What we've done so far

Monday August 26th
  • Overview
  • Some discussion of the order of quantifiers. If you switch the epsilon/delta in "continuous", you get "locally constant" (which we called "suounitnoc").
  • Converse, inverse, and contrapositive. Example given of CAPalert, where it is claimed of movies that "If it's inappropriate for children, it's inappropriate for adults!" So therefore, if a movie is appropriate for adults, it's appropriate for children?
  • Friday August 30th Starting proofs; proving by breaking into cases, then handling them one by one. Three examples given of breaking into cases: a geometric theorem, a baby number theory one, and one about gluing puzzle pieces together.
    Wednesday September 4th Proofs by contradiction and by induction. Why does induction work? It's really because every subset of the natural numbers has a smallest element.
    Friday September 6th A sample proof by contradiction: Euclid's proof of the infinitude of primes. Two sample proofs of induction: the formula for Fibonacci numbers, and the averaging theorem for juggling patterns.
    Monday September 9th Strong induction, and the end of the juggling-averaging proof.
    Wednesday September 11th One-to-one and onto stuff (from section 1.6).
    Friday September 13th The number of functions from X to Y, and the number of 1:1 functions. Euclid's algorithm. gcd(m,n) can be written as xm+yn for some x,y. (2.4)
    Monday September 16th Unique factorization of integers, and its failure in some other contexts. Congruences. (2.5)
    Wednesday September 18th More on congruences, division, Fermat's Little Theorem.
    Friday September 20th Chinese Remainder Theorem.
    Monday September 23rd RSA encryption.
    Wednesday September 25th Beginning counting. Sums vs. products. N choose K.
    Friday September 27th Counting juggling patterns. The recurrence relation on binomial coefficients, and Pascal's triangle.
    Monday and Wednesday September 30th, October 2nd Review for midterm #1.
    Friday October 4th Midterm #1.
    Monday October 7th More Pascal's triangle; a couple of binomial coefficient identities.
    Wednesday October 9th The stars-and-bars argument, and multinomial coefficients. (Section 4.6, Theorems 2 & 3)
    Friday October 11th The Evil King's scale of justice. Beginning probability.
    Monday October 14th The Evil King makes us sort. Lexicographic order (4.7).
    Wednesday October 16th Recurrences: Hanoi, Quicksort.
    Friday October 18th We did 5.1 #17 in class, and came up with a closed-form solution, but it wasn't as convenient as the actual recurrence! Also, Catalan numbers.
    Monday October 21st 5.2: Linear recurrences (homogeneous and inhomogeneous).
    Wednesday October 23rd 5.4: Generating functions.
    Friday October 25th More generating functions. The binomial theorem for noninteger exponents.
    Monday October 28th Using the binomial theorem to count binary trees.
    Wednesday October 30th Linear inhomogeneous recurrences. Beginning inclusion-exclusion.
    Friday November 1st More inclusion-exclusion. Counting derangements.
    M, W, F, W November 4th, 6th, 8th, 13th Reviewing for, taking, and going over the midterm.
    Friday November 15th More inclusion-exclusion.
    Monday November 18th More inclusion-exclusion. The Mobius function.
    Wednesday November 20th Beginning 1.8: little-o notation. Barely mentioned big-O.
    Friday November 22nd More on big-O notation.

    Monday 25th and Wednesday 27th: complexity of some algorithms, using big-O. Friday is off.
    Our last week (Dec 2,4,6): review of the semester.