MTH108 Spring 2005 Section 0200 Home Page

MTH108 General Information

Announcements

Assignments

Topics

MTH108 General Information

Class Schedule:	Th 9:00-11:45
Class Location:	Providence CCE
Instructor:	Eugene Quinn	quinn@math.uri.edu
	Phone	884-6779(home)
Text:	A Survey of Mathematics with Applications Angel, Abbott and Runde (seventh edition)

The university catalog contains the following description of MTH108:

Introduces the nonmathematics student to the spirit of mathematics and its applications.
Presupposes no mathematical background beyond University admission requirements.
Emphasis is on development of reasoning ability as well as manipulative techniques.

The course content will be perhaps 80% mathematics and 20% facts about mathematics including the history, development, and current directions of the subject.

Announcements

Date	Announcement
4/20/05	Assignment 5, a written assignment to be collected, has been posted. The due date is Thursday, May 5th.
3/31/2005	A study guide for exam 2 has been posted.
3/28/05	Assignment 4, a reading assignment, has been posted. The due date is Thursday, April 7th.
3/25/2005	Assignment 3 has been posted. The due date is Thursday, April 7th.
3/25/2005	Exam 2 has been moved back a week to Thursday, April 7th.
2/13/2005	A study guide for exam 1 has been posted.
2/6/2005	Assignment 2 has been posted. The due date is Thursday, February 24th.
2/6/2005	Exam 1 has been moved back a week to Thursday, February 24th.

Assignments

Assignment Number	Date Due	Assignment
5	Thursday 5/5/2005	See the Assignment 5 page.
4	Thursday 4/7/2005	Read the following biographical entries: Gottlob Frege Bertrand Russel David Hilbert Kurt Godel
3	Thursday 4/7/2005	See the Assignment 3 page.
2	Thursday 2/24/2005	See the Assignment 2 page.
1	Thursday 1/27/2005	Read Divisions of Mathematics and Foundational Branches at www.math-atlas.org Read sections 2.3 and 2.4 in the text.

Topics

Class Number	Date	Topic
12	4/21/05	Statistics (part 1)
11	4/14/05	Probability (part 3) Probability (part 4) Probability (part 5)
10	4/07/05	Probability (printer friendly version) Probability (part 2) (printer friendly version)
9	3/31/05	Number Theory The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search Symbolic Logic (continued) Kurt Godel
8	3/24/04	Symbolic Logic (continued) Application Example: NAND gates Application Example: Adders
8	3/10/04	Symbolic Logic (continued) Symbolic Logic (continued)
7	3/03/04	Review of Number Systems Introduction to Symbolic Logic (continued) Introduction to Symbolic Logic
6	2/24/05	Conclusion of Set Theory Material Infinite Sets part 3 Rene Descartes lecture notes Rene Descartes page at MacTutor history of mathematics The Algebra Project
5	2/17/05	Infinite sets Infinite sets part 2 Number systems as sets Georg Cantor
4	2/10/05	Exam 1 Review notes
3	2/3/05	Cartesian product notes
2	1/27/05	Section 2.4 notes (continued) Section 2.4 notes Section 2.3 notes (continued) Section 2.3 notes Section 2.2 Review notes
1	1/20/05	Section 2.1 Review Section 2.2 notes Section 2.1 notes The Child Prodigy Phenomenon and Mathematics Overview Music, Chess, and Mathematics: The Child Prodigy Phenomenon

Projects

Students will work in pairs (or possibly teams of 3, with permission) on a project that will entail a 10-15 minute presentation to the class on a topic in mathematics.

Typically the project would involve reading a book (a list of suggested titles is given below) and preparing a class presentation on it.

Students may indicate a preference for a partner, or wait to be randomly assigned one.

Suggested Titles

Any of the following titles may be used as the source for a project. You may also request a source not listed here.

