Mathtuition88

Introducing WordAds 2.0

WordAds 2.0 is out. Hope it is good news for international WordPress blogs, who are getting much lower ad revenue compared to the US and Europe.

WordAds

Today, we’re excited to introduce you to a new WordAds. On the front end, it’s a simpler and more streamlined experience like never before. On the back-end we have launched a real-time bidding platform to maximize earnings and ad creative control. Say hello to WordAds 2.0!

WordAds 2.0 is now fully integrated where you control the rest of your blog, in WordPress.com’s main Settings interface. You can also view your Earnings reports here and manage your payout information.

Existing WordAds users aren’t the only ones to benefit from the changes in WordAds 2.0. For new users, we have done away with the separate application process. Any family friendly WordPress.com blog with minimal page views will be considered for immediate admission to WordAds.

Bigger changes are now live in our real time bidding environment. We have dozens of ad agencies and buyers bidding in real time on each of our global…

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Projective Space Explicit Homotopy (RP1 to RP2)

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The above video describes the real projective plane ( $\mathbb{R}P^2$ ).

The projective space $\mathbb{R}P^n$ can be defined as the quotient space of $S^n$ by the equivalence relation $x\sim -x$ for $x\in S^n$ .

Notation: For $x=(x_1,\dots, x_{n+1})\in S^n$ , we write $[x_1, x_2,\dots, x_{n+1}]$ for the corresponding point in $\mathbb{R}P^n$ . Let $f,g: \mathbb{R}P^1\to\mathbb{R}P^2$ be the maps defined by $f[x,y]=[x,y,0]$ and $g[x,y]=[x,-y,0]$ .

How do we construct an explicit homotopy between $f$ and $g$ ? A common mistake is to try the “straight-homotopy”, e.g. $F([x,y],t)=[x,(1-2t)y,0]$ . This is a mistake as it passes through the point [0,0,0] which is not part of the projective plane.

A better approach is to consider $F:\mathbb{R}P^1\times I\to\mathbb{R}P^2$ , defined by $\boxed{F([x,y],t)=[x,(\cos\pi t)y, (\sin\pi t)y]}$ .

Note that if $x^2+y^2=1$ , then $x^2+[(\cos\pi t)y]^2+[(\sin\pi t)y]^2=x^2+y^2=1$ .

$F([x,y],0)=[x,y,0]$

$F([x,y],1)=[x,-y,0]$

Story of Edison (Motivational)

Calculus World Cup

Just to share this news:

The National Taiwan University is holding the first ever Calculus World Cup (CWC) in February 2016. It’s the first time students from global top universities will be able to compete over Calculus in e-sports. The competition will be held on PaGamO – a social online gaming platform for education. The top 12 teams will be invited to Taiwan for the final round, and great prizes with a value of over $70,000 await the finalists!
Official website: http://cwc.pagamo.com.tw

Registration: https://pagamo.com.tw/calculus_cup

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PaGamo.glo

Contractible space as Codomain implies any two maps Homotopic

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Recall that a space Y is contractible if the identity map $\text{id}_Y$ is homotopic to a constant map. Let Y be contractible space and let X be any space. Then, for any maps $f,g: X\to Y$ , $f\simeq g$ .

Proof: Let Y be a contractible space and let X be any space. $\text{id}_Y\simeq c$ , where $c$ is a constant map. There exists a map $F: Y\times [0,1]\to Y$ such that $F(y,0)=\text{id}_Y(y)=y$ , for $y\in Y$ . $F(y,1)=c(y)=b$ for some point $b\in Y$ .

Let $f,g: X\to Y$ be any two maps. Consider $G:X\times [0,1]\to Y$ where $G(x,t)=\begin{cases} F(f(x),2t),&\ \ \ \text{for}\ 0\leq t\leq 1/2\\ F(g(x),-2t+2),&\ \ \ \text{for}\ \frac 12<t\leq 1 \end{cases}$

When $t=\frac 12$ , $F(f(x),1)=b$ , $F(g(x),1)=b$ . Therefore G is cts.

$G(x,0)=F(f(x),0)=f(x)$ ,

$G(x,1)=F(g(x),0)=g(x)$ .

Therefore $f\simeq g$ .

Motivational Video of the Weekend

Just chanced upon this video on YouTube, really made a lot of sense and is very uplifting. Dream big, and don’t set any limits on yourself and what you can do.

Some other books by Nick:

Outer measure of Symmetric Difference Zero implies Measurability

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Just came across this neat beginner’s Lebesgue Theory question. As students of analysis know, just to show a set is measurable is no easy feat. The usual way is to use the Caratheodory definition, where a set E is said to be measurable if for any set A, $m^*(A)=m^*(A\cap E)+m^*(A\cap E^c)$ . This can be quite tedious.

Question: Suppose E is a Lebesgue measurable set and let F be any subset of $\mathbb{R}$ such that $m^*(E\Delta F)=0$ (Symmetric Difference is Zero). Show that F is measurable.

The short way to do this is to note that $m^*(E\Delta F)=0$ implies $m^*(E\setminus F)=0$ , and $m^*(F\setminus E)=0$ . This in turn (using a lemma that any set with outer measure zero is measurable) implies the measurability of $E\setminus F$ and $\setminus F\setminus E$ .

Next comes the critical observation: $\boxed{E\cap F=E\setminus (E\setminus F)=E\cap (E\setminus F)^c}$ . Using the fact that the collection of measurable sets is a $\sigma$ -algebra, we can conclude $E\cap F$ is measurable.

Thus $F=(E\cap F)\cup (F\setminus E)$ is the union of two measurable sets and thus is measurable.

Interesting indeed!

Math Joke (Fields Arranged by Purity)

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I came across this joke on another blog: http://phdlife.warwick.ac.uk/

Quite true! A Math student will understand this at the university level and beyond, where Math has no more numbers and is full of symbols and jargon! Although even the most abstract Math has applications, the applications are only discovered years later, hence Pure Math is indeed one of the most pure subjects around.

$math joke$

Fail H2 Maths Promos or Prelims

For H2 (or H1) Maths students who are getting low marks for internal school exams, do not be overly discouraged. The current trend for schools is to set very tough internal exams (i.e. Promos and Prelims) to spur students to study hard, and (hopefully) ace the eventual final A level exams. If you look at the actual A Level Ten Year Series, you will find that the standard of questions is much easier than Prelim level.

A rule of thumb is that the eventual A level grade is 2 grades above the internal school grade. E.g., in internal exams a student getting D for H2 Maths is most likely equivalent to a B in the final A levels, provided the student continues to study hard.

