# Tag Archives: proof

## Unanticipated Proof Before Algebra

I was talking with one of our 5th graders, S,  last week about the difference between showing a few examples of numerical computations and developing a way to know something was true no matter what numbers were chosen.  I hadn’t started our conversation thinking about introducing proof.  Once we turned in that direction, I anticipated scaffolding him in a completely different direction, but S went his own way and reinforced for me the importance of listening and giving students the encouragement and room to build their own reasoning.

SETUP:  S had been telling me that he “knew” the product of an even number with any other number would always be even, while the product of any two odds was always odd.  He demonstrated this by showing lots of particular products, but I asked him if he was sure that it was still true if I were to pick some numbers he hadn’t used yet.  He was.

Then I asked him how many numbers were possible to use.  He promptly replied “infinite” at which point he finally started to see the difficulty with demonstrating that every product worked.  “We don’t have enough time” to do all that, he said.  Finally, I had maneuvered him to perhaps his first ever realization for the need for proof.

ANTICIPATION:  But S knew nothing of formal algebra.  From my experiences with younger students sans algebra, I thought I would eventually need to help him translate his numerical problem into a geometric one.  But this story is about S’s reasoning, not mine.

INSIGHT:  I asked S how he would handle any numbers I asked him to multiply to prove his claims, even if I gave him some ridiculously large ones.  “It’s really not as hard as that,” S told me.  He quickly scribbled

on his paper and covered up all but the one’s digit.  “You see,” he said, “all that matters is the units.  You can make the number as big as you want and I just need to look at the last digit.”  Without using this language, S was venturing into an even-odd proof via modular arithmetic.

With some more thought, he reasoned that he would focus on just the units digit through repeated multiples and see what happened.

FIFTH GRADE PROOF:  S’s math class is currently working through a multiplication unit in our 5th grade Bridges curriculum, so he was already in the mindset of multiples.  Since he said only the units digit mattered, he decided he could start with any even number and look at all of its multiples.  That is, he could keep adding the number to itself and see what happened.  As shown below, he first chose 32 and found the next four multiples, 64, 96, 128, and 160.  After that, S said the very next number in the list would end in a 2 and the loop would start all over again.

He stopped talking for several seconds, and then he smiled.  “I don’t have to look at every multiple of 32.  Any multiple will end up somewhere in my cycle and I’ve already shown that every number in this cycle is even.  Every multiple of 32 must be even!”  It was a pretty powerful moment.  Since he only needed to see the last digit, and any number ending in 2 would just add 2s to the units, this cycle now represented every number ending in 2 in the universe.  The last line above was S’s use of 1002 to show that the same cycling happened for another “2 number.”

DIFFERENT KINDS OF CYCLES:  So could he use this for all multiples of even numbers?  His next try was an “8 number.”

After five multiples of 18, he achieved the same cycling.  Even cooler, he noticed that the cycle for “8 numbers” was the 2 number” cycle backwards.

Also note that after S completed his 2s and 8s lists, he used only single digit seed numbers as the bigger starting numbers only complicated his examples.  He was on a roll now.

I asked him how the “4 number” cycle was related.  He noticed that the 4s used every other number in the “2 number” cycle.  It was like skip counting, he said.  Another lightbulb went off.

“And that’s because 4 is twice 2, so I just take every 2nd multiple in the first cycle!”  He quickly scratched out a “6 number” example.

This, too, cycled, but more importantly, because 6 is thrice 2, he said that was why this list used every 3rd number in the “2 number” cycle.  In that way, every even number multiple list was the same as the “2 number” list, you just skip-counted by different steps on your way through the list.

When I asked how he could get all the numbers in such a short list when he was counting by 3s, S said it wasn’t a problem at all.  Since it cycled, whenever you got to the end of a list, just go back to the beginning and keep counting.  We didn’t touch it last week, but he had opened the door to modular arithmetic.

I won’t show them here, but his “0 number” list always ended in 0s.  “This one isn’t very interesting,” he said.  I smiled.

ODDS:  It took a little more thought to start his odd number proof, because every other multiple was even.  After he recognized these as even numbers, S decided to list every other multiple as shown with his “1 number” and “3 number” lists.

As with the evens, the odd number lists could all be seen as skip-counted versions of each other.  Also, the 1s and 9s were written backwards from each other, and so were the 3s and 7s.  “5 number” lists were declared to be as boring as “0 numbers”.  Not only did the odds ultimately end up cycling essentially the same as the evens, but they had the same sort of underlying relationships.

