MATH 111C : Calculus I

TEXT : James Stewart, Calculus: Early Transcendentals Single Variable, 5th ed. (black and green cover), Thomson Brooks/Cole, 2003.

INSTRUCTOR : David Lantz

HOMEWORK : Assigned and collected daily -- see the list at

http://math.colgate.edu/math111/dlantz/calc1hw.html
Late homework will not be accepted. If all homework is turned in and accepted, it is worth 24 extra credit points (about half a letter grade -- see below). Extra credit is prorated from half the assignments: If you turn in only half the assignments you will get 0 points; 3/4 are worth 12 points; all, 24; and steps between.

TESTS : The three hour exams, worth 100 points each, will be 7:30-9:30 p.m. on Tuesday evenings, September 28, October 19 and November 16, in McGregory 204. There will be no "makeups" for any of these exams -- if you cannot come at the appointed time, please see me in time to schedule an alternate time to take the exam early. The final (Mon Dec 13, noon) will be comprehensive, emphasizing the material covered after the last hour exam, and will also be worth 100 points.

GRADING : The sum of four exam grades and homework points will be divided by 4 and the result will be put on a 90-80-70-60 scale. An added + or - will be subjective.

WEB SOURCES: This page has URL

http://math.colgate.edu/math111/dlantz
A list of all the overhead transparencies used in class is available at
http://math.colgate.edu/math111/dlantz/suppindx.html
The solutions to the homework exercises (and the practice exams and exams, eventually) are in .pdf format, so you will need a reader for this format on your browser. One free source for such a reader is from Adobe Acrobat:
http://www.adobe.com/prodindex/acrobat/readstep.html

You should also be aware that there are many free resources for calculus on the Web. One, of which Prof. Aaron Robertson was a co-author, is "Calculus on the Web" (or "COW") on the Temple University website:

http://www.math.temple.edu/~cow/
A long list of links to more sources is
http://archives.math.utk.edu/topics/calculus.html

SUGGESTIONS :

  1. If you see an error at the board, or if you do not understand something, stop me and ask (even if everyone else seems to understand).
  2. Many Colgate students have seen some calculus in high school. If you have studied calculus before, please consider transferring to Calculus II or III; and if you remain in Calculus I, avoid the temptation not to study -- many students have fallen victim to boredom and overconfidence while going through a course a second time. Moreover, though your earlier course probably emphasized functions presented as algebraic expressions, most functions encountered in the real world are presented as graphs or as lists of data. I will try to include as many of such approaches to calculus as time allows. So I will have no patience with objections of the form, "We never did this in high school!" If you are seeing the material for the first time, do not be frustrated by the quick responses of those who have seen it before; studying the text, lectures and homework will enable you to succeed.
  3. Doing the homework, regularly and thoughtfully, will contribute greatly to your success in the course.
  4. It is a common practice, and a great mistake in mathematics courses, to spend a week working only on, say, English (especially when a paper is due), history the next, calculus the next, etc. Mathematics courses rely on all that has come before; the next lecture may be incomprehensible if you do not understand the last one.