| Instructor | Orlando Merino, merino@math.uri.edu, 874-4442, Lippitt Hall 101C |
| Office Hrs | To be announced |
| Text | John E. Freund's Mathematical Statistics with Applications I. Miller and M. Miller, 7th edition, Pearson/Prentice Hall, ISBN: 0-13-142706-7 |
| Topics | Combinatorial Methods, Probability, Probability Distributions and Probability Densities, Mathematical Expectation, Special Probability Distributions, Special Probability Densities, and Functions of Random Variables. |
| Evaluation | Weekly homework (15%), quizzes (15%), two exams (20 % each), a comprehensive final exam (30 %) Note: 50% of the final exam will be on sections discussed after test 2 |
| About the Course | MTH 451 is an introduction to the mathematical theory of probability using calculus. Probability theory has a tremendous variety of applications in all the sciences, including the social sciences, business and economics, and provides the mathematical foundation for statistics. It uses a wide variety of mathematical techniques and concepts, especially elementary set theory, combinatorics, and calculus. A main goal of this course is that you will be able to read more advanced material on probability and its applications and go on to courses in mathematical statistics and stochastic processes. The class is designed for an audience with quite diverse interests, for example: if you are an engineering, science, economics or business major, probability will be a basic part of your mathematical toolkit; if you are a secondary math education major, you will most likely need to take the Praxis content exam, which contains material on discrete mathematics and probability for which this course is great preparation; if you are interested in taking the actuarial exams, this course is absolutely fundamental. Probability theory is a fundamental discipline in mathematics itself and well as the foundation for all of statistics. In addition, the study of Probability Theory can be entertaining, enlightening and sometimes surprising. |