CONCLUSION:  At this point, S declared that since he had shown every possible case for evens and odds, then he had shown that any multiple of an even number was always even, and any odd multiple of an odd number was odd.  And he knew this because no matter how far down the list he went, eventually any multiple had to end up someplace in his cycles.  At that point I reminded S of his earlier claim that there was an infinite number of even and odd numbers.  When he realized that he had just shown a case-by-case reason for more numbers than he could ever demonstrate by hand, he sat back in his chair, exclaiming, “Whoa!  That’s cool!”

It’s not a formal mathematical proof, and when S learns some algebra, he’ll be able to accomplish his cases far more efficiently, but this was an unexpectedly nice and perfectly legitimate numerical proof of even and odd multiples for an elementary student.

## Mixed Number Curiosity

The first part of this is not my work, but I offer an intriguing extension.

PROBLEM:

This appeared on Twitter recently. (source)

Despite its apparent notional confusion, it is a true statement.  Since both sides are positive, you can square both sides without producing extraneous results.  Doing so proves the statement.

It’s a lovely, but curious piece of arithmetic trivia.  A more mathematical question:

Does this pattern hold for any other numbers?

Thomas Oléron Evans has a proof on his ‘blog here in which he solves the equation $\sqrt(a+\frac{b}{c}) = a \cdot \sqrt( \frac{b}{c})$ under the assumptions that a, b, and c are natural and $\frac{b}{c}$ is any fraction in its most reduced form.  Doing so leads to the equation

where A is any natural number larger than 1.  Nice.

While the derivation is more complicated for middle and upper school students, proof that the formula works is straightforward.

A>0, so all terms are positive.  Square both terms, find a common denominator, et voila!

EXTENSIONS:

Using Evans’ assumptions, the formula is inevitable, but any math rests on its assumptions.  I wondered if there are more numbers out there for which the original number pattern was true.

Using Evans’ formula, my very first thought was to violate the integer assumption.  I let $A=1.1$ and grabbed my Nspire.

Checking the fractional term, I see that I also violated the “simplest form” assumption.  Converting this to a fractional form to make sure there isn’t a decimal off somewhere down the line, I got

So it is true for more than Evans claimed.

I don’t have time to investigate this further right now, so I throw it out to you.  How far does this property go?

## Tell a Friend

I’ve been in several conversations over these first couple weeks of school with colleagues in our lower and middle schools about what students need to do to convince others they understand an idea.

On our first pre-assessments, some teachers noted that many students showed good computation skills, but struggled when they had to explain relationships.  Frankly, I’m never surprised by revelations that students find explanations more difficult than formulas and computations.  That’s tough for learners of all ages.  But, in my opinion, it’s also the most important part about developing a way to communicate mathematically.

In the other direction, I frequently hear students complain that they just don’t know what to write and that teachers seem to arbitrarily ask for “more explanation”, but they just can’t figure out what that means.

SOLUTION?:

Just like writing in humanities classes, a math learner needs to seriously consider his “audience”.  Who’s going to read your solution?  I think too many write for a classroom teacher, expecting him or her to fill in any potential logical gaps.

Instead, I tell my students that I expect all of their explanations to be understandable by every classmate. In short,

Don’t write your answer to me; write it to a friend who’s been absent for a couple days.

If a random classmate who’s been out a couple days can get it just based on your written work, they you’re good.

## Lovely or Tricky Triangle Question?

In addition to not being drawn to scale and asking for congruence anyway, I like this problem because it potentially forces some great class discussions.

One responder suggested using the Law of Sines (LoS) to establish an isosceles triangle.  My first thought was that was way more sophisticated than necessary and completely missed the fact that the given triangle information was SSA.

My initial gut reaction was this SSA setup was a “trick” ambiguous case scenario and no congruence was possible, but I couldn’t find a flaw in the LoS logic. After all, LoS fails when attempting to find obtuse angles, but the geometry at play here clearly makes angles B and C both acute.  That meant LoS should work, and this was actually a determinate SSA case, not ambiguous.  I was stuck in a potential contradiction.  I was also thinking with trigonometry–a far more potent tool than I suspected was necessary for this problem.

“Stuck” moments like this are GOLDEN for me in the classroom.  I could imagine two primary student situations here.  They either  1) got a quick “proof” without recognizing the potential ambiguity, or 2) didn’t have a clue how to proceed.  There are many reasons why a student might get stuck here, all of which are worth naming and addressing in a public forum.  How can we NAME and MOVE PAST situations that confuse us?  Perhaps more importantly, how often do we actually recognize when we’re in the middle of something that is potentially slipperier than it appears to be on the surface?

