Mathematics 1A, Fall 2005

Professor: Richard Borcherds

Office hours: Tu Th 2:00-3:30 927 Evans Hall. (For quick questions ask me before or after class.)

Our class meets in 2050 VALLEY LSB, 11:00-12:30 on Tuesdays and Thursdays. This is the course home page (address /~reb/1A/). If you take this course you are expected to attend lectures, enroll in and attend one of the discussion sections listed below, do the homework each week, and take the two midterms and the final.

Enrollment: Enrollment is handled by telebears. There are two other 1A classes this semester, taught by Jones and Liu, and if my class is full there may still be room in one of these classes. I have no control over enrollment, so please do not send me email asking to get into this class. If telebears will not let you enroll because the waiting list is too long, keep trying every day, because the class size is sometimes increased. Enrollment in discussion sections is also usually handled by telebears. If you are on the waitlist or wish to change sections or have questions about enrollment you should see the head TA, Stephanie Somersille, office 1057 Evans Hall (for other information about enrollment click on her name). If you wish to add or drop this course after telebears ends, here is the form and instructions. The deadline to add or drop without the dean's approval (which is rarely given) is 2005 September 30.

To get the full email address, add @math.berkeley.edu

WARNING: the places and times of discussion sections are sometimes changed at the last minute. Click on the course control number to get the latest information (and let me know if this differs from what is given here).

The student learning center provides support for this class, including study groups and exam reviews.

Catalogue Description: Mathematics 1A

Course Format: Three hours of lecture and three hours of discussion per week.

Prerequisites: Three and one-half years of high school math, including trigonometry and analytic geometry, plus a satisfactory grade in one of the following: CEEB MAT test, an AP test, the UC/CSU math diagnostic test, or 32. Consult the mathematics department for details. Students with AP credit should consider choosing a course more advanced than 1A, such as 1B or 53. There is an online exam you can take to help you decide whether or not you are ready to take this course.

Credit option: Students will receive no credit for 1A after taking 16B and 2 units after taking 16A.

Description: This sequence is intended for majors in engineering and the physical sciences. An introduction to differential and integral calculus of functions of one variable, with applications and an introduction to transcendental functions.

Textbook:

Stewart, Calculus: Early Transcendentals, 5th edition, Brooks/Cole. The ASUC textbook store sells a special edition of this for math 1A/1B for $60, and they will buy it back when you have finished for $30. (This special edition does not include the chapters for math 53, so if you intend to take math 53 later it may be better to buy the full textbook.) We will cover chapters 1-6. The 4th edition may have different exercises from the one we will use but is otherwise OK for the course. Most sections will be using worksheets; these can be purchased at Copy Central, which is on Bancroft between College and Telegraph, across from Hearst Gym.

Grading:

There will be a quiz given each week in the discussion sections. There will be no make-up quizzes.

The grading will probably be something like homework 20%, quizzes 20%, midterms 15% each, and final 30% of the grade. The final grade is not based on a curve or on previously fixed marks for certain grades. Instead the grades for the course will be based on my judgment of how well the class is doing, and will be higher if everyone is working hard at the homework and doing well on the exams.

Almost all the questions in the midterms and final will be similar to randomly selected homework questions from the book, possibly with the constants in the questions changed. So if you understand how to do all the homework questions you will be able to do all the questions on the midterms and final. Each question on the midterms and final will be worth 3 points. The grading scheme is: 3 points for a completely correct and clear answer, 2 points for an essentially correct answer with some minor errors, 1 point for a reasonable start on the question, 0 points for no significant progress. It is your responsibility to make your answers clear: if you get the question right but the grader does not notice, then this is your fault for not making your answer clear enough, and you will lose points for it. Students will never get extra partial credit by asking for it, as this is unfair to students who do not ask.

I only change grades for exams or quizzes if there is a clear error on the part of the grader, such as adding up marks incorrectly. I will not increase grades just because someone needs a higher grade to graduate or get into some program.

The final homework and quiz grade will be computed from the grades for the 10 best homeworks and quizzes, so it does not matter much if you forget one or two. If you miss the first midterm the mark for the second midterm will be doubled. If you miss the second then the mark for the final will be increased by 50%. If you miss both midterms or the final then you are in trouble. There will be no makeup exams or quizzes.

Examinations:

You may bring one (ordinary sized) sheet of paper with writing on both sides to the exams. Apart from this one sheet, the exams are "closed book". In particular you may not bring textbooks or notebooks or calculators. (Some of the more expensive calculators can solve many calculus questions almost by themselves, which is unfair to students who cannot afford them.)

The first midterm is on Sep 29, and is at the same time and place as the lectures.

The second midterm is on Nov 3 and is on the material covered since the first midterm. It is at the same time and place as the lectures.

The final is on Thursday Dec 15 5-8pm and is in Wheeler Aud NOT the usual lecture room (and not at the usual time either). It will be mostly on the material covered after the second midterm, though there will be some problems on earlier material.

Homework:

Homework is due by the end of the Monday discussion section of the next week (or by Wednesday if Monday is a holiday). Late homework will not be accepted. The grade for homework will be based just on the number of questions attempted, as Berkeley does not at the moment have money to pay for homework grading. Collaboration on homework is fine, but if you hand in similar homework to your collaborator you should clearly state so and say who you are working with, in order to avoid unfortunate misunderstandings.

Incomplete grades

Incomplete "I" grades are almost never given. The only justification is a documented serious medical problem or genuine personal/family emergency. Falling behind in this course or problems with workload on other courses are not acceptable reasons.

Special arrangements.

If you are a student with a disability registered by the Disabled Student Services (DSS) on UCB campus and if you require special arrangements during exams, you must provide me with the DSS document and you must contact me via email or office hours at least 10 days prior to each exam, explaining your circumstances and what special arrangements need to be done. If you do not contact me 10 days in advance then I will not have time to make arrangements and you will have to take the exam along with everyone else and under the regular conditions provided for the class. The midterms and final for disabled students will be in room 959 Evans Hall.

Reading and Homework Schedule

Most questions have answers in the back of the book, and many (the ones in red in the book) have hints on one of the CDs.

Links related to the course:

• A collection of Calculus links, Excerpts from How to ace calculus, www site for the textbook (contains some online quizzes).
• Greek alphabet
• Riemann zeta function
• History of calculus: Archimedes, Barrow, Berkeley, Johann Bernoulli, Jacob Bernoulli, De L'Hopital, Fermat, Leibniz, Newton, Rolle, Taylor,