Math 1914 (Calculus I)

Fall 2015

This variety of prickly pear (Opuntia engelmannii) is commonly seen in Oklahoma. This image taken from Wikimedia Commons.

Instructor:

John Albert

Office: PHSC 1004, Ext. 5-3782.

Office hours: Mon, Wed, Thurs 2:30-3:30 PM (or by appointment)

E-mail: jalbert@ou.edu

Teaching Assistants, Math Center:

The TA's for this class, besides leading the discussion sections, hold office hours in the Math Help Center (Physical Sciences Center, room 209). Here is a list of the TAs with their e-mail addresses and their help center hours:

Julia Jackson (jjackson@math.ou.edu) Tue: 9:30 to 1:30 and 12:30 to 2:30; Thurs: 9:30 to 1:30 and 12:30 to 2:30.
Kirsten Stevenson (kstevenson@math.ou.edu) Fri: 9:30 to 11:30.
Jieru Zhu (jzhu@math.ou.edu) Mon: 1:30 to 2:30; Wed: 1:30 to 3:30; Fri: 1:30 to 2:30.

You can come by and get tutoring from any of the TA's, not just the TA whose discussion section you are in. In fact, you are welcome to come by the Math Center any time it's open, for tutoring from whomever is on duty. This semester the Math Center is open Mondays through Fridays, and on Sundays as well. For Math Center Hours and other information, see http://www.math.ou.edu/undergrad/mathcenter.html.

Announcements

Homework

Homework is due in your discussion sections each week.

Assignment

Due week

Problems

1 Aug. 31 to Sept. 4 1.4 #3(a,b), 6; 1.6 #5, 6, 10, 11, 15, 19, 28, 30.

2 Sept. 7 to 11 1.8 #35, 36; 2.1 #27, 28, 30(a), 31, 33, 34.

3 Sept. 14 to 18 2.1 #57; 2.2 #24, 25; 2.3 #17, 23, 36, 61, 63, 77, 81.

4 Sept. 21 to 25 2.4 #9, 16, 19, 24, 30, 34, 35, 42 (do not use L'hopital's rule on #42).

5 Sept. 28 to Oct. 2 2.5 #2, 6, 15, 22, 25, 31, 39, 75; 2.6 #8, 9.

6 Oct. 5 to Oct. 8 2.6 #11, 12, 24, 30, 36, 39, 42 (use Wolfram Alpha for part a); 2.8 #5, 6.

7 Oct. 12 to Oct. 15 2.8 #29, 30, 31, 32; 2.9 #22, 24, 25; 3.1 #46, 47, 51.

8 Oct. 19 to Oct. 23 3.3 #33, 35, 38; 3.4 #36, 40; 3.5 #15, 17, 25.

9 Oct. 28 to Nov. 2 3.5 #11, 28; 3.7 #13, 15, 16, 31, 35; 3.9 #12, 21, 35.

10 Nov. 4 to Nov. 9 4.1 #3, 4; 4.3 #7, 12, 13, 19, 23, 29, 30, 41.

11 Nov. 11 to Nov. 16 4.3 #47, 53, 58, 63(a,b); 4.5 #7, 8, 9, 12, 16, 22.

12 Nov. 18 to Nov. 23 4.5 #42, 47, 48, 49, 51; 5.1 #5, 8, 22, 26, 27.

13 Dec. 2 to Dec. 7 5.2 #1, 7, 9, 27, 28, 49; 5.3 #4, 5, 6, 11.

Quiz dates

Quiz 1: Tuesday, Sept. 8 (Assignment 1)

Quiz 2: Tuesday, Sept. 15 (Assignment 2)

Quiz 3: Tuesday, Oct. 6 (sections 2.5 and 2.6)

Quiz 4: Tuesday, Oct. 20 (sections 2.8, 2.9, 3.1)

Quiz 5: Tuesday, Nov. 10 (sections 3.9, 4.1, 4.3)

Quiz 6: Tuesday, Nov. 17 (Assignment 11)

Quiz 7: Tuesday, Dec. 8 (sections 5.1, 5.2, 5.3)

Exam dates

Exam 1: Monday, Sept. 21 (Assignments 1 to 3)

Exam 2: Monday, Oct. 26 (sections 2.4, 2.5, 2.6, 2.8, 2.9, 3.1, 3.3)

