LECTURER
Dr. Andrew D. Loveless
aloveles@math.washington.edu
Office: Padelford C-339
Office hours: Click Here
EXAM DATES
Midterm 1: Friday, July 15
Midterm 2: Friday, August 5
Final Exam: Friday, August 19
OLD EXAMS
The following link will take you to an archive of past exams and solutions:
Exam Archive
Welcome!
Most course materials can be found at the right of the page. If you have a question, please contact me directly or by e-mail.
Announcements:
- Announced 8/10/2011: Note the following postings:
- Announced 8/8/2011: If you missed the discussion the of exam, you can pick up your exam from me before or after class (I will have it with me). And here is the exam information:
- The exam solutions have been added to my exam archive.
- The exam statistics are:
- MEDIAN: 59 out of 80 (73.8 percent).
- QUARTILES: 48, 59, 70 out of 80 (60, 73.8 and 87.5 percent). This is a fairly standard spread althoughly slightly lower than I had hoped.
- ROUGHLY A FEW BULLET POINTS FOR THE CORRESPONDING GRADES. I made a rough midterm grade and posted it on catalyst in the following way:
I took your highest 3 homework scores plus your exam scores plus your extra credit to get a total out of 265 (so I did drop the lowest of your homework in the computation).
Some benchmarks for scores out of 115 are:
248 out of 265 --> 3.5
233 out of 265 --> 3.0
217 out of 265 --> 2.5
197 out of 265 --> 2.0
176 out of 265 --> 1.5
151 out of 265 --> 1.0
- You can see the full current grade distribution on the grades page.
- Announced 8/1/2011: Here are more postings. Note that Exam 2 is Friday. It will cover Chapters 3-6.
- Chapter 6 Review: For exam 2, you can ignore the "linear diophantine equations" and the "fundamental theorem of arithmetic". So you need to know the four basic definitions from the top of the review, you need to know "Basic Proof Tips" numbers 1 and 2, and you need to know "Important Results" numbers 1-5.
- All homework solutions so far (including HW 4 and HW 4a) are up now.
- Remember to be working through the exams in the Exam Archive. There is a question or two from a couple exams that may be from material we will cover later in Chapter 6. If you come across such a question, you can ask me if you need to study it.
- Announced 7/25/2011: Here are some new postings:
- I intend to only spend a brief few moments on Chapter 5 in order to pick up a couple tools that we will use later. I am assuming that most everyone has a basic familiarity with these functions, but here are some lecture notes on Chapter 5 that you should read to familiarize yourself.
- Also here is a much more review of Chapter 5.
- In addition, here is a supplemental lecture on the pigeonhole principle, that may be of help to you if you are confused about the pigeonhole principle.
- Announced 7/18/2011: Note the following postings:
- A detailed overview of Chapter 4. This review has more information than the basic Ch. 4 review I handed out on Monday.
- Homework 3 was handed out on Friday.
- If you missed the discussion the of exam, you can pick up your exam from me before or after class (I will have it with me). And here is the exam information:
- The exam and the solutions have been added to my exam archive.
- The exam statistics are:
- MEDIAN: 73 out of 80 (91.3 percent).
- QUARTILES: 67, 73, 77.5 out of 80 (83.8, 91.3 and 96.9 percent), so a fourth of the class got at or above 96.9 percent (WOW)!
- ROUGHLY A FEW BULLET POINTS FOR THE CORRESPONDING GRADES. The "curve" is fairly stiff because we have such an incredibly high median. I posted a rough midterm grade and posted it on catalyst in the following way:
I took the higher of your two homework scores plus your exam score plus your extra credit to get a total out of 115 (so I did drop the lowest of your homework in the computation).
Some benchmarks for scores out of 115 are:
110 out of 115 --> 3.5
104 out of 115 --> 3.0
99 out of 115 --> 2.5
90 out of 115 --> 2.0
80 out of 115 --> 1.5
70 out of 115 --> 1.0
- You can see the full current grade distribution on the grades page.
- Remember that we have not complete very many points, so you can still greatly impact your grade (it is very possible to go from a 1.5 now to a 3.7 at the end of the quarter), but you will need to make sure to do well on the homework, do some challenge problems, and do well on the other exams. For many people new to proofs, the first exam in this class is a shock because they are used to getting higher grades on math exams, but don't despair. Often these people did study the exams in the archive, but they didn't get the significance of various steps as they read through the posted solutions. The good news is now you know how an exam goes and you will have a better idea of what you need to do to succeed. It is fairly typical for there to be good improvement on the second exam from those that are currently in the lower end of the gradescale who adjust their approach to the class.
- Announced 7/8/2011: Note some new postings:
- Announced 6/29/2011: Please note the following postings:
- A basic overview of Chapter 2.
- Full written out solutions to 2.44(b), 2.50(c), 2.51(b), and 2.52 are posted in the Math 300 A, B Shared Space (UWNetID required). Please look at these. I want you to mimic the method of proof in these postings to complete the assigned problems 2.44c, 2.50b and 2.53. I will also do some similar examples on Friday.
- Full solutions to homework 1 are posted in the Math 300 A, B Shared Space. You are required to read the full solutions and compare them with your work. You will also need to reference then in at least one problem for this week.
- If you didn't get the assignment today, you can print it off from the homework link at the right of the page.
- Announced 6/15/2011: Please check out all the postings at the right of this page including:
- Announced 6/15/2011: If you are struggling or just want some more examples, please, please, please come to office hours. In addition, for those of you looking for supplemental reading on proofs or want a few more examples to look at, I encourage you to try looking at some or all of the following books (most are available on reserve in the Odegaard library):
- An introduction to mathematical reasoning - Eccles, Peter J. ; Odegaard Reserve QA9.54.E23.1997
- Basic concepts of mathematics and logic - Michael C. Gemignani : Odegaard Reserve QA39.G38
- How to prove it: A structured approach - Daniel J. Velleman : Odegaard Reserve QA9.V38.2006
- A Transition to Advanced Mathematics - Douglas Smith : Odegaard Researve QA37.2.S575.2011
- How to read and do proofs - Solow, Daniel ; Math Stacks QA9.54.S65.2005
- Proofs and fundamentals - Bloch, Ethan ; Math Stacks QA9.54.B57.2000
- An introduction to mathematical thinking - Gilbert, William ; Math Stacks QA10.G55.2005
- There are also various websites online if you search for mathematical proofs (but I cannot vouch for their accuracy).
- Announced 6/15/2011: Welcome to Math 300.
Your first task is to get the textbook at the bookstore (there are also two copies on reservce in Odegaard Library if you don't want to buy the book). Then I suggest you explore the links at the right of the page. I will be posting several helpful review sheets and homework hints throughout the quarter, so check back frequently.