"Tiger gotta hunt. Bird gotta fly.
Man gotta sit and wonder why, why, why.
Tiger gotta sleep. Bird gotta land.
Man gotta tell himself he understand."
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| Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
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Graduate Seminar: Numbers (33229) - Summer I 2005
MW 14:30-16:15 in Bell Hall 143
- Instructor.
Dr. Helmut Knaust, Bell Hall 124, tel. 747-7002,
e-mail: helmut@math.utep.edu
- Office Hours.
MW 13:30-14:30, or by appointment.
- Textbook.
I will hand out class notes. No textbook is required.
- Prerequisites.
Some basic knowledge about set theory, relations, and the notion of convergence will be helpful.
Later parts assume some minimal knowledge about matrices.
- Contents.
The course will outline a somewhat rigorous construction of the real numbers starting with an axiomatic
definition of the natural numbers. As time permits, we will also introduce complex numbers, quaternions and
Robinson's hyper-reals.
- In-class Activities and Presentations. Mathematics is not a spectator sport. Therefore the class will
be a mixture of instructor lectures and student presentations.
I will regularly ask for volunteers to present solutions to tasks and exercises at the blackboard.
In preparation for these presentations, you may cooperate with other members of the class, you may consult with the instructor,
but you must not talk to other people outside of class and you must not use any other outside information such as books or the Internet.
- Attendance.
Due to the course structure, attendance is mandatory.
- Information on the Web. This syllabus and ancillary material can be found on my homepage
http://helmut.knaust.info.
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