Jumping from E to A grade has been done by many seniors. Do not give up, continue to believe in yourself, and keep calm while constantly revising.

Do check out this highly condensed H2 Math Notes (comes with free exam papers). The key thing to do before exams is to remember Math formulas (many students forget the AP/GP formulae for instance, and lost some free marks). Constant practice and exposure to questions is also a must.

Here are some sources of true stories:

1) https://www.facebook.com/RJConfessions/posts/220752441406251

To all the J1 and J2 kids who are struggling with math, let me share with you my personal experience. I took H2 math by the way, and refused to drop to H1 when people started dropping.

J1 CT 1: Math: U
J1 promos: Math: S
J2 CT1: Math S
J2 CT2: Math S
J2 Prelims: Math E
A levels: Math A.

The moral of the story is simple: It can be done. My math teacher used to motivate us with stories of seniors who have also flunked their way through math in the 2 years and clinched an A at the end. I didnt really believed it could happen, but I guess I chose to believe it anyways.

2) https://www.reddit.com/r/singapore/comments/3nkq4t/jc_prelims_alevels_correlation/

H2 Math: E A

H2 Chem: D B

H2 Econs: D D

H1 Physics: U A

H1 GP: B A

The grades on the left were prelims and right were my actual results. Of course it depends on your school and how hard they set the prelim papers

Fermat’s Two Squares Theorem (Gaussian Integers approach)

Today we will discuss Fermat’s Two Squares Theorem using the approach of Gaussian Integers, the set of numbers of the form a+bi, where a, b are integers. This theorem is also called Fermat’s Christmas Theorem, presumably because it is proven during Christmas.

Have you ever wondered why $5=1^2+2^2$ , $13=2^2+3^2$ can be expressed as a sum of two squares, while not every prime can be? This is no coincidence, as we will learn from the theorem below.

Theorem: An odd prime p is the sum of two squares, i.e. $p=a^2+b^2$ where a, b are integers if and only if $p\equiv 1 \pmod 4$ .

(=>) The forward direction is the easier one. Note that $a^2\equiv 0\pmod 4$ if a is even, and $a^2\equiv 1\pmod 4$ if a is odd. Similar for b. Hence $p=a^2+b^2$ can only be congruent to 0, 1 or 2 (mod 4). Since p is odd, this means $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$ .

(<=) Conversely, assume $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$ , where p is a prime. p=4k+1 for some integer k.

First we prove a lemma called Lagrange’s Lemma: If $p\equiv 1\pmod 4$ is prime, then $p\mid (n^2+1)$ for some integer n.

Proof: By Wilson’s Theorem, $(p-1)!=(4k)!\equiv -1\pmod p$ . $(4k)!\equiv [(2k)!]^2\equiv -1\pmod p$ . We may see this by observing that $4k\equiv p-1\equiv -1\pmod p$ , $4k-1\equiv -2\pmod p$ , …, $4k-(2k-1)=2k+1\equiv -2k\pmod p$ . Thus $[(2k)!]^2+1\equiv 0\pmod p$ and hence $p\mid n^2+1$ , where $n=(2k)!$ .

Then $p\mid (n+i)(n-i)$ . However $p\nmid (n+i)$ since $p\nmid n=(2k)!$ . Similarly, $p\nmid (n-i)$ . Therefore $p$ is not a Gaussian prime, and it is thus not irreducible.

$p=\alpha\beta$ with $N(\alpha)>1$ and $N(\beta)>1$ . $N(p)=N(\alpha)N(\beta)$ , which means $p^2=N(\alpha)N(\beta)$ . Thus we may conclude $N(\alpha)=p$ , $N(\beta)=p$ .

Let $\alpha=a+bi$ . Then $p=a^2+b^2$ and we are done.

This proof is pretty amazing, and shows the connection between number theory and ring theory.

Holder’s Inequality Trick

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Holder’s Inequality is a very useful inequality in Functional Analysis, hence many results can be proved by applying Holder’s Inequality.

Suppose that $\mu(\Omega)<\infty$ and $1\leq p_1<p_2\leq\infty$ . Prove that if $f_n\to f$ in $L^{p_2}$ , then $f_n\to f$ in $L^{p_1}$ .

Proof: Assume $f_n\to f$ in $L^{p_2}$ . Then there exists $N$ such that if $n\geq N$ , then $\|f_n-f\|_{p_2}=(\int |f_n-f|^{p_2} d\mu)^{1/p_2}<\epsilon$ .

Then, $\begin{aligned} \|f_n-f\|_{p_1}^{p_1}&=\int |f_n-f|^{p_1} d\mu\\ &=\||f_n-f|^{p_1}\cdot 1\|_1\\ &\leq\||f_n-f|^{p_1}\|_{p_2/p_1}\|1\|_{(p_2/p_1)'},\ \ \ \text{where } (p_2/p_1)'=\frac{p_2}{p_2-p_1}\ \text{is the Holder conjugate}\\ &=(\int |f_n-f|^{p_2}d\mu)^{p_1/p_2}(\int 1 d\mu)^\frac{p_2-p_1}{p_2}\\ &<\epsilon^{p_1}\cdot \mu(\Omega)^\frac{p_2-p_1}{p_2} \end{aligned}$

Since $\epsilon>0$ is arbitrary, $\|f_n-f\|_{p_1}^{p_1}\to 0$ as $n\to\infty$ .

Therefore, $\|f_n-f\|_{p_1}\to 0$ .

Abstract Algebra 抽象代数 (石生明教授)

Math Online Tom Circle

这位石教授的”抽象代数”很棒, 一来是他退休前的最后一课, 二来他总结为何老师教不好, 学生上完课好像听到3个大头”鬼” (群group, 环ring, 域field), 但没实际摸过。

他的第一和第二课很好, 与众不同的花时间讲 “动机”: Motivation – Why study Abstract Algebra ?

抽象代数01: Motivation

https://youtu.be/AGd1TZ-IKr0

抽象代数02: 复数扩域 C
$latex
x^{2} +1=0
$

扩域 (Extended Field)数学思维 = 人解决问题的思维
例: 国内不可行的问题, 跳出国门, 扩大到世界领域, 就找到可行的方法。
马云的Alibaba国内不看好, 跑去美国上市, 让他马上成为中国首富的亿万富翁。

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张益唐: 速食店员竟然是数学天才

Math Online Tom Circle

【台湾壹週刊】

速食店员竟然是数学天才

张益唐 (1955 – ) : 北京大学 – 美国数学博士。因为执着数学理论的真理, 得罪美国大学台湾籍论文教授, 毕业后找不到大学教职, 在朋友的 Subway 速食店做会计8年, 潜心业余思考世界数学大难题: Twin Primes Gap, 终于攻破。

他的下一个目标是Riemann Hypothesis, 困扰数学家百年的难题: “素数 (Prime numbers)的分布”都集中在 Zeta function complex plane的实轴(real = 1/2) 上。大数学家David Hilbert说如果五百年后复活, 第一件事会急着问 “Riemann Hypothesis” 证明了吗?

