Degree Level Course
Mathematical Thinking
To introduce ideas of proofs and problem solving in mathematics and to help in the transition from learning basic mathematical methods to the learning of more advanced mathematical methods and ideas.
Course ID: BSMA2001
Course Credits: 4
Course Type: Elective
Pre-requisites: None
Course structure & Assessments
8 weeks of coursework, weekly online assignments, 2 in-person invigilated quizzes, 1 in-person invigilated end term exam. For details of standard course structure and assessments, visit Academics page.
| WEEK 1 | Numbers, Sets and Functions |
| WEEK 2 | Language and Proofs |
| WEEK 3 | Induction, Bijections and Cardinality. |
| WEEK 4 | Combinatorial Reasoning. |
| WEEK 5 | Divisibility, Modular Arithmetic. |
| WEEK 6 | The Rational Numbers. |
| WEEK 7 | Two Principles of Counting, Recurrence Relations. |
Prescribed Books
The following are the suggested books for the course:
“Mathematical Thinking: Problem-solving and Proofs”, John D’Angelo and Douglas West, Pearson, 2000 (2nd edition)
“Mathematical Proofs: A Transition to Advanced Mathematics”, G. Chartrand, A. D. Polimeni, P. Zhang, Pearson, 2012
About the Instructors
Amritanshu Prasad is a faculty at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. His research interest is in representation theory.
S Viswanath is a faculty at The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, Chennai. His research interest is in representation theory.