Generalization and specialization - the strange Case of the Pythagorean theorem

Shirali, Shailesh (2015) Generalization and specialization - the strange Case of the Pythagorean theorem. At Right Angles, 4 (1). pp. 28-32. ISSN 2582-1873

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Abstract

The word ‘generalize’ is extremely dear to mathematicians; they are always looking for ways to generalize something or the other! This should not come as a surprise, because generalization is utterly basic to mathematics. (It is just as basic to the notion of language, but we won’t go into that here.) In this article we examine what ‘generalization’ means, along with its complementary action, ‘specialization’. Using a few simple examples, we show that even in very elementary contexts there lurk strange paradoxes.

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Articles in APF Magazines

Authors:

Shirali, Shailesh

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