PROBLEM RESOLUTION:

I read later that some invoked the angle bisector theorem, but I took a different path.  I’m fond of a property I asked my geometry classes to prove last year .

If any two of a triangle’s 1) angle bisector, 2) altitude, and 3) median coincide, prove that the remaining segment does, too, and that whenever this happens, the triangle will be isosceles with its vertex at the bisected angle.

Once I recognized that the angle bisector of angle BAC was also the median to side BC, I knew the triangle was isosceles.  The problem was solved without invoking any trigonometry or any similarity ratios.

Very nice problem with VERY RICH discussion potential.  Thanks for the tweet, Mr. Noble.

For more conversation on this, check out this Facebook conversation.

## Unexpected Proof of the Pythagorean Theorem

Following is a neat discovery of an alternative proof of the Pythagorean Theorem resulting from the multiple solutions to the Circle and Square problem.  I’m sure someone has seen this before, as there are literally 100s of unique proofs of the Pythagorean Theorem, but this one was new to me.

The intersecting chord relationships in a circle can be proven using only similar triangles.  Proofs of these are at the bottom of this post, if needed.  Using only those, you can prove the Pythagorean Theorem.

PROOF:

The image below–a revision of the diagram from my previous post–shows diameter DE in circle C.  Chord AB is a side of the given square from the Circle and Square problem and is bisected by symmetry into two segments, each of length a.  Let  be the radius of circle C.  Let the portion of DE from point C to chord AB have length b.  Because AB is a chord bisected by diameter DE, two right triangles are created, as shown.

AB and DE are intersecting chords, so $a \cdot a = (r-b) \cdot (r+b)$.  Expanding the right side and moving the $b^2$ term to the other side gives the Pythagorean Theorem.

Short and sweet once the chord relationships are established.

SUPPORTING PROOF 1:

In the image below, AB and CD are any two chords intersecting at point E.  Vertical angles give $\angle DEA \cong \angle BEC$.  Because $\angle ADE$ and $\angle CBE$ are inscribed angles sharing arc AC, they are also congruent.

That means $\Delta ADE \sim \Delta CBE$, which gives $\displaystyle \frac{x}{w} = \frac{y}{z}$, or $x \cdot z = w \cdot y$.  QED

SUPPORTING PROOF 2:
Show that if a diameter bisects a chord, the diameter and chord are perpendicular.  Start with the vertical diameter of circle C bisecting chord AB.

It should be straightforward to show $\Delta ADC \cong \Delta BDC$ by SSS.  That means  corresponding angles $\angle ADC \cong \angle BDC$; as they also from a linear pair, those angles are both right, and the proof is established.

## Squares and Octagons, A compilation

My last post detailed my much-too-long trigonometric proof of why the octagon formed by connecting the midpoints and vertices of the edges of a square into an 8-pointed star is always 1/6 of the area of the original square.

My proof used trigonometry, and responses to the post on Twitter  and on my ‘blog showed many cool variations.  Dave Radcliffe thought it would be cool to have a compilation of all of the different approaches.  I offer that here in the order they were shared with me.

Method 1:  My use of trigonometry in a square.  See my original post.

Method 2:  Using medians in a rectangle from Tatiana Yudovina, a colleague at Hawken School.

Below, the Area(axb rectangle) = ab = 16 blue triangles, and
Area(octagon) = 4 blue triangles – 2 red deltas..

Now look at the two green, similar triangles.  They are similar with ratio 1/2, making

Area(red delta) = $\displaystyle \frac{b}{4} \cdot \frac{a}{6} = \frac{ab}{24}$, and

Area(blue triangle) = $\displaystyle \frac{1}{16} ab$

So, Area(octagon) = $\displaystyle 2 \frac{ab}{24}-4\frac {ab}{16}=\frac{1}{6}ab$.

QED

Method 3:  Using differences in triangle areas in a square (but easily extended to rectangles)from @Five_Triangles (‘blog here).

Full solution here.

Method 4:  Very clever shorter solution using triangle area similarity in a square also from @Five_Triangles (‘blog here).

Full second solution here.

Method 5:  Great option Using dilated kitesfrom Dave Radcliffe posting as @daveinstpaul.

Full pdf and proof here.

Method 6:  Use fact that triangle medians trisect each other from Mike Lawler posting as @mikeandallie.

