When teaching discrete math a while back I told the following story which some had already heard in High School:
When Gauss was in 1st grade the class was being bad. So the teacher made them sit down and add up the numbers from 1 to 100. Gauss did it in 2 minutes by noting that if S was the answer then
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So S = 50*101. Then he went to Google and typed in 50*101 for the answer.
The class laughed because of course the last part about Google was false. But I then told them that the entire story was false and showed them the following slides: here Take a look at them (there are only 4 of them) before reading on.
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http://bit-player.org/wp-content/extras/bph-publications/AmSci-2006-05-Hayes-Gauss.pdf
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So I told them the Gauss Story was false (I am right about this) and then told them a lie- that the story's progression over time was orderly. I then told them that that was false (hmmm- actually I might not of, oh well).
One of my students emailed me this semester
Dr Gasarch- one of my Math professors is telling the Gauss story as if its true! You should make a public service announcement and tell people its false!
So I told them the Gauss Story was false (I am right about this) and then told them a lie- that the story's progression over time was orderly. I then told them that that was false (hmmm- actually I might not of, oh well).
One of my students emailed me this semester
Dr Gasarch- one of my Math professors is telling the Gauss story as if its true! You should make a public service announcement and tell people its false!
I do not think this is needed. I also don't know how one goes about making a public service announcement I also suspect the teacher knew it was false but told it anyway.
OKAY- what do you do if you have a nice story that has some good MATH in it but its not true?
Options:
OKAY- what do you do if you have a nice story that has some good MATH in it but its not true?
Options:
Tell it and let the students think its true.
Tell it and debunk it.
Tell it and debunk it and tell another myth
Tell it and debunk it and tell another myth and then debunk that
Ask your readers what they would do. Which I do now: What do you do?