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James H. Simons, the mathematician who cracked Wallstreet

Math Online Tom Circle

James H. Simons, the Jewish mathematician who made $14 billion using Math modelling for Hedge Fund.

[Watch from 31:00 mins to 35 mins]. He told the Nobel Physicist Frank Yang (杨振宁) that the Math “Gauge Theory on Fiber Bundles(纤维丛)” which Yang was developing already existed 30 yrs ago in “Differential Geometry” by SS Chern (陈省身) from Berkeley.

“James H. Simons: Mathematics, Common Sense and Good Luck”

[Video 54:00 mins]
After being billionaire, at old age Simons went back to Math in 2004 to take refuge of sadness of the loss of a son.
He beat the German mathematicians in Differential Co-homology (Topology).

5 Guiding Principles of Success:
1) Don’t run with the pack – be original
2) Choose wonderful partner(s) in research, business…
3) Guided by Beauty
4) Don’t give up !
5) Have good luck.

Jim Simons | TED Talks
“A Rare Interview with the Mathematician Who…

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Decoding The Universe Great Math Mystery –

Math Online Tom Circle

Simons Foundation

New 2015 Full Documentary #WorldMathsDay” –

Math Mystery Tour (BBC)

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245A, Notes 4: Modes of convergence

What's new

If one has a sequence $latex {x_1, x_2, x_3, ldots in {bf R}}&fg=000000$ of real numbers $latex {x_n}&fg=000000$, it is unambiguous what it means for that sequence to converge to a limit $latex {x in {bf R}}&fg=000000$: it means that for every $latex {epsilon > 0}&fg=000000$, there exists an $latex {N}&fg=000000$ such that $latex {|x_n-x| leq epsilon}&fg=000000$ for all $latex {n > N}&fg=000000$. Similarly for a sequence $latex {z_1, z_2, z_3, ldots in {bf C}}&fg=000000$ of complex numbers $latex {z_n}&fg=000000$ converging to a limit $latex {z in {bf C}}&fg=000000$.

More generally, if one has a sequence $latex {v_1, v_2, v_3, ldots}&fg=000000$ of $latex {d}&fg=000000$-dimensional vectors $latex {v_n}&fg=000000$ in a real vector space $latex {{bf R}^d}&fg=000000$ or complex vector space $latex {{bf C}^d}&fg=000000$, it is also unambiguous what it means for that sequence to converge to a limit $latex {v in {bf R}^d}&fg=000000$ or $latex {v in {bf C}^d}&fg=000000$; it means…

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mu is countably additive if and only if it satisfies the Axiom of Continuity

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Let $\mu$ be a finite, non-negative, finitely additive set function on a measurable space $(\Omega, \mathcal{A})$ . Show that $\mu$ is countably additive if and only if it satisfies the Axiom of Continuity: For $E_n\in\mathcal{A}, E_n\downarrow\emptyset \implies \mu(E_n)\to 0$ .

(=>) Assume $\mu$ is countably additive. Let $E_n\in\mathcal{A}$ , $E_n\downarrow\emptyset$ . Then,

$\displaystyle \lim_n \mu (E_n)=\mu (\cap_{n=1}^\infty E_n)=\mu (\emptyset)$ .

Suppose $\mu(\emptyset)=c$ . Then $\mu(\emptyset)=\mu(\cup_{n=1}^\infty \emptyset)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty c$ implies $c=0$ .

(<=) Assume $\mu$ satisfies Axiom of Continuity. Let $A_n\in\mathcal{A}$ be mutually disjoint sets. Define $E_n=\cup_{i=1}^\infty A_i\setminus \cup_{i=1}^n A_i$ .

Then $E_n\downarrow\emptyset$ . $\lim_n \mu(E_n)=0$ , $\lim_n \mu(\cup_{i=1}^\infty A_i)-\mu (\cup_{i=1}^n A_i)=0$ . $\lim_n \mu(\cup_{i=1}^n A_i)=\mu (\cup_{i=1}^\infty A_i)$ .

Therefore

$\begin{aligned}\mu(\cup_{i=1}^\infty A_i)&=\lim_n \mu(\cup_{i=1}^n A_i)\\ &=\lim_n \sum_{i=1}^n \mu (A_i)\\ &=\sum_{i=1}^\infty \mu(A_i) \end{aligned}$

Measure that is absolutely continuous with respect to mu

Interesting Career Personality Test (Free): https://mathtuition88.com/free-career-quiz/

Let $(X,\mathcal{M},\mu)$ be a measure space, and let $f:X\to [0,\infty]$ be a measurable function. Define the map $\lambda:\mathcal{M}\to[0,\infty]$ , $\lambda(E):=\int_X \chi_E f d\mu$ , where $\chi_E$ denotes the characteristic function of $E$ .

(a) Show that $\lambda$ is a measure and that it is absolutely continuous with respect to $\mu$ .

(b) Show that for any measurable function $g:X\to[0,\infty]$ , one has $\int_X g d\lambda=\int_X gf d\mu$ in $[0,\infty]$ .

Proof: For part (a), we routinely check that $\lambda$ is indeed a measure.

$\lambda(\emptyset)=\int_X \chi_\emptyset f d\mu=\int_X 0 d\mu=0$ . Let $E_i$ be mutually disjoiint measurable sets.

$\begin{aligned} \lambda(\cup_{i=1}^\infty E_i)&=\int_X \chi_{\cup_{i=1}^\infty E_i} f d\mu\\ &=\int_X (\sum_{i=1}^\infty \chi_{E_i}) f d\mu\\ &=\sum_{i=1}^\infty \int_X \chi_{E_i} f d\mu\\ &=\sum_{i=1}^\infty \lambda (E_i) \end{aligned}$

If $\mu (E)=0$ , then $\chi_{E} f=0$ a.e., thus $\lambda (E)=0$ . Therefore $\lambda\ll\mu$ .

