Mth108 Topics in
Mathematics Θ
Summer 2007
Instructor: Dr. Nancy Eaton, 874-4439, eaton@math.uri.edu
Office: Tyler
Hall, Rm. 208,
COURSE WEB PAGE:
http://www.math.uri.edu/~eaton/Mth108Su07.htm
Students who require accommodations and who have documentation
from
Disability Services (874-2098)
should make arrangements with me as soon as possible.
Course Description and goals: Math 108 is a
special topics course that satisfies the general education requirement for math
at the
In this section of this course, you will be
introduced to some exciting ideas in mathematics that come from a wide variety
of disciplines such as voting theory, graph theory, game theory, scheduling,
counting, algebra, and fractal geometry. These topics will be presented along
with real world applications such as voting schemes, fair division schemes,
street networks, planning and scheduling, pattern recognition, and fractals in
nature. Three skill areas are addressed, namely, reading of complex texts, use
of quantitative data, and writing.
I hope that you will have a better understanding
and appreciation for mathematics by the time you finish this course, that you
will no longer think that math is only about balancing a check book and
designing rockets, and that you will be proud to say that you LIKE math.
You may be surprised to find that taking further math courses is both possible
and desirable.
We will use reading, writing, discussion, and
world-wide-web assignments as methods of learning the topics covered in this
course. You will discuss and work in groups in class as well as do some short
presentations. Because of the high level of knowledge that will be imparted and
assessed during class time, attendance will be mandatory. During class time,
topics will be presented, examples given and then you will be given the
opportunity to work examples on your own.
Text: The text for the course is: Excursions In Modern
Mathematics, 6th edition, by Peter Tannenbaum. We will cover the
following chapters.
1: The Mathematics of Voting
3: Fair Division, The Mathematics of Sharing
5: Euler Circuits
6: The Traveling Salesman Problem
7: The Mathematics of Networks
8: The Mathematics of Scheduling
Mini
Excursion 2: Download
and print on a color printer – if not possible, let me know and I will
provide a copy for you.
Note: There is much more material in our text
than we could possibly cover this semester.
Read these entire chapters. We
will cover most of the material in these chapters.
Class work: Examples and
exercises will be worked on in class. There will be some class discussion
and working in groups. This is a very important time to absorb the
information and begin to understand how to apply it to problems. This
work will count as 10% of your grade. I
will collect names while you work in class so that I can count your work toward
your grade. No make-ups are given. You must attend 11 out of 13 class periods to
get full credit for this portion of your grade.
World wide web assignments: I will use e-mail to send you 2 world-wide-web
assignments. These will consist of the names of web sites and questions for you
to answer about each site. You are to visit these sites and respond to my
e-mail with your answers to my questions. If you are unfamiliar with
"surfing the web", visit a computer lab and ask for help. Once
you get started, you will find that it is a very easy thing to do. To start
this process off, as soon as possible, send me an e-mail just saying hello with
"MTH108" followed by your full name as the subject. Once I have an
e-mail from everyone, I will send out the first assignment. This work
will count as 10% of your grade. You must do both assignments to get full
credit for this portion of your grade.
The due dates are given in the e-mails.
Writing Assignments: Short writing
assignments will be given for each chapter and Mini Excursion that we cover in
this course. Follow these instructions carefully: Write a 2 page paper, describing, in your own
words, the main concepts that I covered from the specific chapter or Mini
Excursion. You must include one example
to illustrate the concepts that you are describing. Do not copy word for word any description
from the book or from class. You must
first read the book, listen to what I say in class, and then put it into your own words. Specifically,
1) (5pts) Your header should include your name, the chapter or mini excursion number and title,
and the due date.
2) (5pts) Only use one side of the paper. Staple together all pages.
3) (5pts) Hand your assignment
to me on the due date. Do not send it as
an e-mail. There will be 5 pts taken off
for late work – no matter the reason.
Work is not accepted more than 1 week after the due date.
4)
(5pts) Use a word processor.
5)
(5pts) Use paragraph format. You may break from
paragraph format to give tables, diagrams, or equations.
6) (5pts) When giving an example, write out the entire
question and include any necessary charts or diagrams.
7)
(35pts) Explaining clearly. Give enough details so that a peer of yours
that hasn’t taken the class or read the book could understand the
material.
