sections AA, AB
Hikaru Kiyo
mkiyo at math.washington.edu
sections AC, AD
Austin Roberts
austinis at math.washington.edu
sections BA, BB
Ilker Kocyigit
ilker at math.washington.edu
sections BC, BD
Jie Chen
chenjie at math.washington.edu
Midterm 1: Thursday, January 27
Midterm 2: Thursday, February 24
Final Exam:
Saturday, March 12
Time: 1:30-4:20 PM
Location: Kane 130
Course grades are now available on Catalyst. These are your actual course grades: these are the grades I will submit to the registrar. These include dropping of the lowest homework score and the course curve.
Have a good break!
Final exam statistics: n=262; min=1; 1st quartile=38; median=52.5; 3rd quartile=62; max=70 (10 students)
Also, second midterm scores and final exam scores were correlation well, with a correlation coefficient of 0.63.
Final exam scores are now on Catalyst. Statistics will be posted later. Course grades will be calculated over the next couple of days and will ne on Catalyst when they are available.
I will have an office hour on Friday, March 18, from 1 to 2 PM if you would like to see your graded final. If you cannot make this time, you may stop by my regular office hours which will commence at the start of Spring quarter. Final exam scores will be available on Catalyst in the next day or two.
CLUE will be holding a 120 review on Friday, March 11, at 7:30 PM in MGH.
Please ignore part (e) of problem 18.6. It is a good question, but we haven't covered sinusoidal functions enough to be able to answer it (and the textbook anwer is a glitch).
Answers to the second midterm exam are now in the exam archive.
Homework change: chapter 19 is no longer due this week.
Statistics for midterm 2: n=270; 1st quartile=17; median=22.5; 3rd quartile=29; max=40 (2 students)
I have added a handout on circular motion to the handouts linked at right. This gives a template for solving these problems, with two fairly simple examples. We'll do some more complex examples on Monday.
The weather conditions in Seattle appear to be better than forecast and at this time (7:10 AM) the University is open. The exam is happening today as planned. Please give yourself lots of extra time to get to the exam.
Another thing from lecture (the 1:30 lecture). We were talking about a town where the population and the town's potato production were both growing exponentially. The problem asks us to find when there were 150 pounds per person produced. If P is the population of the town, and T is the number of pounds produced then we want to know when T/P=150. I wrote this equation, and then immediately replaced T by the function for P and P by the function for T. This was completely erroneous: please correct your notes. Thanks.
An interesting point came up in lecture today. We were talking about finding a linear-to-linear rational function with two specified fixed points. It turns out that you cannot just arbitrarily pick B! B is in fact the negative of the product of the two fixed points, so it is completely determined by the fixed points, and we are not free to pick it to be whatever we want.
So, in practice this means pick a value for A and then set up two equations to solve for C and B.
Notice that you do have to be sure not to have A equal to the value of either fixed point. The line y=A is the function's horizontal asymptote, so A is not point of the range of the function, and so cannot be a fixed point. So don't pick A to be one of the fixed points.
For some details on this, check out the handout linked at right (feel free to wait until after the exam).
There will be a 120 review at CLUE in Mary Gates Hall 251 from 7 to 9 PM on Wednesday, February 23.
The answer to problem 2 on Autumn 2010 Midterm 2 Exam C Version A has been corrected. The correct answer is 27.037 years after 1995.
Here is a review sheet for midterm 2.
When using the exam archive, you need to be aware that not all problems on all second midterms are relevant. Here are some suggestions of good problems to use for practice.
Keep in mind that we have not covered any trigonometry, so you won't be expected to do any on the second midterm.
Answers to the first midterm are now available.
Statistics for the first midterm exam: n=299; min=2; 1st quartile=14; median=22; 3rd quartile=28; max=40 (2 students).
Here is a table showing approximately how a score on the exam might translate to a 4.0 scale. This is just to give you a sense of how you are doing; I only apply a translation of this sort at the end of the course.
| <15 | 0.0 |
| 15 | 0.7 |
| 16 | 0.9 |
| 17 | 1.2 |
| 18 | 1.5 |
| 19 | 1.8 |
| 20 | 2.1 |
| 21 | 2.4 |
| 22 | 2.7 |
| 23 | 2.7 |
| 24 | 2.8 |
| 25 | 2.9 |
| 26 | 3.0 |
| 27 | 3.1 |
| 28 | 3.2 |
| 29 | 3.3 |
| 30 | 3.4 |
| 31 | 3.5 |
| 32 | 3.6 |
| 33 | 3.7 |
| 34 | 3.8 |
| >34 | 4.0 |
Here is a review sheet for the first midterm exam.
To get to the exam archive, follow the link at right to the 120 Materials Website. The exam archive is the first link on that page.
Textbook issue: It appears that Professional Copy 'n' Print has made an error in the printing of some copies of the textbook. To tell if your copy was printed incorrectly, check the answer to problem 3.2(c). The correct answer gives the center as (-1/6, 5/3). If your copy gives anything else, your textbook was printed in error. Please go to Professional Copy 'n' Print and have them replace it with a correct printing (check the answer to problem 3.2(c) to make sure you get a proper copy).
There are significant differences between the correct printing and this incorrect one, so please replace any incorrect copies.
One useful algebraic technique we will use occasionally in this course is completing the square. There is a handout on completing the square under Handouts and Supplements at right.
Welcome to Math 120 A & B, Winter quarter 2011.
Announcements and other useful things will be posted here during the quarter, so check this site frequently.
Textbook: The textbook for this course is Precalculus, by Collingwood and Prince, the 2010-11 edition. The book can be purchased at Professional Copy and Print, located at 4200 University Way (on the Ave one block south of the UW bookstore). It is not available at the UW bookstore. The price is $24.99 plus tax.
You do not have to purchase the textbook. It is available electronically on the Math 120 Materials Website (link at right).
Discussion Board: The course has a discussion board (link at right). This is a great way to ask questions of me in a way that will benefit all students in the course. You can ask about homework questions, studying methods, etc. You can also use it to coordinate study sessions with other students.
Homework Schedule: The homework schedule is available at right. This is the only place this information is available, so please check here to get the schedule.
Homework Schedule
Course Syllabus (pdf)
Course Discussion Board
Math 120 Materials Website
L2L Functions and Fixed Points
Math Study Center
Student Counseling Center
Information for Students of International TAs
Center for Learning
and Undergraduate
Enrichment (CLUE)