DAILY ASSIGNMENTS
Week 1 (USC classes begin Thursday)
Aug 25 (F) Read sections 1.1-1.3. In 1.2, do #2abe, 3, 5, 6. Additionally for #2 see if you can come up with an explicit formula for any of the functions. Get a graphing calculator by Wednesday. If you don't already own one, I suggest any of the TI-83 or TI-84 calculators. For those who don't have a book yet, our text along with the student solutions manual are available in the Math Library which is located on the 3rd floor of LeConte. These cannot be checked out. They can only be viewed in the library which is open Mondays-Thursdays 8:00am-9:00pm, Friday 8:00am-5:00pm, and Sunday 2:00pm-6:00pm.
Week 2 (Wednesday is the last day to drop without a grade of W)
Aug 28 (M) In section 1.3, do #1, 3, 5, 6, 8. Get a graphing calculator. Turn in your student information sheets. If you have not already had your photo taken, be prepared for one on Wednesday.
Aug 30 (W) Read section 1.4. Do #10, 11, 13 from 1.3. Do #1, 3, 6, 9, 11 from 1.4. There will be a quiz Wednesday on sections 1.1-1.4. Bring a calculator to class from now on. You will repeatedly be asked to make a table of values from a discrete dynamical system using a calculator. Here are some instructions when you have just one equation. See if you can modify this to handle two equations. You should always figure out the first couple of values by hand to check that you have entered your system on the calculator correctly.
Sep 1 (F) Read section 1.5. Prepare for Wednesday's quiz on 1.1-1.4. You will need to know how to use your calculator without looking at your instruction sheet. Practice now using the instructions for one equation and the instructions for two equations (available some time Saturday).
Week 3 (Labor Day - Monday)
Sep 6 (W) From now on, be able to quickly enter every discrete dynamical system on the calculator using the instructions listed above. Do #1, 2, 3 from section 1.5. Have your take-home quiz completed by the beginning of Friday's class. Finish the examples in class and carry your answer out to the nearest penny. The two examples were:
  1. If you borrow $20,000 with interest of 15% compounded monthly, what will your monthly payment be if you pay off the loan in 5 years?
  2. How much can you borrow if the interest is 9% compounded monthly and you make monthly payments of $300 to pay off your loan in 6 years?
Sep 8 (F) Read section 2.1-2.2 and do #1, 2, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 16, 17, 24, 25, 27 from section 2.2. These should be completed by Wednesday so do at least half of the problems over the weekend.
Week 4
Sep 11 (M) Read section 2.3 and finish the problems from 2.2. There will be a quiz Wednesday on sections 1.5, 2.1, 2.2.
Sep 13 (W) If you missed today's quiz, download a copy and allow yourself around 15 minutes to complete it. In section 2.3 do #1, 9, 10, 11, 12. Read section 2.4.
Sep 15 (F) Do #1, 2, 4, 6, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16 from section 2.4. Also find the equilibrium point for the following discrete dynamical system. Make a table of values to make sure that your answer is correct.
  • u(n)=-u(n-1)+v(n-1)+1
  • v(n)=2u(n-1)-v(n-1)+2
If you got an incorrect answer for the last question on quiz 2, then I suggest either looking through your old algebra books or going to the Math Tutoring Center. Ask the tutors for example problems on solving 2 equations with 2 unknowns. There will be a quiz Wednesday on sections 2.3-2.4.
Week 5
Sep 18 (M) Read sections 3.1-3.2. In section 3.2, do #2, 5, 6, 7, 8. Wednesday's quiz will cover sections 2.3-2.4. Online solutions are now available for our first 2 quizzes. If you have trouble solving 2 equations with 2 unknowns, you can practice problems online at the bottom of the page at this web site. You can refresh the site to get further practice problems.
Sep 20 (W) Read sections 3.3-3.4. In 3.3 do #1, 2, 6, 8, 10, 12. In 3.4 do #4, 5, 8. Give yourself about 15 minutes and redo today's quiz at home. If it is taking you a long time, then you are probably not using the calculator as efficiently as possible. For instance, in #1c you need to calculate (v(n)-32)/(v(n-1)-32) for various values of n. Just type something like (v(11)-32)/(v(10)-32) on your main screen. Now use 2ND - ENTRY to change this to (v(21)-32)/(v(20)-32). Modifying it further should be quick and easy using this approach. We will discuss the quiz in class on Friday. However, you may also look at the online solutions before then.
