When we who are working mathematicians carry out our duty of explaining mathematics to our students, we often forget how important it is to explain the way in which mathematicians think. This is by no means an entirely scientific matter and, in fact, there is a big cultural component to how we think about mathematics. If we neglect to discuss this component, we deprive our students of the “secrets” of our profession and then they must discover those secrets by themselves. And this is especially true if our students come from backgrounds where they have had little exposure to the dominant scientific culture and way of thinking. We will look at the question of whether or not there is an infinite number of prime numbers first from the point of view of Euclid and then from the much more technical and cultur- ally specific point of view of Euler. Series supported by Instructionally-Related Activities Funds

Coffee, tea and cookies at 3:45 p.m.