(b) We note that when $g$ is a characteristic function, i.e. $g=\chi_E$ ,

$\begin{aligned} \int_X g d\lambda&=\int_X \chi_E d\lambda\\ &=\lambda (E)\\ &=\int_X \chi_E f d\mu\\ &=\int_X gf d\mu \end{aligned}$

Hence the equation holds. By linearity, we can see that the equation holds for all simple functions. Let $(\psi_n)$ be a sequence of simple functions such that $\psi_n\uparrow g$ . Then by the Monotone Convergence Theorem, $\lim_{n\to\infty} \int \psi_n d\lambda=\int g d\lambda$ .

Note that $\psi_n f\uparrow gf$ , thus by MCT, $\lim_{n\to\infty}\int\psi_n f d\mu=\int g f d\mu$ . Note that $\int \psi_n d\lambda=\int \psi_n f d\mu$ . Hence, $\int g d\lambda=\int gf d\mu$ , and we are done.

Calculus: Difficult Integration

Math Online Tom Circle

Question on @Quora:

In the French Classe Préparatoire 1st year “Mathematiques Supérieures”, we wanted to test our admired Math Prof whom we think was a “super know-all” mathematician. We asked him the above question. He immediately scolded us in the unique French mathematics rigor:

“L’intégration n’a pas de sense!
Quelle-est la domaine de définition?”

(The integration has no meaning! What is the domain of definition ?)

He was right! Under the British Math education, we lack the rigor of mathematics. We are skillful in applying many tricks to integrate whatever functions, but it is meaningless without specifying the domain (interval) in which the function is defined ! Bear in mind Integration of a function f (curve) is to calculate the Area under the curve f within an interval (or Domain, D). If f is not defined in D, then it is meaningless to integrate f because there won’t be…

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Visual Math

Math Online Tom Circle

99% of my friends get it wrong, except a 13-year-old boy who can ‘see’ it.

Wrong answer : 25

Answer (below):
Try before you scroll down.

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Singapore PSLE 2015 Math

Math Online Tom Circle

PSLE is “Primary School Leaving Exams” for 11~12 year-old children sitting at the end of 6-year primary education. The result is used as selection criteria to enter the secondary school of choice.

Hint: Without seeing or feeling the weight of the $1 coin, you still can guess the answer. This is the essence of “Singapore Math” — using “Guesstimation“.

Answer (below):
Try before you scroll down.
If wrong answer, please go back to primary school 🙂
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f integrable implies set where f is infinite is measure zero

Let $(X,\mathcal{M},\mu)$ be a measure space. Let $f:X\to [0,\infty]$ be a measurable function. Suppose that $\int_X f d\mu<\infty$ .

(a) Show that the set $\{x\in X:f(x)=\infty\}\subseteq X$ is of $\mu$ -measure 0. (Intuitively, this is quite obvious, but we need to prove it rigorously.)

(b) Show that the set $\{x\in X:f(x)\neq 0\}\subseteq X$ is $\sigma$ -finite with respect to $\mu$ . i.e. it is a countable union of measurable sets of finite $\mu$ -measure.

We may use Markov’s inequality, which turns out to be very useful in this question.

Proof: (a) Let $E_k=\{x\in X:f(x)\geq k\}$ , where $k\in\mathbb{N}$ . Denote $E_\infty=\{x\in X:f(x)=\infty\}$ .

$E_K \downarrow E_\infty$ , and $\mu (E_1)\leq\frac{1}{1}\int_X f d\mu<\infty$ . (Markov Inequality!)

Then

$\begin{aligned}\mu(E_\infty)&=\lim_{k\to\infty}\mu (E_k)\\ &\leq\lim_{k\to\infty}\frac{1}{k}\int f d\mu\ \ \ \text{(Markov Inequality)}\\ &=0 \end{aligned}$

Therefore, $\mu(E_\infty)=0$ .

(b) Let $S_k=\{x\in X:f(x)\geq\frac{1}{k}\}$ , $k\in\mathbb{N}$ .

$\{x\in X:f(x)\neq 0\}=\cup_{k=1}^\infty S_k$

Therefore, $\mu(S_k)\leq k\int f d\mu<\infty$ , and we have expressed the set as a countable union of measurable sets of finite measure.

Once again, do check out the Free Career Quiz!

Markov Inequality + PSLE One Dollar Question

Many people have feedback to me that the Career Quiz Personality Test is surprisingly accurate. E.g. people with peaceful personality ended up as Harmonizer, those who are business-minded ended up as Entrepreneur. Do give it a try at https://mathtuition88.com/free-career-quiz/. Please help to do, thanks a lot!

Also, some recent news regarding PSLE Maths is that a certain question involving weight of $1 coins appeared. It is very interesting, and really tests the common sense and logical thinking skills of kids.

Markov inequality is a useful inequality that gives a rough upper bound of the measure of a set in terms of an integral. The precise statement is: Let $f$ be a nonnegative measurable function on $\Omega$ . The Markov inequality states that for all $K>0$ , $\displaystyle \mu\{x\in\Omega:f(x)\geq K\}\leq\frac{1}{K}\int fd\mu$ .

The proof is rather neat and short. Let $E_K:=\{x\in\Omega: f(x)\geq K\}$ Then,

$\begin{aligned} \int f d\mu &\geq \int_{E_K} fd\mu\\ &\geq \int_{E_K}K d\mu\\ &=K \mu(E_K) \end{aligned}$

Therefore, $\mu(E_K)\leq\frac{1}{K}\int fd\mu$ .

Free Career Personality Quiz (Please help to do!)

URL: https://career-test.com/s/sgamb?reid=210

The results of this Personality Test is quite surprisingly accurate, do give it a try to see if you are a Careerist, Entrepreneur, Harmonizer, Idealist, Hunter, Internationalist or Leader?

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Necessary and Sufficient Condition for Integrability in finite measure space

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Let $(\Omega, \Sigma, \mu)$ be a finite measure space. Suppose that $f\geq 0$ is a measurable function on $\Omega$ . Let $E_n:=\{\omega\in\Omega:f(\omega)\geq n\}$ for each $n\in \mathbb{N}\cup\{0\}$ . Show that $f$ is integrable if and only if $\sum_{n=0}^\infty \mu(E_n)<\infty$ .

This proof has a cute solution that is potentially very short. We will elaborate more on this proof. Other approaches include using Markov’s Inequality / Chebyshev’s inequality.

Proof: Consider $g=\sum_{n=1}^\infty I_{E_n}$ .

Note that for each $n\geq 0, n\in\mathbb{N}$ on $E_n\setminus E_{n+1}$ , $g=n$ , while $n\leq f<n+1$ . Therefore $g\leq f<g+1$ on $\Omega$ .

