The harmonic series is one of the most celebrated infinite series of mathematics. A quick glance at a variety of modern calculus textbooks reveals that there are two very popular proofs of the divergence of the harmonic series. In this article, the authors survey these popular proofs along with many other proofs that are equally simple and…

In terms of modern pedagogy, having visual interpretation of trigonometric functions is useful and quite helpful. This paper presents, pictorially, an easy approach to prove all single angle trigonometric identities on the axes. It also discusses the application of axial representation in calculus--finding the derivative of trigonometric functions.

This article discusses the four categories of triangles that are standard in most textbooks when "solving" triangles: (a) Given the lengths of two sides and the measure of an angle opposite one of the two given sides, (b) Given the lengths of two sides and the measure of the included angle, (c) Given the lengths of all three sides, d) Given the…

This article provides a proof of the Mean Value Theorem by rotating a coordinate system through a specified angle. The use of this approach makes it easy to visualize why the Mean Value Theorem is true. An instructor can use the proof as another illustration of the rotation of axis technique in addition to the standard one of simplifying equations…

The cross-product is a mathematical operation that is performed between two 3-dimensional vectors. The result is a vector that is orthogonal or perpendicular to both of them. Learning about this for the first time while taking Calculus-III, the class was taught that if AxB = AxC, it does not necessarily follow that B = C. This seemed baffling. The…

In 1750, the Swiss mathematician Gabriel Cramer published a well-written algebra book entitled "Introduction a l'Analyse des Lignes Courbes Algebriques." In the appendix to this book, Cramer gave, without proof, the rule named after him for solving a linear system of equations using determinants (Kosinki, 2001). Since then several derivations of…