Entry	Title	Author
1	Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions	Edwin Abbot
2	The Man Who Loved Only Numbers: The Story of Paul Erdos and the Search for Mathematical Truth	Paul Hoffman
3	Bringing Down the House: The Story of Six MIT Students who Took Vegas for Millions	Ben Mezrich
4	The Man who Knew Infinity: A life of the Genius Ramanujan	R. Kanigel
5	Where Wizards Stay Up Late: The Origins of the Internet	K. Hafner and M. Lyon
6	The Number Sense: How the Mind Creates Mathematics	Stanislaw Dehaene
7	The Geometry of Art and Life	Ghyka
8	A Brief History of Time	Stephen Hawking
9	Flatterland: Like Flatland, Only More So	Ian Stewart
10	One, Two, Three,..,Infinity: Facts and Speculations of Science	George Gamow
11	Radical Equations: Civil Rights from Mississippi to the Algebra Project	Robert P. Moses
12	Women in Mathematics	Lynn Osen
13	Fractals, Chaos, and Power Laws: Minutes from an Infinite Paradise	M. Schroeder
14	Codebreakers: The Inside Story of Bletchley Park	F.Hinsley and A. Stripp
15	Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem	S. Singh
16	Math Through the Ages: A Gentle History for Teachers and Others	Berlinghoff and Goueva
17	Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea	C. Seife and M. Zindel

Policies

Attendance Policy

It is generally advisable to attend class whenever possible, which should be nearly all of the time.

Although there will be no policy in terms of number of classes missed, I will take attendance to facilitate the class participation component (10%) of the final grade.
Naturally, it will be assumed that those not present did not participate.

Assignments Policy

The lowest assignment grade will be discarded.
Graded material will only be returned to you in person.
As a consideration for those who hand assignments in on time, credit for a late assignment will be reduced by 30%.

Quiz Policy

The lowest quiz grade will be discarded.
Quizzes may or may not be announced.
Anyone missing one or more quizzes will be allowed to make up one quiz on the day of the final exam.

Exam Policy

If you expect to miss an exam, see the instructor to make arrangements for a makeup.
Anyone missing an exam without making prior arrangements will be allowed to take a makeup if they can document a valid reason for missing the exam.

Grading

The final grade for the semester will be determined as follows:

Component		Percentage of Final Grade
Homework and Quizzes		30%
Exams	1st Hour Exam	10%
	2nd Hour Exam	10%
	3rd Hour Exam	10%
	Final Exam	20%
Project		10%
Class Participation		10%

Assignments, due dates, and instructions for completing assignments will be posted on the Assignment section of this web page.
I believe the vast majority of students are honest and in support of them I will construct the assignments, quizzes, and exams in a manner that tends to expose forms of cooperation which violate academic integrity.

MTH108 Spring Semester 2005 Course Syllabus

Text:
A Survey of Mathematics with Applications
Angel, Abbott, and Runde (seventh edition)

Class	Date		Section(s)
1	January 20	Set Theory	2.1; 2.2
2	January 27	Set Theory	2.2; 2.3; 2.4
3	February 3	Set Theory	2.3,2.4
4	February 10	Set Theory	2.4; 2.5
5	February 17	Set Theory; Logic	2.4; 2.5;3.1
6	February 24	Test 1	Set Theory
6	February 24	Logic	3.1; 3.2
7	March 3	Logic	3.2,3.3
8	March 10	Logic	3.3, 3.4
	March 17	Spring break - class does not meet
9	March 24	Logic	3.4
10	March 31	Logic; Number Theory	9.5; 10.1
11	April 7	Test 2	Set Theory; Logic;
11	April 7	Probability	12.1;12.2
12	April 14	Probability	12.8;12.9
13	April 21	Statistics	12.11;13.1
14	April 28	Statistics	13.1;13.3;13.4
15	May 5	Test 3	Probability; Statistics
15	May 5	Projects	Class Presentations
	May 19	Final Exam (cumulative)

Teams

Team Number	Members
1	Mary M. Paula K. Linda J. Sallye C.
2	Susan K Nathanael C. Ross K. Leanne R.
3	Jamie P. Jennifer C. Kristy T.
4	Laura G. Daniella C. Gus D. Tim A.
5	Carlo A. Gus D. Bethany A. Tina A.

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