Bernstein polynomial is one of the most valuable and attractive method used to develop numerical solution for several complex models because of its robustness to demonstrate approximation for anonymous equations. In this paper, Bernstein polynomial is proposed to present effective solution for the 2nd kind linear Volterra integral equations with…

Theon's ladder is an ancient method for easily approximating "n"th roots of a real number "k." Previous work in this area has focused on modifying Theon's ladder to approximate roots of quadratic polynomials. We extend this work using techniques from linear algebra. We will show that a ladder associated to the quadratic…

Let R be an integral domain with quotient field F, let S be a non-empty subset of R and let n = 2 be an integer. If there exists a rational function ?: S [right arrow] F such that ?(a)[superscript n] = a for all a ? S, then S is finite. As a consequence, if F is an ordered field (for instance,[real numbers]) and S is an open interval in F, no such…

The high school curriculum sometimes seems like a disconnected collection of topics and techniques. Theorems like the factor theorem and the remainder theorem can play an important role as a conceptual "glue" that holds the curriculum together. These two theorems establish the connection between the factors of a polynomial, the solutions…

We show that there are exactly four quadratic polynomials, Q(x) = x [superscript 2] + ax + b, such that (x[superscript 2] + ax + b) (x[superscript 2] - ax + b) = (x[superscript 4] + ax[superscript 2] + b). For n = 1, 2, ..., these quadratic polynomials can be written as the product of N = 2[superscript n] quadratic polynomials in x[superscript…

Students' struggles in learning reasoning and proof (RP) in mathematics are well known. Despite the instantiation of RP opportunities in mathematics textbooks in the USA and the important role that textbooks play in teachers' instructional decisions, little research has been conducted on analyzing student textbook tasks and narrative sections of…

The availability of sophisticated computer programs such as "Wolfram Alpha" has made many problems found in the secondary mathematics curriculum somewhat obsolete for they can be easily solved by the software. Against this background, an interplay between the power of a modern tool of technology and educational constraints it presents is…

Augustus De Morgan (1806-1871) was a significant Victorian Mathematician who made contributions to mathematics history, mathematical recreations, mathematical logic, calculus, and probability and statistics. He was an inspiring mathematics professor who influenced many of his students to join the profession. One of De Morgan's significant books…

It is a routine matter for undergraduates to find eigenvalues and eigenvectors of a given matrix. But the converse problem of finding a matrix with prescribed eigenvalues and eigenvectors is rarely discussed in elementary texts on linear algebra. This problem is related to the "spectral" decomposition of a matrix and has important technical…

Purely combinatorial proofs are given for the sum of squares formula, 1[superscript 2] + 2[superscript 2] + ... + n[superscript 2] = n(n + 1) (2n + 1) / 6, and the sum of sums of squares formula, 1[superscript 2] + (1[superscript 2] + 2[superscript 2]) + ... + (1[superscript 2] + 2[superscript 2] + ... + n[superscript 2]) = n(n + 1)[superscript 2]…

Exploring and deriving proofs of closed-form expressions for series can be fun for students. However, for some students, a physical representation of such problems is more meaningful. Various approaches have been designed to help students visualize squares of sums and sums of squares; these approaches may be arithmetic-algebraic or combinatorial…

As the name of the paper implies, a converse of Fermat's Little Theorem (FLT) is stated and proved. FLT states the following: if p is any prime, and x any integer, then x[superscript p] [equivalent to] x (mod p). There is already a well-known converse of FLT, known as Lehmer's Theorem, which is as follows: if x is an integer coprime with m, such…

In this paper, the author investigates the algebraic curve defined by the relation y[superscript 3] - 3y + 2x = 0. Treating this relation as a reduced cubic in the variable y, he uses a procedure first discovered by the mathematician Scipione del Ferro (Nahin, 1998, pp. 8-10) to obtain an expression for y in terms of x, namely y = (-x + [square…

A k-dimensional integer point is called visible if the line segment joining the point and the origin contains no proper integer points. This note proposes an explicit formula that represents the number of visible points on the two-dimensional [1,N]x[1,N] integer domain. Simulations and theoretical work are presented. (Contains 5 figures and 2…

Characteristic polynomials are used to determine when magic squares have magic inverses. A resulting method constructs arbitrary examples of such squares.