Monday, December 09: I will be in/near my office from about 9AM
till about 4PM.
Tuesday, December 10: I will be in/near my office from about 2PM to 4PM.
You can contact me by email or by phone (office number is 385-7367).
Review materials for the final were developed in class on Friday, December 6. For those of you who missed class that day, there is a packet on my door marked "MATH 170". It contains (a) a list of what you should know, understand, and be able to do and (b) sample questions developed for the final exam. All of this is student generated; some of these questions will appear on the final in some form, but there will be other questions developed by Dr. Green. Expect a mix of types of questions, similar in style to the midterm. The final will begin at 8:30 on Wednesday, December 11. Hand in your final project report when you arrive to take the final exam.
Read chapter 14, and answer all of the reading comprehension questions on page 339.
Keep working on your project.
Part One: Read the article on Chaos and Beetles that I passed out in class. The equations from page 77 that you can't read are below.
L[n+1] = b A[n] exp(-cea*A[n] - cel*L[n])
P[n+1] = L[n]*(1-RL)
A[n+1] = P[n] exp(-cpa*A[n]) + A[n]*(1-RA)
Part Two: Find a way to cut a hole in a standard 8.5" x 11" piece of paper that is big enough to walk through.
Mathematical Skills problems 1 through 5, page 313.
There is an error in the statement of the project, part one. The correct estimate for the number of years of oil remaining is around 20 BILLION years under these assumptions. I made a conversion error.
Complete parts 1 through 7 of "Group Activities", chapter 10, pages 230-231, on your own. For part 8, instead of a report, type a short paragraph. When you hand it in, the paragraph should be the first page (with your name on it) and all your work. Use Excel to make all the calculations in a table, especially for number 1. You should organize the table in two columns: the first would have the list of numbers in part 1, the second column would be the log of those numbers. In Excel the logarithmic function (for base-10 logarithms) is LOG(number). In Excel, you can format the numbers to be in scientific notation by doing the following: (1) highlight the list of numbers, (2) right-click on the list and select "Format Cells" OR go to "Format/ Cells..." on the menu, (3) Select "Scientific" format from the list, (4) hit "OK".
The final exam schedule is incorrect. Our final exam will be Wednesday, DEC 11, from 8:30 - 11AM.
There is no class on Friday, November 1, since Dr. Green is out of town. Work on homework and the project.
We will be having short one-on-one conferences with Dr. Green regarding the final projects during November. This will count as part of your grade, so be sure you are continually working on the project in order that you have something to show him.
Read and take notes on chapter 10 "Exponential Functions"
Answer the reading comprehension questions on page 229
Work on PART ONE of the Final Project
Work the problems in the "Mathematical Skills" section, page 201-202, #1-17
Complete #6, 7, 8 in "Problems in Context" pages 204-205. Use Excel on this. Cut and paste the results into a Word document. Include tables of data, at least one sample calculation (by hand, to show me that you got it; let Excel do all the other ones), and graphs. Write answers to the questions in complete sentences. These three problems build on each other.
Read chapter 9 on Geometric Growth. Answer all of the reading comprehension questions on page 200-201.
In addition, complete the following for the reading passage that starts on page 193 under "Exponential Functions":
Determine which sentences serve the purpose of defining a term (if any)
Determine which sentences serve the purpose of making a conjecture, or educated guess (if any)
Determine which sentences are providing examples of points made in other sentences
Determine which sentences are making assumptions
Determine which sentences are drawing conclusions from previous statements
The purpose of this assignment is to focus your attention on the tools mathematicians (and other scientists) use to explain what they are doing in words. Understanding these tools - what they are and how to recognize them - will help you as you read the material.
The midterm exam will take place during the first hour of class on Friday, October 18. Stay tuned to this web site for further details and information on what the exam will cover. Click here to see a list of topics that might appear on the midterm.
Part One
Write up (or, preferably type up, with all handwritten work attached) a
solution to problem 6, page 1142-144.
Part Two
Use proof by induction to verify that the formula for adding the numbers 1
through n (give at the bottom of page 106) is correct.
Part Three
Have a nice three-day weekend! Be safe.
Part One
Work Reading comprehension problem #5, pages 141-142. You should
hand in all your work (handwritten is okay) and a typed summary of your answers,
written in complete sentences. If you need to create a graph, do it in Excel and
then copy and paste the graph into your Word document.
Part Two
There is no part two.
Read and take notes on chapters 5 and 6. I will collect your notes (or at least look at them) so make them legible. Good options for note-taking include:
Writing down key terms and ideas and organizing them into a "concept map" or web diagram
Outlining the chapters
Working the examples in more detail and writing down the pages that explain the theory behind each step
Any other technique you use for note-taking
Reading Comprehension, page 108-109, #2, 3, 5, 6
Math Skills, page 109-110, all even problems
Prove that the two representations for the sequence in problem 2(c) on page 29 are equivalent, using the method of "Proof by Induction" discussed in class on Wednesday.
NOTE There was an error in class (thanks to Steven Pavone for pointing this out). The two representations for the sequence 1, 4, 9, 16, 25, ... are given below, not as stated on the board (my mistake).
a(n) = a(n-1) + 2(n-1) + 1
b(n) = n^2
Read: Pages 79 to the top of page 82.
Compute a table of first and second differences for each of the following
functional equations:
a. y = 3x-2
b. y = x^2 (The ^2 means raised to the second power, or squared.)
c. y = -3x^2 + 1
Use Excel or a graphing calculator to help. Compare the results. What does this
tell you about the different relationships?
Choose two problems from numbers 1 - 4 on page 74 and complete those two
problems.
Answer #5 on page 74-75.
Read chapters 3 and 4. Pay particular attention to the following
pages: 59-61, 67, 69-72.
Complete the activity on page 67 to hand in.
All of the following work is in chapter two of the textbook.
Reading comprehension, page 29, #3 - 6.
Mathematical skills, page 29-30, #1-5. (You may want to use technology to help
with these; it will make the process less tedious for several of them.)
Problems in context, pages 30-31. (It is one problem with many parts - these
parts carefully organize the steps to solving the problem, so make use of them.)
Read Chapter 2 of the textbook.
Discussion/Essay question: Consider figure 2.4 on page 23. The figure shows
actual data compared to a theoretical model. Write a short paragraph comparing
the data and the model. How close is the model to the data? What do you think
will happen in the long run - will the data and model get closer together,
farther apart, or stay about the same? What assumptions are you making in your
discussion of the long term behavior?
Page 8, #2.
Page 9, Problems in Context #1, #2, #3. Write these in your own words and style.
Page 9, Group #1. Do this on your own. Your answer should be typed, using MS
Word. Instead of a newspaper, use the Internet to locate a graph. Cut and paste
this graph into your paper. Be sure to include proper (MLA or APA formatted)
references to the site where you got the information.
Read chapter one of the textbook. There is nothing to hand in.