ANNOUNCEMENTS
MTH 251H — Fall 2007

12/6/07

Grades have been submitted, and should be visible tomorrow via OSU Online Services.

I should be in my office tomorrow morning if you wish to pick up your exam and/or talk about your grade. There's a good chance I'll be there early (8 AM), but certainly by 10 AM. (I may not have time to talk after 11 AM, but you should still be able to get your exam.)

11/30/07

I will be in my office on Monday, 12/3/07 from 9–11:45 AM.

I may also be available Monday afternoon; you are encouraged to contact me in advance to make an appointment.

A reproduction of last week's electronic discussion of the train/plane problem can be found here.

11/26/07

The final will be Tuesday 12/4/07 at 6 PM in our regular classroom.

• The final will be slightly less than twice as long as the midterms.
• Roughly 50% of the final will cover material since the midterm.
• The remainder of the final will consist of questions which could have been on the midterm.
• We covered most of §1–§4 of the text.
  We did not cover §1.7–§1.8, §2.6, §3.8–§3.10, §4.4, or §4.7–§4.8.
• A list of the most important derivative rules (written using differentials) can be found here.
• You may bring three 3″×5″ index cards (both sides) of handwritten notes.
  Equivalently, you may use one 8½″×11″ piece of paper (one side).
• The midterm is closed book; calculators may not be used.
• Friday's class will include a review. Come prepared to ask questions!

11/21/07

The writeup from today's lab is due in class next Wednesday, 11/28.

Please write up Question 1 from Lab 8, as well as either Question 3 or Question 4.

If you missed class today, you may still turn in a writeup, but you'll have to do it on your own.

11/12/07

The skills test will be Wednesday, 11/14, during the second hour.

Today's slides can be found here.

11/8/07

There will be a skills test next week, probably on Wednesday.

• The skills test is completely closed book; no notes, no calculators.
• Expect roughly 10 problems comparable to those in Lab 7.
• Each of the 10 problems will be worth 10 points.
• You do not need to simplify your answers.
• No points will be given if there are any differentiation errors.
• No points will be given if there are significant algebra errors.
• Minor algebra errors will result in a score of 8 points.
• No other partial credit is possible.
• A score of 80 or above will be recorded as 100.
• Scores below 80 will be be recorded as 0.
• There will be one opportunity to retake a similar test outside of class.

Good things to review in preparation for the skills test:

• The discussion of the derivative rules on pages 18–29 in the Study Guide.
• The lists of derivative rules in all three notations on pages 30–32 in the Study Guide.
• Exercises 1–66 at the end of Chapter 3 (which also appear in Lab 7).

11/7/07

It is well known that the first derivative of position is velocity, and the second derivative is acceleration. Less well known is the name for the third derivative, namely the jerk.

Even less well known are the names that have been proposed for the 4th, 5th, and 6th derivatives. Curious? Read about them here

A slide showing several polyomial approximations to sinθ at θ=0, as described in class, can be found here. (See also Example 3 in §10.1.)

The moral of this discussion was that any reasonable function can be approximated by a polynomial, whose coefficients can be determined by differentiation. The tangent line approximation uses the first two terms of this polynomial.

Yesterday's slide showing the graph of y³−xy=−6 can be found here.

10/31/07

The midterm will be Wednesday 11/7/07 from 8–8:50 AM.

• The midterm covers everything discussed in class through this Friday, 11/2/07. This corresponds roughly to §1, §2, and the first 5 sections of §3 in the text.
• The Exercises at the end of each section are an excellent skills check, and the Check your Understanding questions at the end of each chapter are an excellent review.
• The midterm is closed book; calculators may not be used.
• You may bring two 3″×5″ index card (both sides) of handwritten notes.
• Part of Friday's class will be devoted to review. Come prepared to ask questions!