Integrating with respect to $\mu$ , we get $\int_{\Omega} gd\mu\leq\int_{\Omega} fd\mu<\int_{\Omega} g+1d\mu$ .

$\displaystyle\boxed{\sum_{n=1}^\infty \mu (E_n)\leq \int_\Omega f d\mu<\sum_{n=1}^\infty\mu(E_n)+\mu(\Omega)}$

(=>) Now assuming f is integrable, i.e. $\int fd\mu<\infty$ , we have $\sum_{n=1}^\infty \mu(E_n)<\infty$ . $\mu(E_0)=\mu(\Omega)<\infty$ . Therefore $\sum_{n=0}^\infty\mu(E_n)<\infty$ .

(<=) Conversely, if $\sum_{n=0}^\infty\mu(E_n)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \mu(E_n)+\mu(\Omega)<\infty$ , then $\int_\Omega f d\mu<\infty$ .

We are done.

Note: For a more rigorous proof of $\int gd\mu=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \mu (E_n)$ we can use MCT (Monotone Convergence Theorem).

Let $g_k=\sum_{n=1}^k I_{E_n}$ . Then $g_k\uparrow g$ . By MCT, $\int gd\mu=\lim_{k\to\infty} \int g_k d\mu=\lim_{k\to\infty} \sum_{n=1}^k \mu (E_n)=\sum_{n=1}^\infty \mu(E_n)$ .

εδ Confusion in Limit & Continuity

Math Online Tom Circle

1. Basic:
|y|= 0 or > 0 for all y

2. Limit: $latex displaystylelim_{xto a}f(x) = L$ ; x≠a
|x-a|≠0 and always >0
hence
$latex displaystylelim_{xto a}f(x) = L$
$latex iff $
For all ε >0, there exists δ >0 such that
$latex boxed{0<|x-a|<delta}$
$latex implies |f(x)-L|< epsilon$

3. Continuity: f(x) continuous at x=a
Case x=a: |x-a|=0
=> |f(a)-f(a)|= 0 <ε (automatically)
So by default we can remove (x=a) case.

Also from 1) it is understood: |x-a|>0
Hence suffice to write only:
$latex |x-a|<delta$

f(x) is continuous at point x = a
$latex iff $
For all ε >0, there exists δ >0 such that
$latex boxed{|x-a|<delta}$
$latex implies |f(x)-f(a)|< epsilon$

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Limit: ε-δ Analysis

Math Online Tom Circle

For x->0, find limit L of

f(x)= (x³+5x)/x

1) guess L:

f(x)= x(x²+5)/x= x²+5

=> L= 5 when x->0

2) epsilon-delta Proof: find δ in function of ε such that:

|f(x)-5| < ε

|(x²+5)-5| <ε

|x|< √ε

Choose δ=√ε

For all ε, there is δ=√ε such that |x-0|< δ =>|f(x)-5|< ε

If ε=0.5, δ=√0.5=0.25

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Newtonian Calculus not rigorous !

Math Online Tom Circle

Why Newton’s Calculus Not Rigorous?

$latex f(x ) = frac {x(x^2+ 5)} { x}$ …[1]

cancel x (≠0)from upper and below => $latex f(x )=x^2 +5 $

$latex mathop {lim }limits_{x to 0} f(x) =x^2 +5= L=5 $ …[2]

In [1]: we assume x ≠ 0, so cancel upper & lower x
But In [2]: assume x=0 to get L=5
[1] (x ≠ 0) contradicts with [2] (x =…)

This is the weakness of Newtonian Calculus, made rigorous later by Cauchy’s ε-δ ‘Analysis’.

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Rigorous Calculus: ε-δ Analysis

Math Online Tom Circle

Rigorous Analysis epsilon-delta (ε-δ)
Cauchy gave epsilon-delta the rigor to Analysis, Weierstrass ‘arithmatized‘ it to become the standard language of modern analysis.

1) Limit was first defined by Cauchy in “Analyse Algébrique” (1821)

2) Cauchy repeatedly used ‘Limit’ in the book Chapter 3 “Résumé des Leçons sur le Calcul infinitésimal” (1823) for ‘derivative’ of f as the limit of

$latex frac{f(x+i)-f(x)}{i}$ when i ->…

3) He introduced ε-δ in Chapter 7 to prove ‘Mean Value Theorem‘: Denote by (ε , δ) 2 small numbers, such that 0< i ≤ δ , and for all x between (x+i) and x,

f ‘(x)- ε < $latex frac{f(x+i)-f(x)}{i}$ < f'(x)+ ε

4) These ε-δ Cauchy’s proof method became the standard definition of Limit of Function in Analysis.

5) They are notorious for causing widespread discomfort among future math students. In fact, when it…

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German Terms

German before WW2 was the World’center of Science (Einstein etc) and Modern Math (Gauss, Klein, Hilbert etc), that’s why we inherit some letter symbols eg. Z (Zahl, Integer) …

Math Online Tom Circle

1. The electron orbits: first 4 orbits from atom

s, p, d, f

s = Sharfe (Sharp)

p =prinzipielle (principle)

d = diffusiv (diffuse)

f= fundamentale (fundamental)

2. eigen (special)

eigenvector

eigenvalue

eigenfunction

eigenfrequency

3. Math:

e = neutral element (I=Identity)

K=Korps (Fields)

Z = Zahl (Integer)

4. Physics:

F-center = Color Center (F=Farbe=color)

Umklapp process = reverse process

Aufbau principle (quantum chemistry) = Building (bau) Up (Auf) principle

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“Well-defined”( “定义良好”)

Math Online Tom Circle

万门大学抽象代数7:

“定义良好” (Well-defined)

集合: Set (S)
等价关系: Equivalence Relation (~)
商集 : Quotient Set (S/~)
映射 : Mapping (f)

Prove : f is well-defined ?

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抽象代数 Abstract Algebra

Math Online Tom Circle

北京航空航天大学：数学大观第2讲数学抽象无招胜有招”

1. Euclid 5条公理 (Axioms) => 全部几何 (Geometry)
2. Galois 运算律 (Laws of Operations) => 抽象代数 (Abstract Algebra)

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Abstract Math discomforts

Abstract Algebra is the killer Math subject for university-bound Singaporean A-level students educated in the British GCE syllabus. Except a fews who are born with the gift, most of them get lost in the first year of university. Yet Abstract Algebra is important math “language” of science and technology : IT, Chemistry, Physics, Advanced Math… if you want to describe a complex structure (quantum physics, crystallography), algorithm (search), method (encryption), you use this precise and concise language “Abstract Algebra” (such as Group, Vector Space, …). Countries like China and USA havevmade Abstract Algebra a compulsory subject for 1st year undergrads in Science, Engineering, IT students beside Math majors …

Math Online Tom Circle

3 Wide Discomforts For Abstract Math Students

1. Group : Coset, Quotient group, morphism…
2. Limit ε-δ: Cauchy
3. Bourbaki Sets: Function f: A-> B is subset of Cartesian Product AxB.

