13Proofs, Truth, and Trees: Oh My!
The point of logic is to make it possible to prove things. What is a proof? In math, it’s a sequence of logical inferences that show how a new fact, called a conclusion, can be derived from a set of known facts, called premises.
Proofs tend to scare people. I can still remember being a sophomore in high school and being introduced to proofs in my geometry class. It was by far the worst experience I’d ever had in a math class! I’d try to work out a proof in my homework; and when the teacher handed it back, it would be covered in red ink, with every other line marked “doesn’t follow,” or “missing case.” I just couldn’t figure out what I was supposed to be doing.
A lot of people have had pretty much the same ...
Get Good Math now with the O’Reilly learning platform.
O’Reilly members experience books, live events, courses curated by job role, and more from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers.