Please note that there will be a separate "skills test" a week or so after the midterm, along the lines of Lab 7 in the Study Guide, for which no index card will be permitted. Thus, while correct computation of relatively simple derivatives is fair game for the midterm, expect the emphasis to be more on concepts than computation.

Some slides from today's class can be found here.

10/29/07

The homework assignment due Wednesday (10/31) has been changed.

We have not yet covered §3.5, so those problems have been postponed until next week.

There will be a midterm next week, most likely on Monday (11/5).

10/24/07

We will spend part of Friday's class continuing to work on Lab 5.

• Lab writeups (for problems 1 and 2 only) will be due on Monday.
• If you haven't yet done so, try to determine the functions g and h before class.

10/22/07

Today's slides can be found here.

I will repeat the punch line of today's lecture on Wednesday.

Wednesday's office hour is canceled.

I should be in my office in the early afternoon both tomorrow and Wednesday.

10/15/07

There will be a quiz on Friday, 10/19, covering Chapters 1 & 2.

• We didn't emphasize §1.7–§1.8 or §2.6; you may skip these sections, but it wouldn't hurt to skim them.
• The Exercises at the end of each section are an excellent skills check, and the Check your Understanding questions at the end of each chapter are an excellent review.
• The quiz is closed book; calculators may not be used.
• You may bring a 3″×5″ index card (both sides) of handwritten notes.
• Please do your work in pencil or black ink (blue ink is OK).
• The quiz is not intended to take the entire period.
• Part of Wednesday's class will be devoted to review. Come prepared to ask questions!

10/10/07

Today's slides can be found here.

10/8/07

Today's slide can be found here.

10/5/07

My office hours next week are canceled.

Please use one of the alternatives listed below.

Today's slides can be found here.

10/4/07

Additional help from TAs and instructors familiar with this course can be obtained from:

	Monday	Tuesday	Wednesday	Thursday	Friday
9:00	Nicholas S		Nicholas S	David W	Yongfei C
				Aniruth P	Dr. Escher
				Mr. Argyres
10:00				David W	Yongfei C
				Ake P
11:00	Jacob L	Paul S	Ryan H	Shari U
	Jason S		Jacob L
12:00	Jason S	Ben M		Shari U	Dr. Schmidt
	Dr. Dick	Ihsane B
1:00	Elizabeth B	Ihsane B	Dean W		Dr. Solomon
		Dr. Bogley	Kyle H
2:00	Elizabeth B	Paul S	Dean W		Cheryl W
		Ryan H	Cheryl W
3:00		Kyle H	Dean W		Ben M
4:00		Kyle H
6:00			Dan R	Tat H
7:00			Dan R	Tat H

Hours prior to 6 PM are in the MLC, the Math Learning Center in Kidder 108.

Hours from 6 PM on are in the CLC, the Collaborative Learning Center in the Valley Library.

10/3/07

The writeup for today's lab is due Friday, 10/5/07.

• You do not need to rederive the numerical results in question 1.
• Answer the remaining (numbered) questions using complete sentences.

Today's slides can be found here.

10/2/07

Please bring the study guide to class tomorrow

You might want to glance at pages 11–14 if you haven't already.

9/28/07

Problem 4a on today's lab is a good test of your comfort level when manipulating exponential functions.

9/27/07

Friday's lab will involve polynomials and rational functions. You may wish to review §1.6 beforehand.

Please bring the study guide to class on Friday.

9/26/07

Today's slides can be found here and here.

9/24/07

By popular request:

• The slides I showed in class today are available here. (Sorry about the poor resolution.)
• The Math Dept Calculator FAQ can be found here.
  (Calculators will not play a major role in this class.)
• Drop-in help is available at the MLC.

Also, copies of the text are on reserve in the library.

9/17/07

The structure of the course will be loosely based on the information available here, with minor variations regarding exams and grading. In particular, we will spend some time developing mathematical writing skills, which will be a (small) factor in your overall grade. Further details will be discussed in class.