using Lisp in math education

Tomorrow, after my last session with my math tutee, I will teach him to play around with Lisp. Hopefully, it will replace his calculator.

download (Can anyone suggest a better Lisp environment for Windows?)

Lisp, because of its prefix notation, makes it possible to express empty additions and multiplications. This makes it easier to see why the value of an empty addition is 0, while the value of an empty multiplication is 1.

Other advantages:
* using formal languages prevents notational confusion
* with a formal language, the communication between teacher and student can be completely precise, at least AFA procedures are concerned. For expressing arguments or proofs, something like Coq would be needed. For communicating about intuitions, I have no idea.

Here's some code I'm hoping to go over with him: ( Read more... )

on being a "global nomad"

My "national identity" is "other".

some short essays on being a global nomad.

I would say my case is somewhat different than what she describes: I feel at "home" in English-speaking international communities. My social self functions optimally in such environments.