Students should learn from their historical genesis rather than the formal abstract definitions

<a href=”http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Wenjun“>Wu Wenjun (吳文俊) on Learning Abstract Math

“…It is more important to understand the ‘Principles’ 原理 behind, à la Physics (eg. Newton’s 3 Laws of Motion), and not blinded by its abstract ‘Axioms’ 公理.”

Prof I.Herstein http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_Nathan_Herstein

“… Seeing Abstract Math for the first time, there seems to be a common feeling of being adrift, of not having something solid to hang on to.”

“Do not be discouraged. Stick with it! The best road is to look at examples. Try to understand what a given concept says, most importantly, look at particular, concrete examples of the concept.”

“

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Probability: Dice

Math Online Tom Circle

Throw 2 dies, the sum of points i, j and probability P (i+j):

2(1/36) 3(1/18) 4(1/12) 5(1/9) 6(5/36) 7(1/6)
8(5/36) 9(1/9) 10(1/12) 11(1/18) 12(1/36)
=> Bell curve symmetric both sides, peak 1/6 (sum 7).

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Probability by 2 Great Friends

Math Online Tom Circle

Today Probability is a “money” Math, used in Actuarial Science, Derivatives (Options) in Black-Scholes Formula.

In the beginning it was “A Priori” Probability by Pascal (1623-1662), then Fermat (1601-1665) invented today’s “A Posteriori” Probability.

“A Priori” assumes every thing is naturally “like that”: eg. Each coin has 1/2 chance for head, 1/2 for tail. Each dice has 1/6 equal chance for each face (1-6).

“A Posteriori” by Fermat, then later the exile Protestant French mathematician De Moivre (who discovered Normal Distribution), is based on observation of “already happened” statistic data.

Cardano (1501-1576) born 150 years earlier than Pascal and Fermat, himself a weird genius in Medicine, Math and an addictive gambler, found the rule of + and x for chances (he did not know the name ‘Probability’ then ):

Addition + Rule: throw a dice, chance to get a “1 and 2” faces:
1/6 +1/6 = 2/6 = 1/3

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Quotations

Math Online Tom Circle

1. Issac Newton: Hypotheses non fingo (I frame no hypotheses)

2. Gauss: Pauca sed matura (Few but ripe)

3. Descartes: Bene vixit qui bene latuit (he has lived well who has hidden well.)

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Galois Theory Simplified

Math Online Tom Circle

Galois discovered Quintic Equation has no radical (expressed with +,-,*,/, nth root) solutions, but his new Math “Group Theory” also explains:
$latex x^{5} – 1 = 0 text { has radical solution}$
but
$latex x^{5} -x -1 = 0 text{ has no radical solution}$

Why ?

$latex x^{5} – 1 = 0 text { has 5 solutions: } displaystyle x = e^{frac{ikpi}{5}}$
$latex text{where k } in {0,1,2,3,4}$
which can be expressed in
$latex x= cos frac{kpi}{5} + i.sin frac{kpi}{5} $
hence in {+,-,*,/, √ }
ie
$latex x_0 = e^{frac{i.0pi}{5}}=1$
$latex x_1 = e^{frac{ipi}{5}}$
$latex x_2 = e^{frac{2ipi}{5}}$
$latex x_3 = e^{frac{3ipi}{5}}$
$latex x_4 = e^{frac{4ipi}{5}}$
$latex x_5 = e^{frac{5ipi}{5}}=1=x_0$

=>
$latex text {Permutation of solutions }{x_j} text { forms a Cyclic Group: }
{x_0,x_1,x_2,x_3,x_4} $

Theorem: All Cyclic Groups are Solvable
=>
$latex x^{5} -1 = 0 text { has radical solutions.}$

However,
$latex x^{5} -x -1 =…

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Interesting Analysis Question (Measure Theory)

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Let $f\geq 0$ be a measurable function with $\int f d\mu<\infty$ . Show that for any $\epsilon>0$ , there exists a $\delta(\epsilon)>0$ such that for any measurable set $E\in\mathcal{A}$ with $\mu(E)<\delta(\epsilon)$ , we have $\int_E f d\mu<\epsilon$ .

Proof: For $M>0$ , we define $f_M(x)=\min (f(x),M)\leq M$ , for all $x\in \Omega$ .

Then $f=f_M+(f-f_M)$ .

Let $\delta=\epsilon/2M$ . Then for any $E\in\mathcal{A}$ with $\mu(E)<\delta$ ,

$\begin{aligned}\int_E f_M d\mu &\leq \int_E M d\mu\\ &=\mu (E)M\\ &<\delta M\\ &=(\epsilon/2M)M\\ &=\epsilon/2 \end{aligned}$

Note that $f_M\uparrow f$ . By Monotone Convergence Theorem,

$\int f d\mu=\lim_{M\to\infty}\int f_M d\mu$ .

Therefore $\lim_{M\to\infty}\int f-f_M d\mu=0$ .

We can choose $M$ sufficiently large such that

$\int_E f-f_M d\mu \leq \int f-f_M d\mu <\epsilon/2$ .

Then

$\begin{aligned} \int_E f d\mu&=\int_E f_M d\mu+\int_E f-f_M d\mu\\ &<\epsilon/2+\epsilon/2\\ &=\epsilon \end{aligned}$

We are done!

The Arrival of New Era of “Knowledge Sharing”

Math Online Tom Circle

2010 Steve Jobs declared Post-PC era has arrived with iPhone/iPad, little did he know that he had accidentally also brought the Post-TV & Post-Publication (books, Newspapers) on iPhone/iPad platform for YouTube, ebooks.
Today, you don’t have to sit on sofa at scheduled time to watch TV programmes, buy/loan/housekeep books, subscribe to political-biased newspapers.

The advent of Web 2.0 and Internet of Things (IoT) will open up the new era of freedom of “Knowledge Sharing”:
1. Instead of reading 100 books to understand a complex economic/politics/history/science topic, you can go YouTube to attend free seminars by TED, MOOC (Cousera, Khan Academy…), or follow YouTube series by book expert reviewers (罗辑思维, 袁腾飞, 百家论坛, 宋鸿兵货币战争)…
2. You can ask any questions on “Quora”. Anybody with the expertise will volunteer to teach you.
3. You can keep your reading notes in text, video and hyperlink to the vast internet resources (wikipedia, ..) and shared…

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Conjugacy Classes of non-abelian group of order p^3

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Let p be a prime, and let G be a non-abelian group of order $p^3$ . We want to find the number of conjugacy classes of G.

