MATH 1501D4 (CRN 81360) - Fall 2005

Course Information

MATH 1501, Calculus I, is taught in the lecture-recitation format here at Georgia Tech. This means that for three hours per week you'll learn new concepts during the lead instructor's lectures and for two hours per week you'll review and practice those concepts in smaller groups (37 instead of over 70). I will be the facilitator for those two hours per week. Attendance of both lecture and recitation is vital to your success in this course, so be sure to show up. There's a lot of material to be covered this semester, so we're going to move at a quick pace. Keeping up on homework will be essential.

Announcements

Announcements will be placed here, with the newest announcements at the top of the list.

• 16 December 2005 - Final exam grading is complete. The final exam average was 6.18/10 with a median of 6.25/10. (This is data for 1501D4, but averages in the other section were similar.) Grades have been passed along to Professor Tudorascu, who will be determining final grades and entering them into Banner before the deadline. According to the Registrar's Office, you should be able to see your final grade online in OSCAR by 1800 on Tuesday, 20 December 2005. They may be there by noon on that day, however. If you'd like to see your final exam, Professor Tudorascu has them, and I'm sure you can ask to see it and/or make a copy come January. If there are other exams you haven't claimed, he has them as well. Have a safe and happy holiday season, and good luck with your future studies! (I'll be TAing MATH 3012 in the spring, so I likely won't have any of you again this year.)
• 6 December 2005 - The review session for the final exam will be held Monday, 12 December 2005, from 1800 to 2100 in Skiles 249. I was not able to get this room confirmed, so if we're not there, look for a sign on the door or the door to my office (Skiles 138A) about where we've moved to.
• 5 December 2005 - Here's the grade estimator we talked about in class today. You can fill in your test scores and quiz average and have it compute what you need to get on the final in order to get a particular score in the class or what your score in the class will be if you get a particular grade on the final. Note that you have to enter zeroes for any tests you missed, otherwise it won't work right.
• 16 November 2005 - Quiz #9 was given in recitation on Monday. The solution is now online.
• 2 November 2005 - There will be a review session for Exam 3 this Sunday, 6 November 2005, from 1500 to 1700 in Skiles 140. Note that this is different from our usual classroom, which is the room I had announced in recitation today. Quiz #8 has been graded, and you can claim it during office hours on Friday or at the review session if you'd like to see yours before the test. I'll post a solution as soon as I can.
• 26 October 2005 - We took Quiz #7 in recitation today. The average was a 7.4/10, so I was rather pleased with the results. The solution is available as well. A lot of you seemed to have trouble with the second part of the problem, where you were asked to revolve around the y-axis. Such problems are often more challenging to set up at first, until you get some practice with them, so if you find yourself still having trouble with those types of problems, I suggest that you work some more problems from that part of the problems in the text for extra practice. Come see me Friday morning if you're still having troubles.
• 19 October 2005 - I just wanted to point out that we made a mistake today in recitation when working problem 5.5.17. The problem came about because I drew the wrong picture for x^3/2 and no one called me on it. Thus, we had y=x as the bottom curve, when in fact it's the top curve. This resulted in us getting the negative of the answer that we should have gotten. The correct answer is 10, and if we'd simplified what we got in recitation today, it would have been -10. The graph of the two curves in question can be found here.
• 17 October 2005 - On Wednesday, we had Quiz #6 in reciation. The solution is now online. Also, I'll be away from campus on Friday, so I won't be holding office hours then. You can, however, find me in my office Wednesday between 0900 and 1000 and from 1100 to 1250.
• 30 September 2005 - We had Quiz #5 in recitation on Wednesday. I've posted the solution. The average on the quiz was about a 7.4/10. Midterm progress reports are due to be released today. If you receive a U in this course, it indicates that your grade thus far indicates that without improvement you may receive a D or an F in this class. I encourage all students with questions to come by during office hours, visit me or other TAs in the Math Lab, or schedule an appointment to meet with me, but I particularly request that students receiving U's do this as soon as possible!
• 23 September 2005 - We had Quiz #4 in recitation on Wednesday. I've posted the solution. Please read it carefully (including the second page!), as there were some very common, very serious mistakes that students made, and you don't want to make those on the next exam. The average on the quiz was about a 7.5/10.
• 9 September 2005 - I've posted the solution for Quiz #3 as well as the promised correction to the computation of the derivative of 1/sqrt(x).
• 8 September 2005 - Review Session I 'll be holding a review session for Test #1 next Tuesday, 13 September 2005, from 1700 to 1900 (come and go as you please if you have other committments during that time but want to come for part of it). We'll plan for Skiles 170 (our usual classroom), but if there's something else in that room, I'll post a sign there and on my office door about the new location.
• 8 September 2005 - We took Quiz #3 in recitation yesterday. The average was 4/10. I plan to post a full write-up of the solution tomorrow, but it might wind up getting pushed back to Saturday. The other thing I need to comment on is that I hope by now some of you have looked at your notes from recitation yesterday and said "What on earth was he doing at the end of class when he computed d/dx (1/sqrt(x))?" The answer that I got was definitely not correct, as I realized when I was working out this morning. (It's strange when moments of math attack!) This is easily attributable to my rushing so that you could do the quiz. I'll post a write-up of how to correctly take that derivative about the same time I post the quiz solution.
• 2 September 2005 - I'm making a one-time change in my office hours for next Friday, 9 September 2005. My 1005 office hour is being rescheduled to 0905 for THAT DATE ONLY.
• 31 August 2005 - I passed back Quiz #1 today in recitation. If you weren't there to pick it up, come by my office (Skiles 138A) during office hours (or any other time my schedule indicates I should be around) to claim yours. Have a great Labor Day weekend!
• 29 August 2005 - My Math Lab hour has been set. I can be found in the Math Lab (the School of Mathematics' free drop-in tutoring lab) on Wednesday afternoons from 1405 until 1455. You're welcome to drop by the Math Lab (Skiles 257), which is staffed by mathematics TAs, at any time for additional tutoring. The lab is open Monday through Thursday (not Friday, as I had incorrectly stated in class), 1100 until 1700.
• 29 August 2005 (updated at 1428) - I know that our δ,ε argument was rushed at the end of class, so I've written it up neatly for you. Also, I've posted the solution to Quiz #1, which includes some comments on common errors that students made.
• 25 August 2005 - At the end of Wednesday's recitation, we worked a couple of problems involving the composition of functions. However, the problems we worked didn't demonstrate an important pitfall that many students encounter. Please take a moment to look over the solution to 1501B6 quiz #2 for an example and some commentary on this problem. In fact, I strongly encourage you to work the problem (there are two parts) before reading my solutions to check how your understanding.
• 19 August 2005 - Welcome to Georgia Tech! Be sure to take a moment to read over my recitation policies and expectations below. I also encourage you to look at other things linked from this page.

