Spring, 2002

Monday, Wednesday, & Friday 1:00-1:50 p.m.

Buttrick G-13

Office Hours: Mondays, 10:00-11:00, Tuesdays, 10:30-11:00, and Thursdays, 10:30-11:00. If your schedule does not permit you to come at these times, we can set up an appointment.

Learning Support. Our Learning Support coordinator, Ms. Schwarzlose, together with student learning assistants will be able to provide help throughout the week. More details will be provided. You are encouraged to use this service, and should think of it as part of your weekly mathematics regimen.

Text. Excursions in Modern Mathematics, 4^th edition, by Tannenbaum and Arnold.

Calculator. You need a scientific calculator for this course. It need not be a graphing calculator, but you certainly may use one if you like. We don’t do a lot of graphing in this class (in the traditional sense – we do study graph theory, but these graphs look nothing like a graph of a function).

Course Content. We will cover chapters 1, 2, 5, 6, 7, 9, 10, and 15, although not quite in that order. The four basic topics we will discuss will be voting theory, growth, probability, and graph theory. (Don’t worry if some of those terms don’t look familiar to you yet – they’re not supposed to.)

What is "Finite Mathematics"? It must be easier than "infinite mathematics", right? No. One of the purposes of this course is to make you see that mathematics is more than just solving equations and factoring. Mathematicians study all sorts of different things, including many things (such as voting) that don’t require a lot of algebra or calculus.

You will learn a different type of mathematics here – one that is probably far more interesting than any course you have taken to date. We use the term "finite" because, well, we do mathematics on a finite number of objects, for example a finite number of voters. Do not confuse "finite" with "easy" – many mathematicians have made a career studying finite mathematics.

You will see as the class progresses that finite mathematics has applications to many interesting things, places that don’t seem mathematical at all. I’d list some of them for you, but that would spoil some of the fun.

Course Goals. By the end of the semester, you should:

• Develop an understanding of the philosophy behind finite mathematics.
• Be able to read and write mathematics.
• Develop an awareness that mathematics is much more than just solving equations.
• Enjoy your increased problem-solving abilities.

Attendance. You are expected to attend every class. Missing class days does not have a direct impact on your grade, however it will have an indirect impact on your grade. Trust me. Also, you will not be penalized directly for tardiness, however you are expected to arrive to each class on time, and assignments are due in class at the start of the class.

Q&A. Eight days this semester are designated "Q&A". On these days, we will have time for you to both ask and answer questions. We will take as many questions as possible, and sometimes people will have the opportunity to answer the questions at the board. Of course, you will be rewarded for providing solutions. If you don’t believe me, see "Participation" below.

ecademy.agnesscott.edu. A web page has been set up for this course. The easiest way to get there is to go to http://ecademy.agnesscott.edu/~akoch and follow the link to Math 101. Here you will find all the handouts for the course. Many will be .pdf files, so make sure the computer you’re using has Adobe Acrobat installed.

Homework. For each chapter, there will be problems assigned. This homework will not be collected, but it is assumed that it will be completed by the next date marked "Q&A" on the semester schedule. You are encouraged to work with other people in the class to solve problems. You won’t be graded on this, but it seemed like a good place to put this info. Here are the problems:

• Chapter 1. p. 25: 1-52.
• Chapter 2. p. 63: 1-42.
• Chapter 9. p. 332: 1-46.
• Chapter 10. p. 366: 1-58.
• Chapter 15. p. 530: 1-64
• Chapter 5. p. 178: 1-54.
• Chapter 6. p. 218: 1-48.
• Chapter 7. p. 258: 1-42.

Here’s how you’ll be graded…

Assignments. Recall that the homework from the book is not to be turned in. There will, however, be five assignments that will be turned in. These assignments are designed to help you keep up with the material. As a word of warning, the assignments do not fully cover the scope of the class, and you should not use them as a substitute for daily homework assignments. Assignments are due in class by the start of class on the day indicated at the top of the problem set. Late assignments will not be accepted. You are encouraged to discuss these assignments with the others in the class, but your write-up must be your own. If you have any questions about this policy, please let me know.

Exams. You will have three take-home exams. They will (tentatively) be handed out on Monday, February 11; Friday, March 22; and Friday, April 19. They are all timed exams that you will take at a time convenient to you. They are due on February 15, March 27 and April 24 respectively. You are forbidden from using your textbook or your notes or any other sources (including people, of course). Again, all exams must be pledged. The exams will cover material from the text, along with material presented in class. You will not be allowed to make-up an exam without a doctor’s note.

Participation. You will be graded on participation for this course. Factors that will be used in computation of "participation" include both the asking and answering of questions in class. For Q&A, providing solutions to questions will surely help your grade.

Final Exam. The final exam is cumulative, although there will be more of the material since Exam #3 for obvious reasons. It will be self-scheduled, like most of the exams at Agnes Scott College. The same rules apply as to the take-home exam: you can use your calculator, pencil, exam, and the hand you use to write.

Problem of the Week. The Department of Mathematics runs a biweekly "Problem of the Week", where students such as you try to answer a mathematics puzzle and win a fabulous prize ($10). A correct submission to a problem by its deadline will result in 5 bonus assignment points. (Each assignment is 100 homework points.) The problems are found in the Campus Connection as well as at http://ecademy.agnesscott.edu/mathematics/mathdept/potw/potw.html.

Honor Code. All students are expected to follow the honor code throughout the semester. Any graded work, be it an assignment, exam, or project, must be pledged (and signed) in order for it to be graded. Please consult the student handbook for more details.

You should not expect a curve to be applied to the point scale, although plusses and minuses will be added as appropriate. Please note that the plusses and minuses are cosmetic: they appear on your transcript, but do not affect your GPA.