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4.6: Summary and Further Problems

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    59082
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    For tens of millions of years, evolution has refined our perceptual abilities. A small child recognizes patterns more reliably and quickly than does the largest supercomputer. Pictorial reasoning, therefore, taps the mind’s vast computational power. It makes us more intelligent by helping us understand and see large ideas at a glance. For extensive and enjoyable collections of picture proofs, see the works of Nelsen [31, 32]. Here are further problems to develop pictorial reasoning.

    Multiple problems

    Problem 4.33 Another picture for the AM–GM inequality

    Sketch \(y = ln x\) to show that the arithmetic mean of a and b is always greater than or equal to their geometric mean, with equality when \(a = b\).

    Problem 4.34 Archimedes’ formula for the area of a parabola

    Archimedes showed (long before calculus!) that the closed parabola encloses two-thirds of its circumscribing rectangle. Prove this result by integration.

    Show that the closed parabola also encloses two-thirds of the circumscribing parallelogram with vertical sides. These pictorial recipes are useful when approximating functions (for example, in Problem 4.32).

    Screen Shot 2021-03-08 at 3.51.40 PM.png

    Problem 4.35 Ancient picture for the area of a circle

    The ancient Greeks knew that the circumference of a circle with radius r was \(2\pi r\). They then used the following picture to show that its area is \(\pi r^{2}\). Can you reconstruct the argument?

    Screen Shot 2021-03-08 at 3.51.34 PM.png

    Problem 4.36 Volume of a sphere

    Extend the argument of Problem 4.35 to find the volume of a sphere of radius r, given that its surface area is \(4\pi r\). Illustrate the argument with a sketch.

    Problem 4.37 A famous sum

    Use pictorial reasoning to approximate the famous Basel sum \(\sum_{1}^{\infty} n^{-2}\).

    Problem 4.38 Newton–Raphson method

    In general, solving \(f(t) = 0\) requires approximations. One method is to start with a guess \(t_{0}\) and to improve it iteratively using the Newton–Raphson method


    4.6: Summary and Further Problems is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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