Tweet of solution here.

Method 7:  Use a coordinate proof on a specific square from Steve Ingrassia, a colleague at Hawken School.  Not a quick proof like some of the geometric solutions, but it’s definitely different than the others.

If students know the formula for finding the area of any polygon using its coordinates, then they can prove this result very simply with nothing more than simple algebra 1 techniques.   No trig is required.

The area of polygon with vertices (in either clockwise or counterclockwise order, starting at any vertex) of $(x_1, y_1)$, $(x_2, y_2)$, …, $(x_n, y_n)$ is

$\displaystyle Area = \left| \frac{(x_1y_2-x_2y_1)+(x_2y_3-x_3y_2)+...+(x_{n-1}y_n-x_ny_{n-1})}{2} \right|$

Use a 2×2 square situated with vertices at (0,0), (0,2), (2,2), and (2,0).  Construct segments connecting each vertex with the midpoints of the sides of the square, and find the equations of the associated lines.

• L1 (connecting (0,0) and (2,1):    y = x/2
• L2 (connecting (0,0) and (1,2):   y=2x
• L3 (connecting (0,1) and (2,0):  y= -x/2 + 1
• L4 (connecting (0,1) and (2,2):  y= x/2 + 1
• L5 (connecting (0,2) and (1,0):  y = -2x + 2
• L6 (connecting (0,2) and (2,1):  y= -x/2 + 2
• L7 (connecting (1,2) and (2,0):  y = -2x + 4
• L8 (connecting (2,2) and (1,0):  y = 2x – 2

The 8 vertices of the octagon come at pairwise intersections of some of these lines, which can be found with simple substitution:

• Vertex 1 is at the intersection of L1 and L3:   (1, 1/2)
• Vertex 2 is at the intersection of L3 and L5:  (2/3, 2/3)
• Vertex 3 is at the intersection of L2 and L5:  (1/2, 1)
• Vertex 4 is at the intersection of L2 and L4:  (2/3, 4/3)
• Vertex 5 is at the intersection of L4 and L6:  (1, 3/2)
• Vertex 6 is at the intersection of L6 and L7:  (4/3, 4/3)
• Vertex 7 is at the intersection of L7 and L8:  (3/2, 1)
• Vertex 8 is at the intersection of L1 and L8:  (4/3, 2/3)

Using the coordinates of these 8 vertices in the formula for the area of the octagon, gives

$\displaystyle \frac{ \left| 1/3 +1/3+0+(-1/3)+(-2/3)+(-1/3)+0 \right|}{2} = \frac{2}{3}$

Since the area of the original square was 4, the area of the octagon is exactly 1/6th of the area of the square.

Thanks, everyone, for your contributions.

## Squares and Octagons

Following is a really fun problem Tom Reardon showed my department last May as he led us through some TI-Nspire CAS training.  Following the introduction of the problem, I offer a mea culpa, a proof, and an extension.

THE PROBLEM:

Take any square and construct midpoints on all four sides.
Connect the four midpoints and four vertices to create a continuous 8-pointed star as shown below.  The interior of the star is an octagon.  Construct this yourself using your choice of dynamic geometry software and vary the size of the square.

Compare the areas of the external square and the internal octagon.

You should find that the area of the original square is always 6 times the area of the octagon.

I thought that was pretty cool.  Then I started to play.

MINOR OBSERVATIONS:

Using my Nspire, I measured the sides of the octagon and found it to be equilateral.

As an extension of Tom’s original problem statement, I wondered if the constant square:octagon ratio occurred in any other quadrilaterals.  I found the external quadrilateral was also six times the area of the internal octagon for parallelograms, but not for any more general quadrilaterals.  Tapping my understanding of the quadrilateral hierarchy, that means the property also holds for rectangles and rhombi.

MEA CULPA:

Math teachers always warn students to never, ever assume what they haven’t proven.  Unfortunately, my initial exploration of this problem was significantly hampered by just such an assumption.  I obviously know better (and was reminded afterwards that Tom actually had told us that the octagon was not equiangular–but like many students, I hadn’t listened).   After creating the original octagon, measuring its sides and finding them all equivalent, I errantly assumed the octagon was regular.  That isn’t true.

That false assumption created flaws in my proof and generalizations.  I discovered my error when none of my proof attempts worked out, and I eventually threw everything out and started over.  I knew better than to assume.  But I persevered, discovered my error through back-tracking, and eventually overcame.  That’s what I really hope my students learn.

