Natural Science 0216 - Math Experiments/Reasoning I

This course focuses on skills rather than content. The skills emphasized are the essential ones you need to work in any area in which a quantitative background is required. We will focus on the following: using computers to gain insight and develop intuition and to discover new patterns and relationships; using graphical display to suggest mathematical principles; testing and falsifying conjectures; exploring a possible result to see if it is worth a formal proof; suggesting approaches for formal proof; learning how to construct formal proofs; replacing lengthy hand-derivations with computer-based derivations; and confirming analytically-derived results. The topics studied will simply be the means to our desired end: obtaining the skills described above. They will come mostly from Number Theory.

Quantitative Skills In this course students are generally expected to spend at least 6 to 8 hours a week of preparation and work outside of class time.