Math 345, Foundations of Higher Mathematics, Au09, MTWR 0930--1018, CL135, Call No. 15070

11/16.  Supplementary notes updated.
 

Tutoring at MSLC On Mondays, ask for Michael, and say you're in my class.

The material below constitutes a dynamic syllabus for the course; you are responsible for reading it. After doing so, if you have further questions, then---and only then---you are welcome to bring them up. PDF is the default format for linked documents that contain mathematical or logical symbols. Please inform me of errors or typos; such actions are recorded for possible extra credit at the end of the quarter.

This course is "[i]ntended primarily for math majors" (OSU Course Bulletin). You need not be a math major to take the course, but you will be held to the same standards as math majors. The formal prerequisite is Math 254 or equivalent (multivariable calculus). If you do not meet this requirement, then you need my permission to be enrolled in the class. You are expected to be competent in precalculus as well. If you need help with prerequisite material or just want to brush up on your math skills, the Math-Stats Learning Center (MSLC) is a good place to start. Another valuable source of information is the Math Advising Office; see especially Math Help and Dept. Resources. For general academic skills support, try the Younkin Success Center.

Text: The Fundamentals of Higher Mathematics, Au09 edition, by Neil Falkner. Available at the usual spots for textbooks (Long's, OSU bookstore, etc.)   

Coverage: First, pretty much all of Sections 1 through 11 done in detail, omitting Sections 8 and 9. After that, we'll see how things are going.

Supplementary notes (These will be produced as we go through the text, usually section by section.)

Professor:  C. Miller

Office Hours and Contact Information  Please see my email preferences before emailing me.

General Policies

There will be one fifty-minute midterm (100 points), a comprehensive final (200 points), and some assorted quizzes and homework (about 100 points). Your grade is calculated as follows: I assign a letter grade based on the total number of points accumulated during the quarter, and I assign a letter grade based solely on the final. Then I take the better of the two grades. This allows me to adjust for improvement: I'm much more interested in what you know at the end of the quarter than what you didn't know on the midterm. No Incompletes will be given without good cause.

ALL OF YOUR WORK MUST BE READABLE---BY ME. This refers to the English, the handwriting (or printing) and the organization. Here are the instructions for documenting your work. Read it---all of it---carefully. If you are unwilling or unable to live up to these instructions, then you do not belong in my section of  345 (nor any class I teach, for that matter). A classic reference for effective writing is The Elements of Style, by Strunk and White. A good (and very inexpensive) first book on serious mathematical writing is ''Writing Mathematics Well'', by Leonard Gillman, but there are many free sources available on the web. See the Links section below for information on some software for producing mathematical text.

Required reading if you are going to attempt to do homework in TeX. And check out this FAQ.

Exams

Homework

ADA statement

SOME LINKS

Radical Pi (the OSU Math Club)

Greek alphabet links: here , here and here.

MathWorld

MacTutor (Math history resource; fun to browse.)

Some software for producing math