Assignment for Week #15

I've posted the last homework assignment. Most of the problems are from Section 8.7 Taylor and Maclaurin Series, but there are a few other odds and ends. A couple problems are from the supplementary reading Using
Series to Solve Differential Equations.

University Course Assessment

No longer must we make due with mere Faculty Course Evaluations. We now have University Course Assessments - newly named, and therefore better!

You can find a link to the UCA's from the Carnegie Mellon portal. It was the second link under "Courses" when I visited. If you have any trouble accessing the site, you can send an email querry to university-course-assessment@andrew.cmu.edu.

Exam #3 Wrapup

I announced the grade cutoffs for Exam #3 in class yesterday. You can find out the whole story here [note: updated to correct an error in the weighting of grades]. If you didn't get a chance to write them down in class. Here are the grade cutoffs for Exam #3:

A cutoff - 65
B cutoff - 55
C cutoff - 45
D cutoff - 30

The current cutoffs for cumulative averages are [note: these have been corrected from an earlier version]

A cutoff - 75.67
B cutoff - 65.67
C cutoff - 55.67
D cutoff - 40.67

You can compare your "weighted average" from the Blackboard site to these cutoffs to see where you stand.

Assignment for Week #14

As promised, I've added a few problems from Section 8.6 for the assignment due Friday. These are in addition to the problems from Sections 8.4 and 8.5 announced last week. You can find the complete assignment on the Week #14 assignment page. You can also follow the link from the Schedule Page.

I've also posted the readings for this week.

Assignment for Week #13

There is no class this week, and so no homework due this Friday. You will have an assignment due on Friday, November 30. I don't have all of it posted yet, but you can view the first part of it. Follow the link from the Schedule page, or go there directly.

Exam review (Additional)

Upon request of the students of my recitation, i have decided to hold a "Review Session" tonight at 8:30 pm, in DH 2210. I will be open to questions.

Exam #3

I've posted the review page for Exam #3, hopefully you've had a chance to look at it. If so, go back again, its been updated. There are now some old exam problems you can take a look at. I've also updated the information about the review session, which has tentatively been scheduled for Thursday evening, from 7:00-9:00.

As soon as I have confirmation of the time and place for the review session, I'll post it.

Some Useful Supplements

I have added an extensive explanation of Induction and a couple of examples of proofs on the blackboard site under 'course documents.' Do check it out.

Cancelling Office Hours

I'll be out of town from tomorrow afternoon through Sunday evening, so my normal office hours are canceled for this week. However, I'll be free tomorrow between 10:30 AM and 1:30 PM; don't hesitate to email me if you'd like to set up a time to meet in there. Have a good week,

-Mark =)

Exam #3 Pre-Announcement

It has been pointed out to me that, although I announced in class that Exam #3 would be moved to Friday 16 November, the schedule page still had it listed as Monday 19 November. I want to assure that the day really has been changed. The exam will be Friday 16 November.

I've updated the Schedule page and Policies page accordingly. Sorry for the confustion.

Mechanical Calculators

I don't know if any of you have found the site oobject.com. Every so often (day? week?) they post a list of objects in some category, which readers can then rank as best/worst or whatever.

Some collections are more interesting than some, but I was fascinated by their collection of 17 mechanical marvel calculators.

My favorites are Babbage's Difference Engine Number 1 and Liebnitz's stepped reckoner. If you have read Neil Stephenson's 3-volume Baroque Cycle, you can see the gold disks that were integral (integral - Hah!) to the plot.

Check out the other lists. There's lots of weird/interesting stuff there.

Assignment for Week #11

The reading and homework assignment for Week #11. Have been posted. The assignment is not quite as long as that for Week #10, but you may still want to get an early start.