Appendix C of the textbook has a useful primer on some of the mathematical skills you will need in this course. Please also read our writeup on further skills we will find ourselves using, and a description of what we mean when we say that you should write full explanations of your answers.
Homework assignments, and their solutions, will be posted on this page.
Homework #1 is due Thursday, February 16 at the end of class.
Solutions to Homework #1.
Homework #2 is due Tuesday, February 28 in class.
Solutions to Homework #2.
Homework #3 is due Thursday, March 8 in class.
Solutions to Homework #3.
A summary of how to study for the midterm.
Homework #4 is due Thursday, April 5 in class.
The curve has been set from the combination of your first three
homeworks and the midterm. Each student is given a score based on
these assignmnents, ranging from 0 to 100.
The score was computed
as 35% homework and 25% midterm. Since there is no final exam grade
yet (which would be the other 40% of the final grade), we stretched the homework and midterm scores as
(35*(mean HW score)+25*(midterm/2))/60
(remember that midterm is out of 200 points,
whereas the homework is out of 100, so we divided the midterm by 2, and 35+25=60).
When calculating the mean HW score we droped the lowest homework score so far, so it's the mean of your two highest HW scores.
The following is the curve for the course:
F : Below 44
D : Between 44 and 56
C-: Between 56 and 64
C : Between 64 and 72
C+: Between 72 and 76
B-: Between 76 and 80
B : Between 80 and 84
B+: Between 84 and 88
A-: Between 88 and 92
A : Between 92 and 96
A+: Above 96
The registrar requires that we report an interim grade for each
student at this point in the semester. The following are the number
of students receiving each grade:
3 F's
1 D's
3 C-'s
7 C's
9 C+'s
11 B-'s
7 B's
15 B+'s
21 A-'s
22 A's
11 A+'s
Here is the graph shown in class with the curve. With this information, you know exactly what you need to do in the second half of the semester to get the final grade you want. It is worth knowing that in previous years, most of the students doing poorly at this stage in the course were able to improve their performance substantially in the second half of the course.
Solutions to Homework #4.
Homework #5 is due Thursday, April 19 in class.
Solutions to Homework #5.
Homework #6 is due Thursday, May 3 in class.
Solutions to Homework #6.