Spring, 2001
(MWF 3:00)
in Physics Lecture Room 1,
in the
Howey Building
Recitations will take place in various rooms
in the
Skiles Building on Tuesday and Thursday, as detailed on
OSCARWeb.
Instructor: Evans Harrell, Office Skiles 134, 894 4312,
harrell@math.gatech.edu
Instructor's office periods: WF 4:15-5:00,
Skiles 134
Assistants:
Class web page: http://www.math.gatech.edu/~harrell/1502/ It is your responsibility to consult the web page regularly for information about the class. The web page will contain the definitive information about the class, such as homework assignments. The web page will also give you e-mail contact with the instructor and the teaching assistant, and we will do our best to respond to your questions. Electronic mail has swollen to flood proportions, so please do not be upset if the response is delayed or brief. Information of use to the whole class may be posted on our faq list. The faq may be the quickest way to answer routine questions.
Required texts:
Salas, Hille, and Etgen, Calculus,
some parts of
Hubbard and Hubbard,
Vector Calculus, and on-line materials,
for example the
vector calculus page at
mathphysics.com.
Description: Calculus is not only essential in engineering; it is one of mankind's greatest intellectual achievements. After thousands of years of confusion on the part of philosophers, Newton, Leibniz, and Euler created the tools for understanding the infinite and the infinitesimal. In this second term there are two themes: mathematics in more than one dimension, and getting good numbers. Since we are on the threshold of the new millennium, we shall do all this with the aid of computers.
Grading and requirements: There will be in-term tests on Friday, 26 January; Friday, 16 February; Friday, 16 March; and Friday, 6 April. There will also be a final exam, of course. Homework will not be systematically collected, but instead clones of the homework problems will appear on quizzes, given most Thursdays. Your quiz average will be based on the best ten quizzes. In addition, Prof. Harrell may announce occasional opportunities for extra credit.
Students' grades will depend on the following quantity:
2 2 2 2 2 2 1/2
(T1 + T2 + T3 + T4 + Q + F ) + EC + F/2 ,
where the components of this formula correspond to the ingredients
mentioned above, after scaling so that all of them except EC =
extra credit
total have a common median. There will be no opportunities for
make-up tests after the fact. As you may be able to work out,
the vector grade system largely compensates for a bad or missed test
due to illness or other personal situations.
We do not have a fixed idea of how many students will get A's, B's, etc., but will decide the grade divisions after review of individual tests, including the final exam. Normally, the median grade in Georgia Tech calculus classes is a C+.
Mathematical software. The use of mathematical software will be a
required element of the class, but advanced use of
Maple will not be expected. Early
in the term there will be a recitation devoted to Maple for those for whom
it is new.
If you are currently a user of
Mathematica,
Matlab or other software
competing with Maple,
you will not be compelled to switch, but the class will not
systematically support these alternatives.
Calculators and tests. No restrictions will be placed on the use of calculators that do elementary mathematics on the tests. Calculators that can do calculus symbolically shall not be brought to tests. No credit will be given on tests for a correct answer without the intermediate steps.
Readings. The schedule of reading will be posted on the 1502 assignments page. The subject matter covered will be as follow:
This course will benefit from many on-line materials, which you can access with the software in the student software suite, especially Netscape, Maple, and Acrobat. There is a home page for the class at http://www.math.gatech.edu/~harrell/1502/, and there are many other useful things at the School of Mathematics page for on-line resources: http://www.math.gatech.edu/~bourbaki/, as well as at the vector calculus page at mathphysics.com
Scientists and Engineers today do mathematics differently than in the past. Complicated calculations can be done with software such as Maple, and there are many powerful items on the World Wide Web to help you both to learn mathematics and to do it effectively. Georgia Tech is one of the leaders in incorporating these developments into our calculus classes, with Maple, Mathematica, Java, and other software. We hope that you will use software and the Internet to help with calculations and learning, but will always remember that real understanding requires you to exercise your mind as well as your fingers.