2007 November 17 / E-Mail Me

Introduction To Calculus

Carleton College Math 111 01-02, Fall 2007, Prof. Joshua R. Davis

Introduction

This is a first course in calculus, focusing on the basic concepts of limit, derivative, and integral. Applications to the natural and social sciences are woven throughout. We occasionally make use of the computer software Mathematica. We also expend significant effort on writing mathematics well. The course materials are:

I teach two sections of the course this term. Section 01 meets in CMC 209 during period 1A (MW 08:30AM-09:40AM, F 08:30AM-09:30AM). Section 02 meets in CMC 319 during period 3A (MW 11:10AM-12:20PM, F 12:00PM-01:00PM). Here's how you get in contact with me:

Dr. Joshua R. Davis (call me Josh if you like)
E-mail: See here
Office: CMC 221
Office phone: x4366
Office hours: Mon 12:30-1:40, Wed 9:50-11:00, and Thu 9:30-11:50. You can also make an appointment; simply pick a free time from my weekly schedule and e-mail me. You can also talk to me after class.

Responsibilities

Final grades (A, B, etc.) are assigned according to an approximate curving process. By this I mean that there are no predetermined percentages (90%, 80%, etc.) required for specific grades. The following elements contribute to the final grade.

Participation

Each class session covers one to three sections of the textbook, which you are expected to read before class. Class will be conducted on the assumption that you have already read and thought about the sections. Attendance is mandatory; furthermore, you are expected to participate actively in group work, discussion, individual exercises, etc. I may occasionally give unannounced quizzes on the reading material at the start of class. Otherwise, class participation influences final term grades in borderline cases. You are also required to attend office hours at least once before the first exam.

Quizzes And Homework

Most assignments are given as homework. The homework problems are listed on the schedule. On a fixed day each week (such as Friday — but this has not been determined yet), the homework problems assigned during the previous week will be collected. This schedule gives you a chance to ask questions on the homework in the class meeting immediately after it is assigned, and then to work for at least two more days on it. I strongly encourage you to do the homework promptly, rather than waiting for the night before it is due.

Usually you submit the homework itself for grading. When doing so, keep these points in mind. You are encouraged to work with others on all assignments. However, you submit work individually, and the written work that you submit must be your own. In particular, you may not copy someone else's work or allow them to copy yours. Staple each assignment into a single packet to be graded. Depending on time constraints, perhaps only a subset of your submitted work is graded; in order to ensure full credit, do all of the assigned problems.

On other occasions you instead take a short homework quiz, with problems taken verbatim from the homework. I notify you ahead of time whether homework collection or a homework quiz will take place.

Altogether, collected homework, homework quizzes, and reading quizzes count for 30% of your grade.

Term Exams

There are two exams, which you take during class on Mon 2007/10/8 and Wed 2007/11/07. Each exam counts for 20% of your grade. Each exam focuses primarily on the material covered since the previous exam; however, since the course material is inherently cumulative, you will always need to remember concepts and skills from earlier in the course. Calculators are not allowed.

Final Exam

The final exam schedule is as follows.

Self-scheduled final exams are not allowed in this course. The final exam is entirely cumulative and worth 30% of your grade. Calculators are not allowed. You are allowed to bring with you one standard-size sheet of paper, on which you may record whatever notes you like. Both sides may be used. However, the notes must be your own creation; using a sheet of notes created by another student is prohibited.

Special Accommodations

During the term, you have one free pass to hand in an assignment late. As soon as you decide that your assignment will be late, contact me to declare that you are using your free pass, and we will arrange for the new due date (usually within a couple of days of the original). Use your free pass wisely.

Otherwise, no late assignments are accepted, except in extreme circumstances that are truly beyond the student's control.

If some medical condition affects your participation in class or your taking of exams, let me know in the first week of class, so that we can make arrangements. You may want to visit the dean's Disability Services/Resources page first.

Writing

All of your written work must be neat and complete. Show your work. If a classmate were to read one of your solutions, she or he should be able to understand what the problem was and how you solved it. In other words, your solution should be well-written and self-explanatory. Give exact, simplified answers. The problems should be answered in the order they were assigned, and clearly marked. If your paper is messy or disorganized from revisions or erasures, then you may need to recopy it.

Every academic discipline communicates by writing, and every discipline has its own writing idiom and its own jargon. Some disciplines even abbreviate some of their jargon into symbols; for example, the chemical symbol "Ag" represents silver, the element with 47 protons. Like chemistry, math has a lot of symbols for commonly used terms. Consider

1 + 1 = 2.

This is a sentence. You can read it aloud as "One plus one equals two." The subject is "One", with a prepositional clause of "plus one" attached. The verb is "equals", and the object is "two". Like all sentences, this one ends in punctuation. The sentence is making a clear statement that you can judge to be true or false (it's true).

For more complicated examples of mathematical writing, read your textbook. The author writes in plain English sometimes and in symbols at other times; in fact, he mixes the two effortlessly, even within a single sentence. (My one complaint is that this author does not end every sentence in punctuation. We will.)

This term, one of our main goals is to write mathematics well. For now, the key points to remember are:

How To Succeed In This Course

I want all of my students to work hard, learn a lot of math, and earn a good grade. Here are my recommendations:

Here are some brief reviews of basic topics. They are much too terse to learn from, but perhaps they can refresh your memory about important bits of stuff you've forgotten.