Math 32.02 & 32.03

Fall 2005

**contents partially extracted from Clark Bray's webpage. Thank you Clark!**


Instructor

Fernando Schwartz
219 Physics
email: fernando@math.duke.edu
office hours: monday 3:30-5:30pm or by appointment

Materials

Exam 2

Solution key to Exam 1

Informational handout

Course syllabus and homework assignments

Lecture Schedule with Test dates.

Links

Math 32 Course Homepage, for general information about Math 32, including course syllabus.

Math Information for First-Year Students.

Blackboard is where grades will be posted in a secure way (retrieval requires NetId).

Maclaurin and Taylor Series Representations is a list of common Taylor and Maclaurin series.

Using Taylor Polynomials to Approximate Functions is a list of problems, with answers, of examples of how you can use series to approximate the values of functions.  These are the problems listed as "handout" in lecture 28 on the syllabus.

Tests for Determining Convergence or Divergence of a Series.

The Remainder Theorem and the Factor Theorem includes fundamental facts about polynomial algebra as explained by Clark Bray.

The Most Common Errors In Undergraduate Mathematics.



Homework

Homework problems are assigned every lecture and collected the following one.  The assigned problems for each lesson are listed on the syllabus.

Make sure you staple your homeworks. Also, make sure to put at the top of the front page your name, the section number(s) for those problems, and the course information (Math 32.02 or 32.03, Fernando Schwartz)

Homeworks will be graded and returned as soon as possible. Grades will be posted on Blackboard.

In calculating homework grades, the lowest of your homework scores will be dropped.  The purpose of this policy is to handle exceptional circumstances such as a serious illness.  Please do not request to have late homework accepted.  Also, it is inadvisable to skip a homework unless absolutely necessary, since only one homework will be dropped.

Working together on homeworks is strongly encouraged. Nevertheless, the paper you turn in must be your own work.


Grading and Exams

Final grades for the class will be determined by the total number of points earned in the class.  These points are given based on performance on the items below, with the following maximum possible scores:

Tests:                           300 possible points (3 midterms @ 100 points each)
Final Exam:                   200 possible points
Homework average:       60 possible points
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Total:                            560 possible points


Letter grades are only assigned after total scores are computed. For more information on how your grade will be computed read the disgression in Clark Bray's webpage.
We will not use calculators in any aspect of this course; calculators will NOT be allowed on the midterms nor on the final exam.


Getting help

There are several resources that students should be aware of; make sure to read the Sources of Help for First-Year Students.

You are highly encouraged to make good use of the Math 32/41 Help Room.  It is located on East Campus.

Duke Honor Code

The Duke Community Standard is taken very seriously on Duke campus, and you are all reminded to make certain you are familiar with it. 

Homeworks -- You are encouraged to work in groups to exchange ideas and help each other understand how to approach problems, but the student's work must be his or her own.  Copying and dictating are not allowed. 

Exams -- Students are not allowed to have any outside help during exams or quizzes. 



Attendance

Attendance at all lectures is required . If you miss a lecture, it is your responsibility to catch up on the topics that you missed. You should keep in mind that in this course, the material builds on itself; if you miss some of the material, subsequent lectures will seem more difficult to you.

Absences from exams will be excused only for reasons such as serious illness or appropriate official university activities.  In either case, a written notification from the dean is required.  In the case of illness, this must be done with the Short-term Illness Notification form.  In the case that an absence from an exam is excused, the grade will be determined based on your performance on the final exam for the course, and relative to the performance of the rest of the class on that item.

Students should note that use of the Short-term Illness Notification form is subject to the Duke Community Standard, discussed and linked above.  In particular, it is expected every student will take reasonable responsibility for his/her own health at least to the extent that such health is needed to be able to participate in classes.  Here are some examples:

-- If on the day of an exam in this course you have a debilitating headache caused by a virus, then it would be appropriate to use the short term illness form.  However, if you have a debilitating headache caused by a hangover, it would not be appropriate to use the short term illness form.

-- If on the day of an exam in this course you have a severe cold caught two days earlier while camping outside for basketball tickets, then it would be appropriate to use the short term illness form.  However, if you have had the cold for two weeks and are still camping outside for basketball tickets, it would not be appropriate to use the short term illness form.