Math 398 - History of Math -- Chapter 2 Reading Assignments
January 31 - February 21

Be sure to check back every so often, because this may change during the semester.
(Last modified: Sunday, February 18, 2001, 1:52 PM )

Unless otherwise indicated, all reading are from Mathematical Expeditions by Laubenbacher and Pengelley.

For Wednesday January 31

Email Subject Line : Math 398 1/31 Your Name
To read: Pg 54 through the second paragraph on pg 56 and Section 2.2

Reading Question:

  1. Can you explain why the Bolzano-Weierstrass Theorem should be true?
  2. What are the main paradoxes Bolzano addresses in the excerpt from Paradoxes of the Infinte ?

For Friday February 2

Email Subject Line : Math 398 2/2 Your Name
To read: Pg 56 through the last paragraph on pg 59

Reading Questions:

  1. What problem led Cantor to explore infinite sets?
  2. To you, what are the most remarkable conclusions of Cantor?

For Monday February 5

Email Subject Line : Math 398 2/5 Your Name
To read: Section 2.3 through pg 80

Reading Questions:

  1. What are the major ideas Cantor addresses in Section 1 of Contributions to the Founding of the Theory of Transfinite Numbers?
  2. What is the point of Section 2?

For Wednesday February 7

Email Subject Line : Math 398 2/7 Your Name
To read: Pg 60 and Sections 3 and 4 of Cantor's paper

Reading Questions:

  1. What is the significance of the fact that the power set of a set has larger cardinal number than the cardinal number of the set?
  2. Why does Cantor need to define addition and multiplication in Section 3?

For Friday February 9

Email Subject Line : Math 398 2/9 Your Name
To read: Section 4 of Cantor's paper and the first paragraph on pg 61

Reading Question:

    What is the significance of equation (12) in Section 4?

For Monday February 12

Email Subject Line : Math 398 2/12 Your Name
To read: Section 6 of Cantor's paper

Reading Question:

    What is the significance of equations (3) and (4) in Section 6?

For Wednesday February 14

Email Subject Line : Math 398 2/14 Your Name
To read: Pp 61-63

Reading Questions:

  1. What is an ordinal number?
  2. How can addition with ordinal numbers differ from addition with finite numbers?

For Friday February 16

Email Subject Line : Math 398 2/16 Your Name
To read: Pp 63-68

Reading Questions:

  1. Explain Russell's paradox in terms of the town barber.
  2. What was Zermelo's motivation for developing an axiomatic system for set theory?

For Monday February 19

Email Subject Line : Math 398 2/19 Your Name
To read: Section 2.4

Reading Question:

    Why is the set Z in Axiom VII infinite?

For Wednesday February 21

Recap of Chapter 2. No reading assignment for today.

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Last modified: Sunday, February 18, 2001, 1:52 PM