As Shoenfeld and Polya stated, heuristics are one of the most important part of problem-solving. ... more As Shoenfeld and Polya stated, heuristics are one of the most important part of problem-solving. Therefore students should learn some heuristics like mathematical induction, pigeonhole principle, symmetry and so on. Although the infinite descent heuristic is not so wildly known, it is very useful to solve various mathematical problems especially in number theory. In this article we provide a framework to teach this heuristic to students. Also we present some examples to show how this method can be useful for solving problems.
As Shoenfeld and Polya stated, heuristics are one of the most important part of problem-solving. ... more As Shoenfeld and Polya stated, heuristics are one of the most important part of problem-solving. Therefore students should learn some heuristics like mathematical induction, pigeonhole principle, symmetry and so on. Although the infinite descent heuristic is not so wildly known, it is very useful to solve various mathematical problems especially in number theory. In this article we provide a framework to teach this heuristic to students. Also we present some examples to show how this method can be useful for solving problems.
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