Introduction to Logic

Final Exam: Make an appointment with me for Monday the 10th, no earlier than 10 AM and no later than 3 PM. Bring your take-home with you to turn in, and take the in-class at that time. You will be allowed an hour and a half for the in-class portion though I hope it will not take anyone as long as that.

Welcome to Math 39! This webpage will be home to the syllabus, homework assignments, announcements, and any handouts that I have in electronic form (which should be most of them).

Our course summary:

We'll talk about what it means to be "a logic", formalization, truth, and symbolic manipulation. The goal is to see the difference between true and provable, and how while the latter always implies the former, the former does not always imply the latter (Goedel's incompleteness theorem). This hinges on a difference between syntax (symbols and symbolic manipulation) and semantics (interpretation, which gives a truth value to a statement).

I plan to keep the syllabus flexible to allow for exploration of your interests, and take advantage of previous math classes you have had to provide interesting examples without big detours of explanation. I hope you'll join us!

The class meets MWF 12:30-1:35 (12 hour), 120 Kemeny Hall (note change!). Our textbook is A Mathematical Introduction to Logic (2nd Ed) by Herb Enderton.

Your instructor is Rebecca Weber (yours truly), and my office is Kemeny 317, phone number 646-1720. It's usually more reliable to email than to call, however. My office hours are Wednesdays 2:00-3:30 and Thursdays 10:30-12. We have a graduate TA, Brooke Andersen, who is in 211 Kemeny Hall, 646-9805 (again, email is better). Her office hours are 4:00-5:00 Mondays and Wednesdays. We are both available for appointments, as well. [I should perhaps note that you will share any non-appointment office hours of mine with math 8 students; Brooke's hours are solely for you.]

Here is the syllabus that was handed out.
A page about non-Euclidean geometry including the first lecture's handout.

If you want to learn the LaTeX typesetting system for writing up homework (highly recommended), I have a page of resources.

Help on Material

There are many ways to get help with the material. Here are some:

• Ask questions during, before, or after class.
• Discuss material with your classmates. I want everyone to write up their own homework, but feel free to discuss it with each other.
• Come to office hours to discuss questions. Office hours are nothing more than time put aside when Brooke and I are guaranteed to be in our offices free to meet with you. You do not need to make an appointment, nor feel bad about interrupting whatever we're filling our time with when you come in.
• Make an appointment to meet with me or Brooke. While we prefer this be done only in cases where the above options simply don't work out, or when the discussion is to be confidential, we are happy to meet with you at other times.

Last modified September 28, 2007