First we prove a lemma: Z(G) has order p.

Proof: We know that since G is a non-trivial p-group, then $Z(G)\neq 1$ . Since $Z(G)\trianglelefteq G$ , by Lagrange’s Theorem, $|Z(G)|=p,p^2,\text{or }p^3$ .

Case 1) $|Z(G)|=p$ . We are done.

Case 2) $|Z(G)|=p^2$ . Then $|G/Z(G)|=p^3/p=p$ . Thus $G/Z(G)$ is cyclic which implies that G is abelian. (contradiction).

Case 3) $|Z(G)|=p^3$ . This means that the entire group G is abelian. (contradiction).

Next, let $O(x_1),\dots, O(x_n)$ be the distinct conjugacy classes of G.

$O(x_i)=\{gx_i g^{-1}:g\in G\}$ , where $C_G(x_i)=\{g\in G:gx_i=x_ig\}$ .

Then by the Class Equation, we have $\displaystyle p^3=|G|=\sum_{i=1}^n [G:C_G(x_i)]$ .

If $x_i\in Z(G)$ , then $C_G(x_i)=G$ , which means $[G:C_G(x_i)]=1$ .

If $x_i \notin Z(G)$ , then $C_G(x_i)\neq G$ . Since $x_i\in C_G(x_i)$ , thus $Z(G)\subsetneq C_G(x_i)$ . Thus we have $p=|Z(G)|<|C_G(x_i)|<|G|=p^3$ . Since $C_G(x_i)$ is a subgroup of $G$ , Lagrange’s Theorem forces $|C_G(x_i)|=p^2$ . Thus $[G:C_G(x_i)]=p^3/p^2=p$ .

By the Class Equation, we thus have $p^3=p+(n-p)p$ , which leads us to $\boxed{n=p^2+p-1}$ .

Group of order 56 is not simple + Affordable Air Purifier

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Let G be a group of order 56. Show that G is not simple.

Proof:

We will use Sylow’s Theorem to show that either the 2-Sylow subgroup or 7-Sylow subgroup is normal.

$|G|=2^3\cdot 7$

By Sylow’s Theorem $n_2\mid 7, n_2\equiv 1\pmod 2$ . Thus $n_2=1,7$ .

Also, $n_7\mid 8, n_7\equiv 1\pmod 7$ . Therefore $n_7=1, 8$ .

If $n_2=1$ or $n_7=1$ , we are done, as one of the Sylow subgroups is normal.

Suppose to the contrary $n_2=7$ and $n_7=8$ .

Number of elements of order 7 = 8 x (7-1)=48

Remaining elements = 56-48=8. This is just enough for one 2-Sylow subgroup, thus $n_2=1$ . This is a contradiction.

Therefore, a group of order 56 is simple.

Universal Property of Kernel Question

Recently, the Dayan Zhanchi brand Rubik’s Cube has been a hot sale on my site. Parents looking to buy an educational toy may want to check it out. Smoothness when turning is very important for Rubik’s Cube, and the Dayan Zhanchi is one of the smoothest cubes out there (much better than the ‘official’ brand).

In this blog post, we will discuss a category theory question, in the framework of homomorphisms of abelian groups.

Let $\phi:M'\to M$ be a homomorphism of abelian groups. Suppose that $\alpha:L\to M'$ is a homomorphism of abelian groups such that $\phi\circ\alpha$ is the zero map. (One example is the inclusion $\mu:\ker\phi\to M'$ )

Are the following true or false?

(i) There is a unique homomorphism $\alpha_0:\ker\phi\to L$ such that $\mu=\alpha\circ\alpha_0$ .

(ii) There is a unique homomorphism $\alpha_1:L\to\ker\phi$ such that $\alpha=\mu\circ\alpha_1$ .

It turns out that (i) is false. We may construct a trivial counterexample as follows. Consider $L=M=0$ , and $M'=\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ . Let $\alpha$ , $\phi$ be both the zero maps. Then certainly $\phi\circ\alpha=0$ . $\ker\phi=\mathbb{Z}/2\mathbb{Z}$ . Then, for any $\alpha_0$ , $\alpha\circ\alpha_0(x)=0$ , and hence is not equals to the the inclusion map $\mu$ .

It turns out that (ii) is true, in fact it is the famous universal property of the kernel, that any homomorphism yielding zero when composed with $\phi$ has to factor through $\ker\phi$ .

First we will prove uniqueness. Let $\alpha=\mu\circ\alpha_1=\mu\circ\beta$ , where $\beta$ is another such map with the property (ii). Then for all $x\in L$ , $\mu\alpha_1(x)=\mu\beta(x)$ , which implies $\mu(\alpha_1(x)-\beta(x))=0$ . Since $\mu$ is the inclusion map, this means that $\alpha_1(x)-\beta(x)=0$ and thus $\alpha_1(x)=\beta (x)$ .

Next, we will prove existence. Consider $\alpha_1:L\to\ker\phi, \alpha_1(l)=\alpha(l)$ . Note that $\phi(\alpha(l))=0$ by definition thus $\alpha(l)\in\ker\phi$ .

Next we prove it is a homomorphism. $\alpha_1(l_1l_2)=\alpha(l_1l_2)=\alpha(l_1)\alpha(l_2)=\alpha_1(l_1)\alpha_1(l_2)$ .

Finally by construction it is easy to see that $\mu\alpha_1(l)=\mu\alpha(l)=\alpha(l)$ for all $l\in L$ .

Group of order 432 is not simple

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For this blog post, we shall show that a group of order $432=2^4\cdot 3^3$ is not simple. We will be using several previous posts as lemmas to prove this nontrivial result.

Suppose to the contrary G is simple. By Sylow’s Third Theorem, $n_3\equiv 1\pmod 3$ , $n_3\mid 16$ . This means that $n_3$ is 1, 4 or 16.

We recall that if $n_3=1$ , then the Sylow 3-subgroup is normal.

Let $Q_1$ and $Q_2$ be two distinct Sylow 3-subgroups of $G$ such that $|Q_1\cap Q_2|$ is maximum.

Using our previous lemma regarding index of intersection of Sylow subgroups, we split our analysis into three cases, the hardest of which is Case 3.

