The mechanics of proof

This is a set of lecture notes dealing with how to write careful, rigorous mathematical proofs. The lecture notes are paired with code in the computer formalization language Lean. Head over to the associated GitHub repository, https://github.com/hrmacbeth/math2001, to download this code to your own computer or to open it in the cloud on Gitpod.

These lecture notes are aimed at the early university level and have been written for the course Math 2001, at Fordham University. Please reach out to the author, Heather Macbeth, with comments and corrections.

• Introduction
  • About this book
  • About Lean
  • Note for instructors
  • Acknowledgements

• 1. Proofs by calculation
  • 1.1. Proving equalities
  • 1.2. Proving equalities in Lean
  • 1.3. Tips and tricks
  • 1.4. Proving inequalities
  • 1.5. A shortcut
• 2. Proofs with structure
  • 2.1. Intermediate steps
  • 2.2. Invoking lemmas
  • 2.3. “Or” and proof by cases
  • 2.4. “And”
  • 2.5. Existence proofs
• 3. Parity and divisibility
  • 3.1. Definitions; parity
  • 3.2. Divisibility
  • 3.3. Modular arithmetic: theory
  • 3.4. Modular arithmetic: calculations
  • 3.5. Bézout’s identity
• 4. Proofs with structure, II
  • 4.1. “For all” and implication
  • 4.2. “If and only if”
  • 4.3. “There exists a unique”
  • 4.4. Contradictory hypotheses
  • 4.5. Proof by contradiction
• 5. Logic
  • 5.1. Logical equivalence
  • 5.2. The law of the excluded middle
  • 5.3. Normal form for negations
• 6. Induction
  • 6.1. Introduction
  • 6.2. Recurrence relations
  • 6.3. Two-step induction
  • 6.4. Strong induction
  • 6.5. Pascal’s triangle
  • 6.6. The Division Algorithm
  • 6.7. The Euclidean algorithm
• 7. Number theory
  • 7.1. Infinitely many primes
  • 7.2. Gauss’ and Euclid’s lemmas
  • 7.3. The square root of two
• 8. Functions
  • 8.1. Injectivity and surjectivity
  • 8.2. Bijectivity
  • 8.3. Composition of functions
  • 8.4. Product types
• 9. Sets
  • 9.1. Introduction
  • 9.2. Set operations
  • 9.3. The type of sets
• 10. Relations
  • 10.1. Reflexive, symmetric, antisymmetric, transitive
  • 10.2. Equivalence relations

Appendices

• Index of Lean tactics
• Transitioning to mainstream Lean

• Homework
  • Homework 0
  • Homework 1
  • Homework 2
  • Homework 3
  • Homework 4