Proofs and Modern Mathematics

How do mathematicians think? Why are the mathematical facts learned in school true? In this course students will explore higher-level mathematical thinking and will gain familiarity with a crucial aspect of mathematics: achieving certainty via mathematical proofs, a creative activity of figuring out what should be true and why. This course is ideal for students who would like to learn about the reasoning underlying mathematical results, but at a pace and level of abstraction not as intense as Math 61CM/DM, as a consequence benefiting from additional opportunity to explore the reasoning. Familiarity with one-variable calculus is strongly recommended at least at the AB level of AP Calculus since a significant part of the course develops some of the main results in that material systematically from a small list of axioms. We also address linear algebra from the viewpoint of a mathematician, illuminating notions such as fields and abstract vector spaces. This course may be paired with Math 51; though that course is not a pre- or co-requisite. CS majors who complete Math 56 can petition to count CS 154 in place of CS 103.