Sep 22 (F) Do #12, 13 from section 3.4. You will need to use your calculator's regression handout. Read section 3.5 and do #5, 7, 14, 15 from that section.
Week 6
Sep 25 (M) Today's quiz was a take-home quiz covering material from sections 3.1-3.5. Do the problems Office hours this week: Monday cancelled, Tuesday 2-4pm, Wednesday 2-4pm, Thursday 2-4pm. Help session will be Wednesday from 8:30-10pm in LeConte 412. Friday's test will cover sections 1.1-1.5, 2.1-2.4, 3.1-3.5. I will provide you with a copy of the regression handout for the test. In addition to your homework and quizzes from this semester, you can get a lot of practice by working through the old tests and quizzes from the last two semesters (Spring 2006, Fall 2005) I taught this course.
Sep 27 (W) Office hours remaining this week: Wednesday 2-4pm, Thursday 2-4pm. Help session will be Wednesday from 8:30-10pm in LeConte 412. Friday's test will cover sections 1.1-1.5, 2.1-2.4, 3.1-3.5. I will provide you with a copy of the regression handout for the test. In addition to your homework and quizzes from this semester, you can get a lot of practice by working through the old tests and quizzes from the last two semesters (Spring 2006, Fall 2005) I taught this course.
Sep 29 (F) Test 1
Week 7 (Thursday is the last day to drop without a grade of WF)
Oct 2 (M) Read sections 5.1-5.2 very carefully - I consider this an important section. In 5.2, do #1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8. Read and fill in the table in the handout on Modeling Alcohol Levels. Office hours are cancelled today - email me if you would like to set up another time to meet.
Oct 4 (W) Finish the problems from 5.2. There will be a take-home quiz covering sections 5.1-5.2 given on Friday. Beginning Friday, we will not be using the textbook for most of the rest of the course. From this point on, be sure to come to every class to learn the material. If you need to miss one day, then get notes from another student.
Oct 6 (F) Finish the take-home quiz by Monday. We reviewed the meaning of a derivative as a rate of change. Here are some review problems on derivatives from my math 122 class - part 1 and part 2. Do all 5 problems (#1, 2, 4, 5, 11) from part 1. Part 2 is broken up into problems labeled section 4.1, 4.2, 4.3, and 4.4. From 4.1 do #3, 8, 10, 19, 20. From 4.2 do #1, 2, 16, 17, 20. From 4.3 do #3, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 20, 25. From 4.4 do #3, 4, 8, 9, 13, 15. The answers are included so block them out until you've worked it out for yourself and then compare your answer with mine. You may need to look through your calculus textbook to review your derivative rules.
Week 8
Oct 9 (M) Finish the homework from last time. In 4.3 of the online handout, do #6, 7, 11, 14, 18, 19.
Oct 11 (W) For homework, do #1, 2, 3, 6, 7a from worksheet A. Worksheet A has introductory problems to prepare you for modeling with differential equations. You will need to think about the derivative as being a rate of change (or graphically a slope). You will also need to know phrases like "is proportional to" which means "equals a constant times". We are now mostly finished with the two online handouts reviewing calculus problems. You may need to go to the Math Tutoring Center for help if you are rusty with your basic derivative rules. Friday's take-home quiz will be based upon these online handouts.
Oct 13 (F) We went over problems #1, 2, 3, and 7a from the homework. We discussed what a differential equation is. Examples given were
  1. dy/dx = 2x with y(0)=5
  2. dy/dx = 2y with y(0)=5
  3. dy/dx = e^(x^2) with y(0)=5
  4. dy/dx = 3(x-2)(x-4)
  5. dy/dx = 3(y-2)(y-4)
We saw that an explicit solution (i.e., a formula for y in terms of x) was easy to obtain in example 1, and not so easy to obtain in example 2. I mentioned that no explicit solution was possible for example 3. So given a differential equation, we need to be able to understand the function in a different way. We first saw how to approximate the shape of the graph of y. We then saw how to approximate a table of values for the function y. To achieve each of these approximations, we simply use the fact that dy/dx represents the slope of the graph of y. Quantifying this to obtain our table of values is a process called Euler's Method. Its key component is that it provides a way of improving our approximations as we use more refined tables of values. We'll discuss this in depth on Monday. No homework was assigned today.
