UNIZOR.COM - Intro to Math 4 Teens course

Mathematics for Teenagers

Math is my favorite subject. It was my major in college and it has played extremely important role in my career. It has shaped my thinking, it influenced approaches I took when dealing with complex problems and helped to maintain a healthy balance in life.

Educational material in this section is devoted to mathematical topics addressed usually by those high school teachers and advanced students who strive to deepen their understanding of principles and concepts of mathematics. The topics are presented in a relatively rigorous way with plenty of logical justifications and, most importantly, many problems to be solved by students.

It is a very strong opinion of many math teachers that the main purpose of studying math is not accumulation of facts (theorems, rules, properties etc.) but rather developing an unfailing logical approach to solving problems of all kinds, starting with mathematical ones and leading to real life challenges. That is why it is extremely important for students to attempt solving as many problems presented here as possible. Some of them will be discussed on this site and solutions will be suggested, some are presented for self-study. But if you want this study to be successful, try to solve as many as you can. This is a main key to develop analytical approach that is extremely important for a successful career in many areas.

I'd like to extend my deep appreciation to my math teacher Felix Barenbaum who is not only a wonderful teacher but a great inspiration as well. I know him since my 5th grade in school and we still, though separated by an ocean, maintain close relationship.

In addition, I'd like to mention that most of non-trivial problems you will see on this Web site are taken from books "Special Problems in Elementary Mathematics" by P. Modenov published in Moscow in 1960 (in Russian, of course) and a few books of problems published under editing supervision of M.I.Skanavi (also in Russian).

Additional references are mentioned under "References" item of the Main Menu of this course.