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Instructor: Luís Finotti
Office: Ayres Hall 251
Phone: 974-1321 (don't leave messages! -- e-mail me if I don't answer!)
e-mail: lfinotti@utk.edu
Office Hours: MW 9-10 or by appointment.
Textbook: Not required. Class notes should suffice.
Prerequisite: None.
Class: M 11:15am-12:05pm at Ayres 406 (note the room change!!). (Section 033.)
Exams: None.
Grade: Pass/Fail based on HWs (at least 60% average) and class participation. Attendance required!
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The main goal of this course is to provide the necessary mathematical tools for you to understand finances, more precisely, investments and loans. As such, we will begin with exponential and logarithms, which play the central roles in this context. We will start those from the beginning, even though most students should be familiar with them. But we will try to do it in the most natural way, and hopefully offer a new perspective on them.
When we have mastered exponentials and logs, we will start with finances. The central topic is, of course, compound interest. We will deal with many very concrete examples of loans and investments. In particular, you will learn how to make a savings plan, and predict future values, giving you the ability to understand and take control of your financial situation/future.
If time allows, we will also deviate into (mathematically) related topics, such as radioactive decay and carbon dating.
Since this course will happen only once a week, it is very important that you take a quick look over the notes before class, so that you don't forget all that was done in the previous week.
Every once in a while (perhaps every class) I will assign a few problems. They should be quick and simple, with the main goal of making you practice what we've learned in class. An average of 60% is necessary to pass the course. You can work in groups, but each student has to write his own solutions and disclose the name of the other students in the group.
I will likely go over the solutions on the beginning of the class, so I can't accept late HWs, unless we've discussed it beforehand or you have a documented excuse.
Attendance is required! Every students can miss up to two classes without justification. For more than two you will need a properly documented reason.
In Blackboard you will be able to ask questions, answer surveys and send me feedback.
There is a forum where you can post questions about math or the course structure. There is also a link for (general) Feedback. Please, post all comments and suggestions there as often as you want. (I really appreciate your input.) These can be posted anonymously (or not). Just make sure to check the option before posting! Others students and myself will be able to respond and comment. If you prefer to keep the conversation private (between us), you can send me an e-mail, but then, of course, it won't be anonymous.
I may also have surveys posted to have specific feedback from you. These will be anonymous. You are not required to answer them, but I really greatly appreciate it.
Lastly, there you can also post an introduction (a blog post that all enrolled in the class can read), if you would like to. (Certainly not required!)
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All students should be familiar and maintain their Academic Integrity: from Hilltopics 2013/2014, pg. 46:
Academic Integrity
The university expects that all academic work will provide an honest reflection of the knowledge and abilities of both students and faculty. Cheating, plagiarism, fabrication of data, providing unauthorized help, and other acts of academic dishonesty are abhorrent to the purposes for which the university exists. In support of its commitment to academic integrity, the university has adopted an Honor Statement.
All students should follow the Honor Statement: from Hilltopics 2012/2013, pg. 16:
Honor Statement
``An essential feature of The University of Tennessee is a commitment to maintaining an atmosphere of intellectual integrity and academic honesty. As a student of the University, I pledge that I will neither knowingly give nor receive any inappropriate assistance in academic work, thus affirming my own personal commitment to honor and integrity.''
You should also be familiar with the Classroom Behavior Expectations.
We are in a honor system in this course!
Students with disabilities that need special accommodations should contact the Office of Disability Services and bring me the appropriate letter/forms.
For Sexual Harassment and Discrimination information, please visit the Office of Equity and Diversity.
Please, see also the Campus Syllabus.
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Here are the files to compute interest: finances.ods (in Open Document format) and finances.xls (in MS Excel format). Here are the instructions: instructions.txt (plain text: you can open it in any text editor, including MS Notepad).
If you don't have MS Office, you can use something like LibreOffice or Gnumeric (which is just a light weight spreadsheet application).
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