Historical Reflections On Teaching Calculus/Analysis David Bressoud Macalester College St. Paul, MN

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1 Historical Reflections On Teaching Calculus/Analysis David Bressoud Macalester College St. Paul, MN University of Utrecht The Netherlands April 23, 2010 PowerPoint available at MAA

2 The task of the educator is to make the child s spirit pass again where its forefathers have gone, moving rapidly through certain stages but suppressing none of them. In this regard, the history of science must be our guide Henri Poincaré

3 The history of mathematics informs teaching by helping students understand the process of mathematical discover, explaining the motivation behind definitions and assumptions, and illuminating conceptual difficulties.

4 Series, continuity, differentiation Integration, structure of the real numbers

5 I. Cauchy and the emergence of uniform convergence II. The Heine-Borel Theorem III. The Fundamental Theorem of (Integral) Calculus

6 Cauchy, Cours d analyse, explanations drawn from algebraic technique cannot be considered, in my opinion, except as heuristics that will sometimes suggest the truth, but which accord little with the accuracy that is so praised in the mathematical sciences.

7 Niels Henrik Abel (1826): Cauchy is crazy, and there is no way of getting along with him, even though right now he is the only one who knows how mathematics should be done. What he is doing is excellent, but very confusing

8 Cauchy, Cours d analyse, 1821, p. 120 Theorem 1. When the terms of a series are functions of a single variable x and are continuous with respect to this variable in the neighborhood of a particular value where the series converges, the sum S(x) of the series is also, in the neighborhood of this particular value, a continuous function of x. ( ) = f ( k x) S x, f k continuous S continuous k =1

9 S n n ( x) = f k ( x), R n x k =1 ( ) = S( x) S n ( x) ( x) as small as we wish Convergence can make R n by taking n sufficiently large. S n is continuous for n <. S continuous at a if can force S(x) - S(a) as small as we wish by restricting x a. S( x) S( a) = S ( n x) + R ( n x) S ( n a) R ( n a) S n ( x) S ( n a) + R ( n x) + R ( n a)

10 Abel, 1826: It appears to me that this theorem suffers excepions. sin x 1 2 sin 2x sin 3x 1 sin 4x + 4

11 S n n ( x) = f k ( x), R n x k =1 ( ) = S( x) S n ( x) ( x) as small as we wish Convergence can make R n by taking n sufficiently large. S n is continuous for n <. S continuous at a if can force S(x) - S(a) as small as we wish by restricting x a. S( x) S( a) = S ( n x) + R ( n x) S ( n a) R ( n a) S n x depends on n ( x) S ( n a) + R ( n x) + R ( n a) n depends on x

12 If even Cauchy can make a mistake like this, how am I supposed to know what is correct?

13 Eduard Heine Heine Borel Theorem Any open cover of a closed and bounded set of real numbers has a finite subcover. Émile Borel Due to Lebesgue, 1904; stated and proven by Borel for countable covers, 1895; Heine had very little to do with it. P. Dugac, Sur la correspondance de Borel Arch. Int. Hist. Sci.,1989.

14 1852, Dirichlet proves that a continuous function on a closed, bounded interval is uniformly continuous The proof is very similar to Borel and Lebesgue s proof of Heine Borel. 1872, Heine reproduces this proof without attribution to Dirichlet in Die Elemente der Functionenlehre

15 Harnack, 1885: Consider interval [ 0,1], order the rationals in this interval ( r ) n n=1. Choose ε, 0 < ε < 1, I n = interval of length ε 2 n centered at r n. [ 0,1] I n? n=1 Axel Harnack Harnack assumed that the complement of a countable union of intervals is a countable union of intervals, in which case the answer is YES. Cantor s set: 1883

16 Borel, 1895 (doctoral thesis, 1894), problem of analytic continuation across a boundary on which lie a countable dense set of poles Equivalent problem: ( r ) n n=1 = rationals in [ 0,1], 1 2 a n < 1 n=1 2 a n. Are there any points of [ 0,1] at which 1 converges? (I.e. x r n > a 2 n n). n=1 x r n

17 The problem is equivalent to Harnack s problem, but now Borel correctly realizes, and proves, that a countable union of intervals, the sum of whose lengths is less than 1, cannot contain all points of [0,1].

18 Arthur Schönflies, 1900, claimed Borel s result also holds for uncountable covers, pointed out connection to Heine s proof of uniform continuity. First to call this the Heine Borel theorem , Henri Lebesgue to Borel, Heine says nothing, nothing at all, not even remotely, about your theorem. Suggests calling it the Borel Schönflies theorem. Proves the Schönflies claim that it is valid for uncountable covers. Paul Montel and Giuseppe Vitali try to change designation to Borel Lebesgue. Borel in Leçons sur la Théorie des Fonctions calls it the first fundamental theorem of measure theory.