THE REAL PROOF:

Goal:  Prove that the area of the original square is always 6 times the area of the internal octagon.

Assume the side length of a given square is $2x$, making its area $4x^2$.

The octagon’s area obviously is more complicated.  While it is not regular, the square’s symmetry guarantees that it can be decomposed into four congruent kites in two different ways.  Kite AFGH below is one such kite.

Therefore, the area of the octagon is 4 times the area of AFGH.  One way to express the area of any kite is $\frac{1}{2}D_1\cdot D_2$, where $D_1$ and $D_2$ are the kite’s diagonals. If I can determine the lengths of $\overline{AG}$ and $\overline {FH}$, then I will know the area of AFGH and thereby the ratio of the area of the square to the area of the octagon.

The diagonals of every kite are perpendicular, and the diagonal between a kite’s vertices connecting its non-congruent sides is bisected by the kite’s other diagonal.  In terms of AFGH, that means $\overline{AG}$ is the perpendicular bisector of $\overline{FH}$.

The square and octagon are concentric at point A, and point E is the midpoint of $\overline{BC}$, so $\Delta BAC$ is isosceles with vertex A, and $\overline{AE}$ is the perpendicular bisector of $\overline{BC}$.

That makes right triangles $\Delta BEF \sim \Delta BCD$.  Because $\displaystyle BE=\frac{1}{2} BC$, similarity gives $\displaystyle AF=FE=\frac{1}{2} DC=\frac{x}{2}$.  I know one side of the kite.

Let point I be the intersection of the diagonals of AFGH.  $\Delta BEA$ is right isosceles, so $\Delta AIF$ is, too, with $m\angle{IAF}=45$ degrees.  With $\displaystyle AF=\frac{x}{2}$, the Pythagorean Theorem gives $\displaystyle IF=\frac{x}{2\sqrt{2}}$.  Point I is the midpoint of $\overline{FH}$, so $\displaystyle FH=\frac{x}{\sqrt{2}}$.  One kite diagonal is accomplished.

Construct $\overline{JF} \parallel \overline{BC}$.  Assuming degree angle measures, if $m\angle{FBC}=m\angle{FCB}=\theta$, then $m\angle{GFJ}=\theta$ and $m\angle{AFG}=90-\theta$.  Knowing two angles of $\Delta AGF$ gives the third:  $m\angle{AGF}=45+\theta$.

I need the length of the kite’s other diagonal, $\overline{AG}$, and the Law of Sines gives

$\displaystyle \frac{AG}{sin(90-\theta )}=\frac{\frac{x}{2}}{sin(45+\theta )}$, or

$\displaystyle AG=\frac{x \cdot sin(90-\theta )}{2sin(45+\theta )}$.

Expanding using cofunction and angle sum identities gives

$\displaystyle AG=\frac{x \cdot sin(90-\theta )}{2sin(45+\theta )}=\frac{x \cdot cos(\theta )}{2 \cdot \left( sin(45)cos(\theta ) +cos(45)sin( \theta) \right)}=\frac{x \cdot cos(\theta )}{\sqrt{2} \cdot \left( cos(\theta ) +sin( \theta) \right)}$

From right $\Delta BCD$, I also know $\displaystyle sin(\theta )=\frac{1}{\sqrt{5}}$ and $\displaystyle cos(\theta)=\frac{2}{\sqrt{5}}$.  Therefore, $\displaystyle AG=\frac{x\sqrt{2}}{3}$, and the kite’s second diagonal is now known.

So, the octagon’s area is four times the kite’s area, or

$\displaystyle 4\left( \frac{1}{2} D_1 \cdot D_2 \right) = 2FH \cdot AG = 2 \cdot \frac{x}{\sqrt{2}} \cdot \frac{x\sqrt{2}}{3} = \frac{2}{3}x^2$

Therefore, the ratio of the area of the square to the area of its octagon is

$\displaystyle \frac{area_{square}}{area_{octagon}} = \frac{4x^2}{\frac{2}{3}x^2}=6$.

QED

EXTENSIONS:

This was so nice, I reasoned that it couldn’t be an isolated result.

I have extended and proved that the result is true for other modulo-3 stars like the 8-pointed star in the square for any n-gon.  I’ll share that very soon in another post.

I proved the result above, but I wonder if it can be done without resorting to trigonometric identities.  Everything else is simple geometry.   I also wonder if there are other more elegant approaches.

Finally, I assume there are other constant ratios for other modulo stars inside larger n-gons, but I haven’t explored that idea.  Anyone?