Stevin numbers and reality
We explore the potential of Simon Stevin's numbers, obscured by shifting foundational biases and by 19th century developments in the arithmetisation of analysis.
math.HO↗
arXiv subjects
Karin Usadi Katz
Publications and source records attributed to Karin Usadi Katz.
A Burgessian critique of nominalistic tendencies in contemporary mathematics and its historiography
We analyze the developments in mathematical rigor from the viewpoint of a Burgessian critique of nominalistic reconstructions. We apply such a critique to the reconstruction of infinitesimal analysis accomplished through the efforts of Cantor, Dedekind, and Weierstrass; to the reconstruction of Cauchy's foundational work associated with the work of Boyer and Grabiner; and to Bishop's constructivist reconstruction of classical analysis. We examine the effects of a nominalist disposition on historiography, teaching, and research.
math.HO↗
Meaning in Classical Mathematics: Is it at Odds with Intuitionism?
We examine the classical/intuitionist divide, and how it reflects on modern theories of infinitesimals. When leading intuitionist Heyting announced that "the creation of non-standard analysis is a standard model of important mathematical research", he was fully aware that he was breaking ranks with Brouwer. Was Errett Bishop faithful to either Kronecker or Brouwer? Through a comparative textual analysis of three of Bishop's texts, we analyze the ideological and/or pedagogical nature of his objections to infinitesimals a la Robinson. Bishop's famous "debasement" comment at the 1974 Boston workshop, published as part of his Crisis lecture, in reality was never uttered in front of an audience. We compare the realist and the anti-realist intuitionist narratives, and analyze the views of Dummett, Pourciau, Richman, Shapiro, and Tennant. Variational principles are important physical applications, currently lacking a constructive framework. We examine the case of the Hawking-Penrose singularity theorem, already analyzed by Hellman in the context of the Quine-Putnam indispensability thesis.
math.LO↗
When is .999... less than 1?
We examine alternative interpretations of the symbol described as nought, point, nine recurring. Is "an infinite number of 9s" merely a figure of speech? How are such alternative interpretations related to infinite cardinalities? How are they expressed in Lightstone's "semicolon" notation? Is it possible to choose a canonical alternative interpretation? Should unital evaluation of the symbol .999 . . . be inculcated in a pre-limit teaching environment? The problem of the unital evaluation is hereby examined from the pre-R, pre-lim viewpoint of the student.
math.HO↗
Hyperellipticity and Klein bottle companionship in systolic geometry
Given a hyperelliptic Klein surface, we construct companion Klein bottles. Bavard's short loops on companion bottles are studied in relation to the surface to improve an inequality of Gromov's in systolic geometry.
math.DG↗
A strict non-standard inequality .999... < 1
Is .999... equal to 1? Lightstone's decimal expansions yield an infinity of numbers in [0,1] whose expansion starts with an unbounded number of digits "9". We present some non-standard thoughts on the ambiguity of an ellipsis, modeling the cognitive concept of generic limit of B. Cornu and D. Tall. A choice of a non-standard hyperinteger H specifies an H-infinite extended decimal string of 9s, corresponding to an infinitesimally diminished hyperreal value. In our model, the student resistance to the unital evaluation of .999... is directed against an unspoken and unacknowledged application of the standard part function, namely the stripping away of a ghost of an infinitesimal, to echo George Berkeley. So long as the number system has not been specified, the students' hunch that .999... can fall infinitesimally short of 1, can be justified in a mathematically rigorous fashion.
math.HO↗
Bi-Lipschitz approximation by finite-dimensional imbeddings
We show that the Kuratowski imbedding of a Riemannian manifold in L^\infty, exploited in Gromov's proof of the systolic inequality for essential manifolds, admits an approximation by a (1+C)-bi-Lipschitz (onto its image), finite-dimensional imbedding for every C>0. Our key tool is the first variation formula thought of as a real statement in first-order logic, in the context of non-standard analysis.
math.DG↗
Loewner's torus inequality with isosystolic defect
We show that Bonnesen's isoperimetic defect has a systolic analog for Loewner's torus inequality. The isosystolic defect is expressed in terms of the probabilistic variance of the conformal factor of the metric g with respect to the flat metric of unit area in the conformal class of g.
math.DG↗