19 Lessons: 1. Heine Borel is far less intuitive than other equivalent definitions of completeness. 2. In fact, Heine Borel can be counter-intuitive. 3. Heine Borel lies at the root of Borel (and thus, Lebesgue) measure. This is the moment at which it is needed. And I much prefer Borel s name for this result: The First Fundamental Theorem of Measure Theory.

20 What is the Fundamental Theorem of Calculus? Why is it fundamental? Possible answer: Integration and differentiation are inverse processes of each other. Problem with this answer: For most students, the working definition of integration is the inverse process of differentiation.

21 For any function f that is continuous on the interval [a,b], Differentiation undoes integration d x f ( t)dt = f ( x), Definite integral provides an dx a antiderivative and, if F (x) = f(x) for all x in [a,b], then b f ( t)dt = F( b) F( a). a Integration undoes differentiation An antiderivative provides a means of evaluating a definite integral.

22 The key to understanding this theorem is to know and appreciate that the definite integral is a limit of Riemann sums: b a ( ) f x dx is defined to be a limit over all partitions of [a,b], P = { a = x 0 < x 1 < < x n = b}, where P = max i b a ( ) f x n ( ) x i x i 1 ( ) dx = lim * f x i, P 0 i=1 ( x i x ) i 1 and x * i [ x i 1, x i ].

23 Riemann s habilita3on of 1854: Über die Darstellbarkeit einer Func3on durch eine trigonometrische Reihe lim max Δx i 0 Purpose of Riemann integral: n i=1 f ( * x ) i Δx i 1. To investigate how discontinuous a function can be and still be integrable. Can be discontinuous on a dense set of points. 2. To investigate when an unbounded function can still be integrable. Introduce improper integral.

24 Riemann s function: f ( x) = { x} = { nx} n 2 n=1 x ( nearest integer), when this is < 1 2, 0, when distance to nearest integer is 1 2. At x = a 2b, gcd ( a,2b ) = 1, the value of the function jumps by π 2 8b 2.

25 Riemann s definition of the definite integral is not widely adopted by mathematicians until the 1870s. First appearance of the Fundamentalsatz der Integralrechnumg (Fundamental Theorem of Integral Calculus) in its modern form was in an appendix to a paper on Fourier series by Paul du Bois- Reymond in

26 Before Cauchy, the definite integral was defined as the difference of the values of an antiderivative at the endpoints. This definition worked because all functions were assumed to be analytic, and thus an antiderivative always could be expressed in terms of a power series.

27 Cauchy, 1823, first explicit definition of definite integral as limit of sum of products b a f ( x)dx = lim n n i=1 ( ) f x i 1 ( x i x i 1 ). Purpose is to show that the definite integral is well-defined for any continuous function.

28 t 0 ( ) f x dx = F t He now needs to connect this to the antiderivative. Using the mean value theorem for integrals, he proves that d dt t 0 ( ) f x dx = f ( t). By the mean value theorem, any function whose derivative is 0 must be constant. Therefore, any two functions with the same derivative differ by a constant. Therefore, if F is any antiderivative of f, then b ( ) + C f ( x) a dx = F( b) F( a).

29 I shall now show that the general problem of quadratures [areas] can be reduced to the finding of a line that has a given law of tangency (declivitas), that is, for which the sides of the characteristic triangle have a given mutual relation. Then I shall show how this line can be described by a motion that I have invented. Supplementum geometriae dimensoriae, Acta Eruditorum, 1693 %! +! "+$! &! *! "*$! '! "'$! )! #! "#($! "#$!

30 Isaac Newton, the October 1666 Tract on Fluxions (unpublished): Problem 5: To find the nature of the crooked line [curve] whose area is expressed by any given equation Let y be the area under the curve ac, then the motion by which y increaseth will be bc = q. $" &" %"!" #" Problem 7: The nature of any crooked line being given to find its area, when it may bee.

31 G.H. Hardy A Course of Pure Mathematics, 1908: The ordinate of the curve is the derivative of the area, and the area is the integral of the ordinate

32 Nicole Oresme Tractatus de configurationaibus qualitatum et motuum (Treatise on the Configuration of Qualities and Motions) Circa $! Geometric demonstration that, under uniform acceleration, the distance traveled is equal to the distance traveled at constant average velocity. &! "! #!!"#!$# %! '!!%#

33 Isaac Beeckman s journal, 1618, unpublished in his lifetime Beeckman gives a justification, using a limit argument, that if the ordinate of a curve represents velocity, then the accumulated area under that curve represents the distance traveled. )*!! "! #! $! %! &! '! (!,* +*

34 Three Lessons: 1. The real point of the FTIC is that there are two conceptually different but generally equivalent ways of interpreting integration: as antidifferentiation and as a limit of approximating sums. 2. The modern statement of the FTIC is the result of centuries of refinement of the original understanding and requires considerable unpacking if students are to understand and appreciate it. 3. The FTIC arose from a dynamical understanding of total change as an accumulation of small changes proportional to the instantaneous rate of change. This is where we need to begin to develop student understanding of the FTIC. PowerPoint available at