it is literally nonsense (it says I get an equation).
• If I pronounce the sentence "We know that $x\gt0$" we pronounce "$x\gt0$" as "$x$ is greater than zero",  If I pronounce the sentence "For any $x\gt0$ there is $y\gt0$ for which $x\gt y$", then I pronounce the expression "$x\gt0$" as "$x$ greater than zero\$",  This is an example of context-sensitive pronunciation
• There is a lot more about parenthetic assertions and context-sensitive pronunciation in More about the languages of math.

## Conclusion

I have described some aspects of the syntax of the symbolic language of math. Learning that syntax is difficult and requires a lot of practice. Students who manage to learn the syntax and semantics can go on to learn further math, but students who don't are forever blocked from many rewarding careers. I heard someone say at the MathFest in Madison that about 25% of all high school students never really understand algebra.  I have only taught college students, but some students (maybe 5%) who get into freshman calculus in college are weak enough in algebra that they cannot continue.

I am not proposing that all aspects of the syntax (or semantics) be taught explicitly.  A lot must be learned by doing algebra, where they pick up the syntax subconsciously just as they pick up lots of other behavior-information in and out of school. But teachers should explicitly understand the structure of algebra at least in some basic way so that they can be aware of the source of many of the students' problems.

It is likely that the widespread use of computers will allow some parts of the symbolic language of math to be replaced by other methods such as using Excel or some visual manipulation of operations as suggested in my post Mathematical and linguistic ability.  It is also likely that the symbolic language will gradually be improved to get rid of ambiguities and irregularities.  But a deliberate top-down effort to simplify notation will not succeed. Such things rarely succeed.

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