Math 124: Calculus I (Section B)

Fall 2018

Lectures: MWF 9:30-10:20 in FSH 102
Instructor: Jarod Alper (jarod at uw.edu)
Office: PDL C-544
Office hours: Mon, Wed: 3-4

TAs:

Martin Bishop (bishopm at uw.edu): Sections BA and BB
Max Goering (mgoering at uw.edu): Section BC
Kristine Hampton (hamptkri at uw.edu): Section BD

Course information: This course will be a friendly introduction to the differential calculus of a function in a single variable. We will talk about functions and their derivatives, as well as related ideas like limits and continuity. In addition to the usual facts about derivatives, like the product rule and the chain rule, we will spend quite a bit of time talking about applications. This means the homework will involve a lot of story problems, particularly later on in the quarter. If you want a good grade in this class, you should expect to spend about 10 hours a week on homework.

See here for the central Math 124 Materials website: This link contains detailed information about:

The textbook: James Stewart, Calculus: Early Transcendentals (8th Edition)
Webassign
Tentative syllabus
Sample midterms and finals

Resources:

Math Study Center: the best place for calculus help. Take advantage of this resource.
CLUE: A late-night academic center designed to support all UW undergraduates.

Homework:

All homework is accessible on the WebAssign website. Look here for detailed instructions.

There are no extensions granted for HW. As the deadline is strict, you should plan to finish several hours before the deadline to deal with any unforseen computer difficulties. Late homeworks will not be accepted.

Homework is an essential component of this course. Homework provides the best avenue to practice with the course content and solidify your understanding. My advice is to attempt to fully understand the solution to each homework problem, and do additional homework problems if you feel you need more practice.

Your final homework score will be out of 90. That is, if you receive a 85% score on the homework, your final score will be 85/90. This way you are not penalized for possible tecnical difficulties with webassign or for one low performance.

Worksheets:

On Thursday October 2nd and then on each Tuesday that follows (with the exception of the midterm days, Oct 23rd and Nov 20th), you will spend each class period working in groups on the weekly worksheet, which will be turned in at the end of the class. You are responsible for bringing your own worksheets. You should download them from the Math 124 Materials Website, print them, and bring them to class.

The worksheets will be collected at the end of class and will count towards the worksheet portion of your final grade. There are 3 possible grades for each worksheet:
- 0 -- you didn't do it
- 1 -- you did a poor job
- 2 -- you showed that you did some real work
The lowest worksheet score will be dropped.

This is a very important time for learning. The TAs will have a chance to talk with each of you and give you individual suggestions. If you know how to do the problems, you should explain your reasoning to the others in your group. You should have plenty of time to finish the worksheet. If you are done early, start working on homework problems.

Grading:

Worksheets: 5%
Homework: 10%
Midterm 1: 20%
Midterm 2: 20%
Final: 45%

Scientific calculators Required:

The Ti-30x IIS is the only calculator allowed on exams in Math 124. It is available for instance for $14.95 at the university bookstore.
No Graphing/Symbolic Calculators allowed.

Schedule: The content of the lectures will be posted here. The sections of the textbook quoted below are only a rough approximation of what we actually covered in class.

Lecture	Date	Topics covered	Remarks
Week 1
1	Wed Sept 26	Introduction to calculus: Achimedes' approach to finding the area under a parabola
2	Fri Sept 28	Tangent lines: Descartes' and Fermat's approach to computing the slope of the tagent line of a parabola
Week 2
3	Mon Oct 1	Limits at infinity; Zeno's paradox; limits at x=a; horizontal and vertical asymptotes
4	Wed Oct 3	Limits; The Squeeze Theorem; Continuity; Intermediate Value Theorem
5	Fri Oct 5	More on the Intermediate Value Theorem; First glance at computing derivatives
Week 3
6	Mon Oct 8	Derivatives
7	Wed Oct 10	The derviative as a function
8	Fri Oct 12	Rules for computing the derivative
Week 4
9	Mon Oct 15	Velocity as a derivative; the product and quotient rules
10	Wed Oct 17	Derivative of trig and exponential functions
11	Fri Oct 19	Composition of functions and the chain rule
Week 5
12	Mon Oct 22	Midterm review	Midterm 1 in Oct 23 TA section
13	Wed Oct 24	More on chain rule; parameteric equations and their derivatives
14	Fri Oct 26	Implicit differentiations
Week 6
15	Mon Oct 29	More on implicit differentiation; inverse functions; derivatives of logarithm and inverse trigonmetric functions
16	Wed Oct 31	Related rates
17	Fri Nov 2	Examples of implicit differentiation
Week 7
18	Mon Nov 5	Logarithmic differentiation; an example of related rates; linear approximation revisted
19	Wed Nov 7	Error approximation; local & global minimum/maximum
20	Fri Nov 9	Finding minimum/maximum values of a function
Week 8
	Mon Nov 12	No class--Veterans Day
21	Wed Nov 14	Local minimum/maximum; critical values
22	Fri Nov 16	More on local minimum/maximum
Week 9
23	Mon Nov 19	Review	Midterm 2 in Nov 20 TA section
24	Wed Nov 21	Discussed midterm problems; summarized what we will cover next
	Fri Nov 23	No class--Thanksgiving
Week 10
25	Mon Nov 26	L'Hopital's rule
26	Wed Nov 28	Curve sketching
27	Fri Nov 30	Optimization
Week 11
28	Mon Dec 3	Review
29	Wed Dec 5	Review
30	Fri Dec 7	Review
Final
	Sat Dec 8	Final examination, 1:30 - 4:20 pm

Midterm: There will be two midterms both taking place during the Tuesday TA section:

Midterm 1: Tuesday, Oct 23, Solutions
Midterm 2: Tuesday, Nov 20, Solutions

Final examination:

Date: Saturday, December 8
Time: 1:30-4:20 pm
Location: KNE 110