Exam 3: Monday, Nov. 23 (sections 3.4, 3.5, 3.7, 3.9, 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5)

Final Exam: Wednesday, December 16 at 1:30 pm in PHSC 108 (The final exam will be comprehensive)

Links

There are some well-done online lectures explaining calculus at Video Calculus at the University of Houston. You need to have the QuickTime video player installed on your computer to view these.
To do most calculus problems, you have to use algebra. In particular, you have to be able to do things like factor polynomials, add and subtract fractions, simplify compound fractions, cancel factors from fractions correctly, and manipulate exponents using the laws of exponents. When we were discussing this in class one day, I mentioned as a side note that although there are formulas for solving quadratic equations, and (lesser-known) formulas for solving equations of degree three and four (called cubic and quartic equations), there is no similar formula for solving equations of degree five or higher. It's not just that no one has succeeded in FINDING such a formula --- it has actually been proven that no such formula EXISTS. So fifth-degree equations are fundamentally different somehow from equations of lesser degree. For more about this, you can Google the expression "Insolvability of the quintic". Most of the results you turn up from this Google search are mathematical treatments which get technical rather quickly, but which start off with interesting discussions of the history of the problem. One such example is Paramanand Singh's series of blog posts on the topic. If you suddenly are seized with the desire to understand the problem in detail (this could happen!), then by taking a class in "higher algebra" at OU and working assiduously for about a year and a half, you could do it.
Here is a short video clip from a lecture in Prof. David Jerison's calculus class as MIT, in which he gives the proof that the limit, as theta goes to zero, of sin(theta)/theta is equal to 1. http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/mathematics/18-01sc-single-variable-calculus-fall-2010/1.-differentiation/part-a-definition-and-basic-rules/session-8-limits-of-sine-and-cosine/.
The review of trig functions linked to above under "Announcements'' is just a list of facts you need to know. But if you would like to see a nice explanation of what trigonometry is all about, you might take the time to look at this review of trigonometry by Prof. J. Ramanathan at Eastern Michigan State.
In the spring of 2010 the New York Times ran an interesting set of columns by Steven Strogatz introducing readers to some mathematical topics, including calculus. If you run up against the Times' limit of ten free articles per month, you can usually reach the articles anyway by searching for them by name on Google with "Strogatz" added. For example, Google "Take it to the limit Strogatz".

Assignment	Due week	Problems
1	Aug. 31 to Sept. 4	1.4 #3(a,b), 6; 1.6 #5, 6, 10, 11, 15, 19, 28, 30.
2	Sept. 7 to 11	1.8 #35, 36; 2.1 #27, 28, 30(a), 31, 33, 34.
3	Sept. 14 to 18	2.1 #57; 2.2 #24, 25; 2.3 #17, 23, 36, 61, 63, 77, 81.
4	Sept. 21 to 25	2.4 #9, 16, 19, 24, 30, 34, 35, 42 (do not use L'hopital's rule on #42).
5	Sept. 28 to Oct. 2	2.5 #2, 6, 15, 22, 25, 31, 39, 75; 2.6 #8, 9.
6	Oct. 5 to Oct. 8	2.6 #11, 12, 24, 30, 36, 39, 42 (use Wolfram Alpha for part a); 2.8 #5, 6.
7	Oct. 12 to Oct. 15	2.8 #29, 30, 31, 32; 2.9 #22, 24, 25; 3.1 #46, 47, 51.
8	Oct. 19 to Oct. 23	3.3 #33, 35, 38; 3.4 #36, 40; 3.5 #15, 17, 25.
9	Oct. 28 to Nov. 2	3.5 #11, 28; 3.7 #13, 15, 16, 31, 35; 3.9 #12, 21, 35.
10	Nov. 4 to Nov. 9	4.1 #3, 4; 4.3 #7, 12, 13, 19, 23, 29, 30, 41.
11	Nov. 11 to Nov. 16	4.3 #47, 53, 58, 63(a,b); 4.5 #7, 8, 9, 12, 16, 22.
12	Nov. 18 to Nov. 23	4.5 #42, 47, 48, 49, 51; 5.1 #5, 8, 22, 26, 27.
13	Dec. 2 to Dec. 7	5.2 #1, 7, 9, 27, 28, 49; 5.3 #4, 5, 6, 11.