Week 9 (Fall Break - Thursday and Friday)
Oct 16 (M) Do #4, 7b from worksheet A. Do #1, 2, 3 from worksheet B. There will be a quiz Wednesday on worksheet A, worksheet B, and the two online handouts reviewing derivatives. Note that solutions are now online for worksheet A and worksheet B.
Oct 18 (W) Do #1-10 from worksheet C. If you had trouble with today's quiz, print a blank copy and retry it over the weekend. note that blank copies and solutions are online for all quizzes and worksheets A, B, and C. Office hours are cancelled today.
Week 10
Oct 23 (M) There will be a help session Wednesday from 8:30-10pm in LeConte 405. Friday's test will cover sections 5.1-5.2, worksheets A-C, quizzes 5-6, and the two online handout on derivatives.
Oct 25 (W) Friday's test will cover sections 5.1-5.2, worksheets A-C, quizzes 5-6, the handout on modeling alcohol levels, and the two online handout on derivatives. Bring an ID to the test. There will be a non-calculator portion of the test and a calculator portion. There will be a help session tonight from 8:30-10pm in LeConte 405.
Oct 27 (F) Test 2
Week 11
Oct 30 (M) Today we learned a technique called separation of variables for finding explicit solutions to certain differential equations. Do all of #1, 2, 3 and do parts a-f of #4 from worksheet D.
Nov 1 (W) Finish the problems from worksheet D. Do all problems from worksheet E.
Nov 3 (F) There will be a quiz Monday on worksheets D and E.
Week 12 (Election Day - Tuesday)
Nov 6 (M) Today's office hours are cancelled. Email me if you have any questions. Today's quiz will be postponed until Wednesday and solutions are now online to worksheets D and E. For homework, read sections 6.1-6.2 in the book.
Nov 8 (W) Read section 5.3 in the book. Do #1, 3, 5, 7 from section 5.3. Do #1, 3, 4, 8, 10 from section 6.2. Be sure to finish the quiz before Friday's class.
Nov 10 (F) Read section 6.3 and do #1 from that section. Finish the assigned problems from 5.3 and 6.2.
Week 13
Nov 13 (M) There will be a quiz Wednesday on sections 5.3 and 6.2. For homework do #2, 5, 6, 9, 10ab, 11ab in section 6.3.
Nov 15 (W) Read section 6.4. If you missed today's quiz, be sure to work on it at home. There will be an in-class quiz Monday on section 6.3. There will be an in-class quiz the Monday after Thanksgiving Break covering section 6.4. Our next test is the Friday after Thanksgiving Break.
Nov 17 (F) Reread section 6.4 very carefully being sure that you understand every example. Monday's quiz is on section 6.3.
Week 14 (Thanksgiving Break - Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday)
Nov 20 (M) From section 6.4 do #1, 2. If you missed today's quiz, be sure to work on it at home. There will be an in-class quiz next Monday on section 6.4.
Week 15
Nov 27 (M) Friday's test will cover quizzes 7-10, worksheets D-E, book sections 5.3, 6.1-6.4. If you missed today's quiz, be sure to work on it at home. For Wednesday's class, bring copies of your quizzes and worksheets along with copies of old tests. There will also be a help session Wednesday night from 8:30-10pm in LeConte 412.
Nov 29 (W) Friday's test will cover quizzes 7-10, worksheets D-E, book sections 5.3, 6.1-6.4. Bring copies of your quizzes and worksheets along with copies of old tests to tonight's help session from 8:30-10pm in LeConte 412.
Dec 1 (F) Test 3
Week 16 (Last Day of Classes - Friday)
Dec 4 (M) Do #1-15 from today's handout of practice problems as preparation for the final exam. The final exam will be cumulative so may also include any material used on your tests and quizzes. On Wednesday we will go over the test and see who is able to exempt the final exam.
Dec 6 (W)  
Dec 8 (F)  
Finals Week (Monday, Dec 11 through Monday, Dec 18)
Dec 13 (Wednesday) Cumulative Final Exam from 9:00 AM - Noon in GAMB 247