Case 1) If $|Q_1\cap Q_2|=1$ , $[Q_1:Q_1\cap Q_2]=3^3$ . Thus $n_3=1\pmod {27}$ , which allows us to conclude $n_3=1$ .

Case 2) If $|Q_1\cap Q_2|=3$ , $[Q_1:Q_1\cap Q_2]=3^2$ . Thus $n_3=1 \pmod 9$ . Similarly, we can conclude $n_3=1$ and we are done.

Case 3) If $|Q_1\cap Q_2|=9$ , then $[Q_1:Q_1\cap Q_2]=3$ .

By another previous lemma regarding index of least prime divisor, $Q_1\cap Q_2\trianglelefteq Q_1$ . Thus, $Q_1\leq N_G(Q_1\cap Q_2)$ . Thus $|N_G(Q_1\cap Q_2)|=3^3\cdot 2, 3^3\cdot 2^2, 3^3\cdot 2^3,\text{or }3^3\cdot 2^4$ .

If $N_G(Q_1\cap Q_2)=G$ , then $Q_1\cap Q_2\trianglelefteq G$ which is a contradiction. Hence we suppose $N_G(Q_1\cap Q_2)\neq G$ . Let $[G:N_G(Q_1\cap Q_2)]=k$ . The possible values of k are $k=2, 2^2, 2^3, 2^4$ .

Next, we use the fact that if $G$ is a simple group and $H$ is a subgroup of index $k$ , then $|G|$ divides $k!$ .

Thus, $432\mid k!$ , which forces k=16.

But then $Q_1=N_G(Q_1\cap Q_2)$ and similarly $Q_2=N_G(Q_1\cap Q_2)$ . Thus $Q_1=Q_2$ . This is a contradiction to $|Q_1\cap Q_2|=9$ .

Therefore all cases lead to contradiction and thus G is not simple.

First-Class Function is Homomorphism

Math Online Tom Circle

We know a Program is a math procedure.

“A Program without Math is like Sex without Love.”

Do you know in Programming a First-Class Function is a Homomorphism in Abstract Algebra ?

In Functional / Dynamic Programming Language like Lisp, it supports First-Class Function.

Eg.
Map (sqr {1 2 5 4 7})
=> {1 4 25 16 49}

A First-Class Function like ‘Map’ is a Function call which accepts another function ‘sqr’ as argument.

Map means “Apply to All”.
Map applies ‘sqr’ to all members of the list {1 2 5 4 7}.

In abstract algebra, Map (eg. Linear Map) is a homomorphism !

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Map_(higher-order_function)

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Sylow subgroup intersection of a certain index + F1 Trespasser

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Back to our topic on Sylow theory…

Let $G$ be a finite group, where $q$ is a prime divisor of $G$ . Suppose that whenever $Q_1$ and $Q_2$ are two distinct Sylow q-subgroups of $G$ , $Q_1\cap Q_2$ is a subgroup of $Q_1$ of index at least $q^a$ . Prove that the number $n_q$ of Sylow q-subgroups of G satisfies $n_q\equiv 1\pmod {q^a}$ .

Proof: Let $\Omega=\{Q_1,Q_2\dots,Q_n\}$ be the set of all Sylow q-subgroups of G. Fix $P=Q_k\in \Omega$ . Consider the group action of P acting on $\Omega$ by conjugation.

$\phi:P\times\Omega\to\Omega$ , $\phi_x(Q_i)=xQ_i x^{-1}$

By Orbit-Stabilizer Theorem, $|O(Q_i)|=|P|/|N_p(Q_i)|$ .

We claim that $N_p(Q_i)=Q_i\cap P$ , since any element x outside of $Q_i$ cannot normalise $Q_i$ , since otherwise if $x \neq Q_i$ , $xQx^{-1}=Q_i$ , then $\langle Q_i, x\rangle$ will be a larger q-subgroup of G than $Q_i$ .

Thus, $|O(Q_i)|=|P|/|Q_i\cap P|\geq q^a$ , i.e. $q^a\mid |O(Q_i)|$ .

$|O(P)|=1$ .

The orbits form a partition of $\Omega$ , thus $|\Omega|=1+\sum{|O(Q_i)|}$ , where the sum runs over all orbits other than $O(P)$ .

Thus, $n_q\equiv 1\pmod {q^a}$ .

How to type LaTeX in WordPress without using “$latex”

Currently, LaTeX is well supported in WordPress, however there is one practical issue when typing LaTeX in WordPress, the need to type “$latex” for every single math expression! It gets pretty troublesome after a while.

For those familiar with LaTeX, one would know that for ordinary LaTeX typesetting, typing double $ will do, there is no need to type the word LaTeX. If I remember correctly, for Blogger there is no need to type “$latex”, hence it is a uniquely WordPress issue.

So far, I have not found any solution to this issue. (I am using WordPress.com hosted WordPress). Any readers who happen to know a solution, please enlighten me by dropping a comment! It will be greatly appreciated.

WordPress vs Blogger LaTeX:

https://mathtuition88.com/2014/12/25/math-formula-in-wordpress-vs-blogspot/

LaTeX Beginner’s Guide

S_n has Trivial Center for n greater than 3

We will prove that for $n\geq 3$ , $Z(S_n)=1$ .

Proof:

Clearly, $1\in Z(S_n)$ . Let $1\neq \sigma\in S_n$ . There exists $a, b$ distinct elements of $\{1, 2, \dots , n\}$ such that $\sigma(a)=b$ .

Consider the transposition $\tau =(b\ c)$ , where $c$ is distinct from $a, b$ . (Since $n\geq 3$ , such a $c$ exists.)

Then, $\tau\sigma (a)=\tau (b)=c$

$\sigma\tau (a)=\sigma (a)=b$

$\therefore \tau\sigma\neq\sigma\tau$

$\therefore \sigma \notin Z(S_n)$ .

Therefore, $Z(S_n)=1$

Do check out some of our recommended Math Olympiad books!

Weierstrass M Test and Lebesgue’s Dominated Convergence Theorem

Previously, we wrote a blog post about Weierstrass M Test. It turns out Weierstrass M Test is a special case of Lebesgue’s Dominated Convergence Theorem, a very powerful theorem in Measure Theory, where the measure is taken to be the counting measure.

Lebesgue Dominated Convergence Theorem: Let $(f_n)$ be a sequence of integrable functions which converges a.e. to a real-valued measurable function $f$ . Suppose that there exists an integrable function $g$ such that $|f_n|\leq g$ for all $n$ . Then, $f$ is integrable and $\displaystyle \int f d\mu=\lim_n \int f_n d\mu$ .

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