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Student Guide To Problem Solving
Terms Commonly Used In Higher Mathematics

STUDENT GUIDE TO PROBLEM SOLVING

If at all possible, avoid reading the problem. Reading the problem only consumes time and causes confusion.

Extract the numbers from the problem in the order in which they appear. Be on the watch for numbers written in words.

If the second rule yields three or more numbers, the best bet for getting the answer is to add them together.

If there are only two numbers which are approximately the same size, then subtraction should give the best results.

If there are only two numbers in the problem and one is much smaller than the other, then divide if it goes exactly, otherwise multiply.

If the problem seems like it calls for a formula, pick a formula that has enough letters to use all the numbers in the problem.

If all the previous rules don't seem to work, make one last desperate attempt. Take the set of numbers found by the second rule and perform about two pages of random operations using these numbers. You should circle about five or six answers on each page just in case one of them happens to be the right answer. You might get some partial credit for trying hard.

Never, never spend too much time solving problems. This set of rules will get youthrough even the longest assignments in no more than ten minutes with very little thinking.

TERMS COMMONLY USED IN HIGHER MATHEMATICS

The following is a guide to the weary student of mathematics who is often confronted with terms which are commonly used but rarely defined. In the search for proper definitions for these terms we found no authoritative, nor even recognized, source. Thus, we followed the advice of mathematicians handed down from time immortal: "Wing It."

CLEARLY: I don't want to write down all the "in between" steps.

TRIVIAL: If I have to show you how to do this, you're in the wrong class.

OBVIOUSLY: I hope you weren't sleeping when we discussed this earlier, because I refuse to repeat it.

RECALL: I shouldn't have to tell you this, but for those of you who erase your memory tapes after every test...

WLOG (Without Loss Of Generality): I'm not about to do all the possible cases, so I'll do one and let you figure out the rest.

IT CAN EASILY BE SHOWN: Even you, in your finite wisdom, should be able to prove this without me holding your hand.

CHECK or CHECK FOR YOURSELF: This is the boring part of the proof, so you can do it on your own time.

SKETCH OF A PROOF: I couldn't verify all the details, so I'll break it down into the parts I couldn't prove.

HINT: The hardest of several possible ways to do a proof.

BRUTE FORCE (AND IGNORANCE): Four special cases, three counting arguments, two long inductions, "and a partridge in a pair tree."

SOFT PROOF: One third less filling (of the page) than your regular proof, but it requires two extra years of course work just to understand the terms.

ELEGANT PROOF: Requires no previous knowledge of the subject matter and is less than ten lines long.

SIMILARLY: At least one line of the proof of this case is the same as before.

CANONICAL FORM: 4 out of 5 mathematicians surveyed recommended this as the final form for their students who choose to finish.

TFAE (The Following Are Equivalent): If I say this it means that, and if I say that it means the other thing, and if I say the other thing...

BY A PREVIOUS THEOREM: I don't remember how it goes (come to think of it I'm not really sure we did this at all), but if I stated it right (or at all), then the rest of this follows.

TWO LINE PROOF: I'll leave out everything but the conclusion, you can't question 'em if you can't see 'em.

BRIEFLY: I'm running out of time, so I'll just write and talk faster.

LET'S TALK THROUGH IT: I don't want to write it on the board lest I make a mistake.

PROCEED FORMALLY: Manipulate symbols by the rules without any hint of their true meaning (popular in pure mathematics courses).

QUANTIFY: I can't find anything wrong with your proof except that it won't work if x is a moon of Jupiter (Popular in applied mathematics courses).

PROOF OMITTED: Trust me, It's true.