MTH395 Fall 2012 Home Page

Class Schedule:	T,Th 10:00-11:15
Class Location:	Duffy 216
Professor:	Dr. Eugene Quinn
email:	equinn1@stonehill.edu
My schedule and office hours:	Fall2012

Grading

The relative weight of each will be as follows:

Technology

LaTeX

Students who took Real Analysis last year are already familiar with LaTeX because it was required in that course. If you are new to LaTeX, chances are you will find it easy to pick up enough to satisfy the requirements in this course. LaTeX is an extremely useful skill and the effort required to learn it pays off handsomely.

If you do not already have it, you should download and install LaTeX. See my LaTeX resource page for details. Depending on your platform, you should install either MiKTeX (windows), MacTeX (mac), or TeX Live (unix/linux). All of these install the software required to translate, display, and print LaTeX documents, but none of them provide facilities for producing LaTeX source documents (minimally, a decent text editor).

Consequently, you should consider installing Texmaker, which provides a graphical editor for LaTeX source documents. With Texmaker, you can construct a LaTeX document without having to type the actual LaTeX symbols. If you plan to install Texmaker, install LaTeX first so that Texmaker can automatically configure the interface to LaTeX.

R

R is a free statistical package based on the S package, which was developed at Bell Labs. See the detailed instructions for downloading and installing R and a brief discussion of the rationale for using R. We will use R to generate data from various probability distributions.

CYGWYN (windows only)

There are many scientific, mathematical, and engineering software packages writen for the Unix platform that can be freely downloaded and used. Unfortunately many of them have either not been ported to the windows platform, or ports that once existed have been broken by the latest release of windows (a very common occurrence). Cygwyn is a software package that avoids the problem to a large extent by creating a Unix-like environment (posix) in a command prompt window that allows most of the software written for Unix or Linux to be compiled from source and run on a system running the windows operating system. Cygwyn is free and can be downloaded from http://www.cygwin.com/. You can use Cygwyn to run GNU Octave, which used to run on windows but was broken by Windows 7, if you have a windows system. When you install Cygwyn, make sure Octave is one of the packages selected for inclusion (there are hundreds available, sometimes Octave is not in the default list because hard-core math types like us are very much in the minority). You do not need Cygwyn to run Octave if you have a Mac (in fact, it only works on windows). If you have the slightest interest in engineering or scientific computing, Cygwyn is a treasure trove of free, high-quality software including many compilers, scripting languages, and database systems that would cost thousands if you bought the commercial windows equivalents and I highly recommend that windows users install it.

GNU Octave

GNU Octave is a free, high-level language geared towards numerical computations. It provides some of the features of the popular MATLAB commercial software. We will find it useful for automating computations involving vectors and matrices. You can download and install it from the GNU Octave website. Mac users should download and install the appropriate binary (precompiled) version as the native versions require you to compile from the source code. Windows users should install Cygwyn and make sure the installation includes Octave.

MAPLE

MAPLE is a commercial computer algebra system sold by the Maplesoft corporation that we will occasionally use to automate some of the calculus tasks we encounter. It is available in computer labs on campus, but you cannot install it on your own computer unless you purchase it (this is NOT a requirement; Under a program called the "MAPLE adoption program", Maplesoft offers discounts to students in registered courses. I will register MTH395 so you can qualify for the discount if you choose to purchase MAPLE. Again, you are NOT required to purchase MAPLE for this course, and we will probably use it only occasionally). Depending on options and discounts, MAPLE costs around $100 for the student version.

Policies

• College Policies
• Additional Instructor's Policies

College Policies

These include:

• Academic Honesty

  All members of the College community have the responsibility to be familiar with, to support, and to abide by the College's policy on academic honesty. This responsibility includes reporting known or suspected violations of this policy to the appropriate faculty member or to the Dean of the Faculty in the Office of Academic Affairs.

  Academic dishonesty includes but is not limited to the following:

  • presenting another's work as if it were one's own;
  • failure to acknowledge or document a source, even if the action is unintentional (i.e., plagiarism);
  • giving or receiving, or attempting to give or receive, unauthorized assistance in an assignment or examination;
  • fabricating data;
  • submitting the same assignment in two or more courses without prior permission of the instructors; or
  • having another person write a paper or sit for an examination.

  (Page 108 of The Hill Book )

• Class Attendance and Makeup Work

  The policies listed under Class Attendance on page 108 of The Hill Book apply;

  Note in particular the following:

  • Students are expected to be regular and prompt in their class attendance.
  • In case of absence, students are responsible for all class work, assignments, and examinations.
  • Any student who misses an examination (other than the Final Examination), a quiz, or any required classroom activity to which a grade is assigned must consult the instructor as soon as possible regarding the opportunity to make up the work missed. In such cases, it is the instructor who determines whether or not the absence was legitimate;
    • if it was, and if the student has consulted the instructor as soon as possible, the instructor must give a makeup examination or quiz, or provide the student with an equivalent basis for evaluation.
    • If the absence is deemed not to have been legitimate, the instructor has the option to decide whether or not to provide an opportunity to make up the work.

  (Page 108 of The Hill Book - note exceptions for prolonged illness and conflicts with religious beliefs)

  My idea of legitimate absences includes:

  • Personal illness or injury (with proper documentation)
  • Obligations to one's family in case of illness or injury (with proper documentation)
  • Required participation in an athletic event (i.e., a scheduled game or meet, excluding practice)

• Examinations (final exam)

  The value of the final examination is determined by the instructor. If a student misses the examination without sufficient reason, a grade of F is given for this part of the course requirements. The semester grade is then determined in the same way as for students who took the examination.

  (Page 109 of The Hill Book)

Additional Instructor's Policies

• Homework Policy
  • Late homework assignments (without prior arrangements) will not be accepted

• Exam Policy
  
  • You are responsible for all material in sections of the textbook listed on the syllabus, regardless of whether it is covered in class or not.
    Do not assume everything will be covered in class.

• Cell Phone Policy
  • Cell phones, IM, text messaging, cameras, and other communication devices are disruptive and distracting in the classroom environment.
    Their use will not be allowed.
  • If you bring any of these devices to class, please make sure that they are turned off during class.

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