MinivanMom Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 According to my first grader as she was doing her Singapore mental math this morning. My older kids and I just cracked up. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dmmetler Posted April 7, 2015 Share Posted April 7, 2015 DD listed "Well, DUH!" as her explanation on an AOPS problem this morning. So it doesn't get better as they get older (admittedly, that IS what's known as the "Trivial Inequality", so apparently she's not the first person in history to consider it obvious). 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kiana Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 DD listed "Well, DUH!" as her explanation on an AOPS problem this morning. So it doesn't get better as they get older (admittedly, that IS what's known as the "Trivial Inequality", so apparently she's not the first person in history to consider it obvious). You know, there are times when (in my OWN work) I write "duh" for a part of a proof that is absolutely obvious. In graduate school, one of my friends jestingly called it the "property of duh" 6 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
regentrude Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Just teach her that the sophisticated way of saying "well duh" is: "this is trivial". 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cosmos Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 Just teach her that the sophisticated way of saying "well duh" is: "this is trivial". You all know the story of the math professor who put a theorem on the board and said, "Of course this is trivial to prove." A student cautiously raised his hand and said, "Professor, is it trivial? I'm afraid I don't follow." The professor looked at the board for a moment, scratched his head, then looked again. He stared out the window and then looked again. Finally he stepped to his desk and pulled out some scratch paper where he feverishly wrote out equations for several minutes. Then his face cleared and he stepped back to the board. "Yes," he said firmly, "It is trivial." 9 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Tsuga Posted April 8, 2015 Share Posted April 8, 2015 I think that it is import an to distinguish between a trivial base case, like the law of identity, and a proof which relies on a more difficult base case, but which is simple to solve (only one inductive step). Even the most trivial proofs have to state the law in my book, and being able to do so is important. "Duh" is a good joke but in math and logic we had to say, "trivial by the law of identity" or "trivially true because the consequent is necessarily true by the law of..." 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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