What are functions?
Wikipedia.com defines a function in mathematics as an abstract entity that associates an input to a corresponding output according to some rule. A good mental model for this idea is a function machine. My colleague at CIESE (where I worked until last October) Jason Sayres created this nice example which he calls The Mystery Box Game * which is really version of "Guess my Rule". For example, let's say 2 goes through the box and becomes 5 5 goes through the box and becomes 11 9 goes through the box and becomes 19 Can you predict what rule is being used here? (Spoiler alert: click here ) A rule is a mathematical way of explaining a pattern if one exists. Since mathematics can be thought of as the study of patterns, rules or functions are foundational for understanding mathematics. Hopefully, the rest of lesson 1 (Chap 3) will be easier to understand. (Note: Bob has posted the answers for the first lesson of the first edition on our Jacobs group site.) So what'
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