Math 120C - Precalculus - Autumn 2015

Lectures

Monday/Wednesday/Friday
1:30 - 2:20
Kane 110


Instructor

Patrick T. Perkins
Padelford C-544
Phone: 206-543-7746
pperkins'at'uw.edu

Topics



The Course

This course covers the basic nuts and bolts of Functions and Analytic Geometry: Lines, Parabolas, Circles, Trig Functions, Exponential and Logarithmic Functions. There will be a heavy emphasis on Mathematical Modeling and Applications. This means there will be a lot of long, multipart story problems. If you want a good grade in this class, you should expect to spend about 12 hours a week on homework. You will need a scientific calculator.

Grades

Your grade is determined by how you do relative to the class as a whole. Grades will be based on total points earned. There are 300 possible points:

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Homework

We will be using WebAssign for homework.

WebAssign

You can log in to WebAssign here. This will require your UW Net ID. (Your UW Net ID is the part of your university email address before the @ symbol.) The password to log in is your UW Net ID password.

You must be enrolled in the course in order to get access to the homework on WebAssign.

You will need to purchase an access code before the grace period ends. You can purchase an access code on the WebAssign website after logging in.

Quizzes and Exams

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Rules for taking exams

Quiz section

On Tuesdays and Thursdays you will meet with a Teaching Assistant in a smaller group. This gives you a chance to get more of your homework questions answered. Most weeks there will be a quiz on Thursday. The midterm exams will be held in Quiz Section.

The TA's are:

 
SectionsNameOfficeEmail
CA & CB Charles Godfrey PDL C-8F cgodfrey 'at' uw.edu
CC & CDJonathan Jonker PDL C-8M jonkerjo 'at' uw.edu

Text

UW Precalculus
2012-2013 Edition: A first course in problem solving
D.H. Collingwood, K.D. Prince and M. M. Conroy.

Available from Professional Copy 'n' Print, 4200 University Way NE

Calculators

There is a required calculator for Math 120. It is the Texas Instruments TI-30X IIS which can be purchased from many places for well under $20. The UW Bookstore carries orange ones, which they will buy back at the end of quarters, but any color is acceptable for Math 120.

You should show all work not doable on a scientific calculator. For instance, when you solve a quadratic equation, steps must be shown even if your graphing calculator can produce the solutions. Reading a numerical solution from a graph on a calculator is never sufficient.

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Mathematics Department University of Washington