Spring 1999

Math 151 - Lecture 003, TTh 12-1:30 DRL A1

Professor Andre Scedrov


Office: Room 4E6 in David Rittenhouse Laboratory
Telephone: eight five nine eight three ( Math. Dept. Office: eight eight one seven eight )
Fax: three four zero six three
E-mail: lastname at math
Office Hours: By appointment

Teaching Assistants:


FINAL EXAM is on Friday, May 7 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in the Chemistry Building Auditorium 102. Please familiarize yourself with the final exam site a few days before the exam. On the day of the exam please be in your seats by 10:50 a.m., so that we may start on time. This exam covers the entire course.

Course grades are available on-line from a secure file that requires your full eight-digit Penn ID for access to your grades.


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Math 151 Resources


Grades

Your course grade will be computed as follows: You will have access to your own grades during the semester through the link GRADES. This is a secure grade file that requires your full eight-digit Penn ID for access to your grades.


Exams

We will have five exams during the semester, approximately 60 to 90 minutes in length. The exams will be common with all sections of Math 151 and will be given in the evenings beginning at 6:30 sharp. The dates and the material to be covered are as follows: Exam rules:

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FINAL EXAM. The final exam is also common with all sections of Math 151. It will take place on Friday, May 7, from 11 to 1. This exam will cover the entire course with extra emphasis on Chapters 2[F] and 9[F]. We are going to skip Chapters 3&4[F] (Linear Programming).

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Level of difficulty

CAUTION: Math 151 is significantly more difficult than Math 150. In part the difficulty is due to the fact that there are many new topics. These are interesting and useful subjects, most of which you have not seen before. In my opinion, the minimum amount of time that will be required for an average performance in this course is 12 hours every week. It is very important that you establish good study habits at the beginning of the semester.

The assigned homework represents the MINIMUM amount of material that you must master for success in this course.


Upcoming lectures

Please note that Math 151 syllabus can be found on page 10 of the Maple Calculus Lab Manual or in Math 151 Resources on this web page.

Homework

The homework assignments are designed to help you master the course and prepare for the exams. Homework assignments -- with the exception of two Maple assignments -- will NOT be collected. However, you should write up your solutions in full and come to recitation to join other students in presenting solutions and discussing any points that are not clear.

I suggest that you try each homework assignment on your own at first, then get together with a small study group -- at least two but no more than four -- to review your solutions and to work out parts that you did not get on your own. A study group is right for you if you are sometimes a giver and sometimes a taker, but not always one or the other. If you have difficulty finding an appropriate study group, please ask your TA for help in forming one.

After working with the study group, finish your homework by writing up your own version of the solutions. This last step is very important. Do not neglect it as it is precisely what you will be required to do on the exams. Keep in mind that the exams will primarily be based on the homework, so if you have done the homework well, you should do well on the exams.

Homework will generally consist of core problems and from the old final exam questions. Old final exam questions are included at the back of the Maple Calculus Lab Manual. It is VERY IMPORTANT that you work through these exams as they give you a very good indication of the type and level of material that we will expect you to know on the final exam this year. I will assign problems from previous finals as we go through the semester. As with all of the homework, these problems may serve as models for mid-semester exam questions.

Homework #1 to be discussed in recitations January 11, 13, 18, and 20:

Homework #2 to be discussed in recitations January 18, 20, 25, and 27: Homework #3 to be discussed in recitations February 1, 3: Homework #4 to be discussed in recitations February 8, 10: Homework #5 to be discussed in recitations February 15, 17: Homework #6 to be discussed in recitations February 22, 24: Homework #7 to be discussed in recitations March 1 and 3 is light so that there is time for additional discussion of the problems from old homework on topics covered on Exam #3, that is, topics from the beginning of the course through Chapter F 8 and Chapter C 10. The new homework problems, which will not be included on Exam #3, are: Homework #8 to be discussed in recitations March 15 and 17: Homework #9 to be discussed in recitations March 22 and 24: Homework #10 to be discussed in recitations March 29 and 31: Homework #11 to be discussed in recitations April 5 and 7: Homework #12 to be discussed in recitations April 12 and 14: Homework #13 (the last!) to be discussed in recitations April 19 and 21 is listed below. As I have explained in class, the text sets up the transition matrices for Markov processes in a non-standard way. That peculiar usage has been repeated in the old final exam problems Spring 96 #22 and Spring 98 #17. In both of those problems, replace T by the transpose of T. Then solve TX = X with the additional equation that the sum of the entries in X equals 1.

 

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