Mathematics 55, Fall 1999

Professor Bernd Sturmfels

Office hours: Wednesday, 11:00am - 2:00pm, or by appointment
701 Evans Hall
Office telephone: 642 4687
email: bernd@math.berkeley.edu

Our class meets Tuesdays and Thursdays, 12:30-2:00pm in F295 Haas.

Teaching assistants:

Jesse Elliot, office hours M 12-1, Th 2-3, F 2-3 in Evans 1065
Tolya Grinshpan, office hours M 11-12, W 9-10 and 4-5, in Evans 747
Diane Maclagan, office hours: M 11-12, Th 2-3, F 10-11, in Evans 1041
Laura Matusevich, office hours Th 2:15-3:15, F 2-4, in Evans 853
Sarah Reznikoff, office hours M 11-12, F 11:30-1:30 in Evans 1010
Harrison Tsai, office hours M 10-11, Tu 11:30-12:30, Th 2-3 in Evans 743

Head TA (for enrollment questions only): Diane Maclagan, maclagan@math.berkeley.edu

Text book: Kenneth H. Rosen, Discrete mathematics and its applications, 4th edition, McGraw-Hill, 1999. We will cover Chapters 1-7 thoroughly. The Student Solutions Guide for Rosen's book is also recommended.

Transparencies: Simon Tang, one of the students in the class, kindly agreed to scan in the transparencies of the lectures.

Homework: Up to twenty problems covering the lecture material of each week will be due at the beginning of your section on Monday of the following week. No late homework can be accepted, as solution will be available at Copy Central shortly after the due date. Your TA will verify that you are working the assigned problems, but homework will be graded only sporadically.

Quizzes: Five quizzes will be given at random times. This may happen either in your section or in the main lecture. There will be no make-up quizzes.

Midterms: Midterm 1 is held in class on Thursday, September 23, and covers Chapter 1-3 of Rosen. Midterm 2 is held in class on Thursday, October 28, and covers Chapter 1-5 of Rosen. A review session is held on Tuesday before each midterm. No books, notes, calculators, scratch paper or collaboration are permitted at any exam. Student photo ID and a blue-covered exam booklet are required at the midterms and final exam. No make-up midterms will be given; instead, missing midterm scores will be overridden by the final exam score.

Final Exam: The final exam will be held from 12:30 to 3:30pm on Tuesday, December 14, in a location to be announced later, and will cover the material from the entire course. There will be no make-up final exams. If you are unable to attend the final exam due to documented and unexpected circumstances beyond your control, and you have a C average on the previous coursework, an imcomplete may be assigned.

Grading: Quizzes 5 %, Homework 10 %, Midterms 25 % each, Final 35 %. We will count only the top 10 homeworks, and the final exam score will override any lower midterm score. This means that, a posteriori, your final exam may count as 60 % or 85 % instead of 35 %.

Course outline: The textbook covers the subject in detail, so I expect students to prepare for each lecture by reading the assigned sections in advance. In lecture, I will outline what is important, give my own perspective on some topics, do some examples, and answer questions. Participation in the class, even in this large lecture course, is encouraged. Here is the detailed syllabus for the entire semester:

First Midterm Exam: September 23
	Lecture Date	Homework problems	Due date
§ 1.1	August 24	6, 8, 23	August 30
§ 1.2	August 24	5, 9, 18	August 30
§ 1.3	August 24	10, 12, 31, 44	August 30
§ 1.4	August 26	7, 10, 12, 26	August 30
§ 1.5	August 26	2, 8, 12, 34, 48	August 30
§ 1.6	August 31	4, 12, 15, 20, 57	September 8
§ 1.7	August 31	14, 17, 22	September 8
§ 1.8	August 31	8, 18, 28, 36	September 8
§ 2.1	September 2	2, 4, 5, 13	September 8
§ 2.2	September 2	4, 8, 9	September 8
§ 2.3	September 7	10, 12, 16, 20, 46	September 13
§ 2.4	September 7	2, 4, 10, 21, 32, 34	September 13
§ 2.5	September 9	4, 8, 14, 24, 36, 37	September 13
§ 2.6	September 9	5, 10, 15	September 13
§ 3.1	September 14	11, 21, 25, 28, 54, 60	September 20
§ 3.2	September 14	6, 8, 14, 22, 32, 41	September 20
§ 3.3	September 16	15, 16, 35, 39	September 20
§ 3.4	September 16	4, 8, 14	September 20
Review	September 21	Chapters 1-3
§ 4.1	September 28	8, 18, 22, 38, 51	October 4
§ 4.2	September 28	9, 10, 20, 23	October 4
§ 4.3	September 30	8, 12, 16, 27, 39	October 4
§ 4.6	September 30	9, 11, 16, 21	October 4
§ 4.4	October 5	8, 13, 14, 16, 28, 34, 36	October 11
§ 4.5	October 7	6, 7, 13, 16, 19, 32, 38, 39	October 11
§ 5.1	October 12	4, 8, 14, 20, 38, 42	October 18
§ 5.2	October 12	3, 6, 24, 38, 41, 47	October 18
§ 5.4	October 14	10, 11, 16, 19, 28, 44	October 18
§ 5.5	October 19	4, 6, 8, 12, 17, 25	October 25
§ 5.6	October 21	2, 4, 8, 10, 13, 15, 18, 24	October 25
Review	October 26	Chapters 1-5
Second Midterm Exam: October 28
§ 6.1	November 2	2, 4, 8, 11, 14, 20, 28	November 8
§ 6.2	November 2	2, 4, 6, 8	November 8
§ 6.3	November 4	2, 4, 6, 10, 17	November 8
§ 6.4	November 9	3, 4, 5, 6, 16, 17, 27	November 15
§ 6.5	November 9	2, 6, 10, 13, 14, 22, 36	November 15
§ 6.6	November 11	4, 9, 13, 16, 24	November 15
§ 7.1	November 16	6, 7, 11, 15, 19	November 22
§ 7.2	November 16	3, 5, 9, 12, 20, 29	November 22
§ 7.3	November 18	4, 8, 29, 36, 42, 55, 64	November 22
§ 7.4	November 23	7, 8, 14, 25, 29, 31	November 29
§ 7.5	November 23	2, 9, 21, 24, 29, 36, 44, 54, 56, 64, 68	November 29
§ 7.6	November 30	3, 4, 8, 14, 21, 23
§ 7.7	December 2	1, 6, 7, 12, 26
Final Exam: December 14 at 12:30 PM in 220 Hearst Gym (exam group 16)