Re: [math-fun] How we "do mathematics"

On 8/6/07, gale@math.berkeley.edu <gale@math.berkeley.edu> wrote:

Dan, I'M AFRAID I didn't express myself clearly.I wasn't asking for a solution but rather about the mechanics of finding it. Did either of you use pen or pencil or paper at any point? I had to draw two pictures before I could see what the equations had to be. Maybe you were able to do all these things in your head in which case my speculations are off base.

I think those of us like me, with lots of math contest experience and high school teaching experience, do this kind of stuff in our heads all the time. But I think that's a result of having gone through the steps on paper so many times for problems similar to this one! --Joshua Zucker