PROCEEDINGS OF THE 19TH ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON RESEARCH IN UNDERGRADUATE MATHEMATICS EDUCATION
2016
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
Struggling to comprehend the zero-product property
Page: 652
The zero-product property (ZPP), typically stated as ‘if ab=0 then a=0 or b=0,’ is an important property in school algebra (as a technique for solving equations) and abstract algebra (as the defining characteristic of integral domains). While the struggles of secondary mathematics students to employ the ZPP are well-documented, it unclear how undergraduate students preparing to take abstract algebra understand the ZPP as they enter abstract algebra. To this end, this paper documents students’ understanding of the ZPP while also investigating how students might be able to develop and harness their own intuitive understandings of the property.