"From error to error one discovers the entire truth."
- Sigmund Freud
When I have some time (when I retire?) I would like
to
collect in this page the most interesting incorrect proofs and
algorithms
in the field of geometry. Like psychologists with illusions, I am
fascinated
by those things that don't work as we expect them to, and why they
don't.
In the mean time, below are some interesting references.
Proofs:
- Scientific
Practice and Thinking - A Course
- Proof
- The International Newsletter on Teaching and Learning Mathematical
Proof
- PLUS - A
great math
thinking site
- L. I. Golovina and I. M. Yaglom, Induction in
Geometry,
Mir Publishers, Moscow, 1979. [Examples of how to
prove geometry theorems using induction.]
- A. I. Fetisov, Proof in Geometry, Mir
Publishers,
Moscow, 1978. [A nice elementary discussion on
what
is a proof, when and why it is necessary and what things may be
accepted
without proof.]
- I. Kleiner and N. Movshovitz-Hadar, "Proof: A
Many-Splendored
Thing," The Mathematical Intelligencer,
vol. 19, No. 3, Summer 1997, pp. 16-26. [A
fascinating historical perspective on proving things.]
- Selected
publications on Proof
Refutations:
- Bryan Bunch, Mathematical
Fallacies
and Paradoxes, Dover publications, Inc., Mineola, New York, 1982.
- Ya. S. Dubnov, Errores en
las Demostraciones
Geometricas, Rubinos, Madrid, Spain, 1993. (in Spanish)
- Common
errors in mathematics
Research Interests
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