Links

Specific to this course

• Prof. Tudorascu's page for this course
• Recitation policies and expectations for this section
• My schedule - My office hours are Fridays, 0805-0855 and 1005-1055, in Skiles 138A, and I can also be found in the MathLab (Skiles 257) on Wednesdays from 1405 until 1455. You are welcome to schedule an appointment (recommended) or drop by outside office hours, but please check my schedule first to save a trip if I've got something else scheduled.

General links

• Mathworld
• GT SoM's Core Curriculum Course Materials - Includes sample tests for MATH 1501, 1502, 1711, 1712, 2401, 2403, and 2605, as well as web notes for MATH 2602. Be forewarned that these tests may differ greatly from what you will take in this course, but the more problems you solve, the more prepared you'll be.
• GT SoM's MathLab drop-in tutoring facility. Includes a link to other tutoring resources at Tech.
• The Most Common Errors in Undergraduate Mathematics by Prof. Eric Schechter of Vanderbilt University. This is a very well-thought-out (and thus lengthy) essay on common mathematical mistakes, the deeper reasons behind them, and ways to avoid them. I encourage you all to read it. Be aware that on some computer systems (including my Mac) his integral signs and some other symbols show up as other characters. If you're reading this and can't figure out what he means, drop me an email.

Common questions

Q: What should I call you?

A: I'm not a professor, nor do I (yet) have a doctorate, so "Professor" and "Doctor" are not correct titles. "Mitch" will be just fine, but if you insist, I will try to respond to "Mr. Keller" as well.

Q: Will topic X be on the test?

A: Short answer: Yes. Long answer: Many students, particularly first-year students, love to ask this question. I can virtually guarantee you that the answer you will get any time you ask it will be "yes". If something weren't important enough to qualify for the test, it likely wouldn't be talked about in class. Unless told otherwise, you can safely assume that you will be responsible for everything covered in class when test time arrives.

Q: What should I do if I think I witnessed an Honor Code violation?

A: According to the honor code, if you see a violation, you must do something about it. Your options are to confront the student(s) involved, report it to the course instructor and/or teaching assistant, or report it to the Office of Student Integrity. All of these are good options, and you need to decide what's right for you and the situation. If you're unsure what to do, I strongly encourage you to consult a member of the Honor Advisory Council.

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