What it Means to Solve (Again): Finding Wormholes

In two previous posts, I have explored what it means to solve linear inequalities and what it means to solve quadratic equations. The latter post describes a classroom moment in which my students and I contemplate what it means to find and visualize the (complex) solutions of a quadratic equation that has no real solutions. I wrote:

"A picture formed in my mind of an invisible, ethereal, wormhole-style thread binding the two curves. How could we represent the functions so that the "intersection" would be visible?"

This post documents my post-class exploration of that issue.

What's with that title anyway?

Let me say a bit about the title of this new blog of mine.

My teaching and scholarship have always centered around striving for understanding, and so I settled on the title "...do we understand" as I reflected on the types of questions I anticipate exploring here. These are the questions that interest me as a teacher, as a researcher, and as a human being.

So I expect I'll be exploring questions like:

• Do we understand the content we are teaching and learning? How? What? Why?
• Do we understand our students' ways of thinking? How? What? Why?
• If not, how can we find out?