8)
(35pts) Use proper terminology, in your
explanations, which must be correct and thorough to get full credit.
The one lowest Writing assignment grade will be
dropped. This work will count as 15% of
the final grade for the course.
Homework: Problems
are assigned from the book. You are responsible to do all problems that
are assigned. We will work on some in class and you will hand some in as
writing assignments. It is best if you collect all of your homework in a
loose-leaf notebook. This is so that you can keep it in order and add
corrections from class. Often, one individual problem will take many
passes before it is worked up correctly. You must take the
responsibility of seeing to it that you know how to correctly answer each
homework problem. Many problems will be presented in class.
Take notes and compare to your answer. The quizzes will be based on the
homework. If you understand every homework problem then you should have
no trouble on the quizzes. These
will not be collected.
Tutor: Providence.
T. Woodard or Y. Kostrov: M-Th 1-6
Homework assignments: Begin working on the
exercises from each chapter when it is first introduced in class. There will be some class time allowed for
going over some questions on the homework.
Exercises from chapter
1: 1-59 (odd)
Exercises from chapter
3: 1-29 (odd), 51-69 (odd)
Exercises from chapter
5: 1-43 (odd), 47-53 (odd), 59, 63
Exercises from chapter
6: 1-35 (odd), 43-63 (odd)
Exercises from chapter
7: 1-25 (odd)
Exercises from chapter
8: 1-11 (odd), 17-29 (odd), 33-49 (odd),
53, 55, 63-67 (odd)
Quizzes: Quizzes will be given based on the homework. Problems
will be selected at random from the homework to demonstrate your understanding
of the material. The one lowest quiz
grade will be dropped and the rest will be averaged to give 15% of the grade
for the course. If you miss a quiz, try to schedule a make it up.
Exams: Three exams will be given on the material from the chapters
indicated. The exam questions will be based on the homework
questions. To prepare, make sure you understand homework and quiz
solutions. Practice exams can be downloaded from this web site and
solution keys will be given after all have completed the exam.
Final exam: The final
will be cumulative. It will cover chapters that were covered on the previous
3 exams, namely, Chapters 1, 3, 5, 6, 7, and 8.
Course schedule: The
following is the schedule of events.
When a chapter is listed, we begin to cover the material in that
chapter. After introducing a chapter, we
will used class periods to finish covering the chapter and going over examples
and exercises.
|
DATE |
Introduce Chapter |
Writing and WWW Due |
Quizzes and Exams |
|
Mon 5/21 |
Chapter 1 |
|
|
|
Wed 5/23 |
Chapter 3 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Wed 5/30 |
Chapter 5 |
WA#1 (on Chapt1) |
Quiz 1 (on Ch1) |
|
Fri 6/1 |
Chapter 6 (Makeup class for Monday) |
WA#2 (on Chapt3) WWW#1 |
Quiz 2 (on Ch3) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mon 6/4 |
Chapter 7 |
WA#3 (on Chapt5) |
EXAM 1 (on 1 & 3) |
|
Wed 6/6 |
Chapter 8 |
|
Quiz 3 (on Ch 5 & 6) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mon 6/11 |
|
WA#4 (on Chapt6) |
EXAM 2 (on 5 & 6) |
|
Wed 6/12 |
Mini Excursion number 2 |
WA#5 (on Chapt8) WWW#2 |
Quiz 4 (on Ch 7 & 8) |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Mon 6/18 |
|
WA#6 (on Mini Ex #2) |
EXAM 3 (on 7 & 8) |
|
Wed 6/20 |
|
|
Final Exam |
|
|
|
|
|
Evaluation: The following percentages are given to compute your grade
for the course. Each category is described above.
10% - Class participation
10% - World-wide-web assignments
15% - Writing assignments
15% - Quizzes
30% - Three 1 hr exams
20% - Final Exam
After rounding up to the nearest whole number your grade is determined by the
following scale.
A(92-100) A-(90,91) B+(87,88,89) B(82-86) B-(80,81)
C+(77,78,79) C(72-76) C-(70,71) D+(65-69) D(60-64)
Summary of Policies:
Quizzes: 
Make-ups are given before class at 8:30.
Writing assignments: