How to Read and Do Proofs

This text makes a great supplement and provides a systematic approach for teaching undergraduate and graduate students how to read, understand, think about, and do proofs. The approach is to categorize, identify, and explain (at the student's level) the various techniques that are used repeatedly in all proofs, regardless of the subject in which the proofs arise. How to Read and Do Proofs also explains when each technique is likely to be used, based on certain key words that appear in the problem under consideration. Doing so enables students to choose a technique consciously, based on the form of the problem.

Foreword xi Preface to the Student xiii Preface to the Instructor xv Acknowledgments xviii Part I Proofs 1 Chapter 1: The Truth of It All 1 2 The Forward-Backward Method 9 3 On Definitions and Mathematical Terminology 25 4 Quantifiers I: The Construction Method 41 5 Quantifiers II: The Choose Method 53 6 Quantifiers III: Specialization 69 7 Quantifiers IV: Nested Quantifiers 81 8 Nots of Nots Lead to Knots 93 9 The Contradiction Method 101 10 The Contrapositive Method 115 11 The Uniqueness Methods 125 12 Induction 133 13 The Either/Or Methods 145 14 The Max/Min Methods 155 15 Summary 163 Part II Other Mathematical Thinking Processes 16 Generalization 179 17 Creating Mathematical Definitions 197 18 Axiomatic Systems 219 Appendix A Examples of Proofs from Discrete Mathematics 237 Appendix B Examples of Proofs from Linear Algebra 251 Appendix C Examples of Proofs from Modern Algebra 269 Appendix D Examples of Proofs from Real Analysis 287 Solutions to Selected Exercises 305 Glossary 357 References 367 Index 369