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Most course materials can be found at the right of the page. If you have a question, please contact me or your TA, directly or by e-mail.

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Announcements:

Announced 12/14/2006: The final grades are posted. Carefully read the grade explanations and notes on the grade page. If you e-mail me about grades, I will e-mail you back and tell you to read the grade explanation and notes (i.e. don't e-mail me about grades).
- The course median grade is a 3.1. I have been more than fair and leanient when it comes to curving the gradescale.
- You are welcome to come pick up your final exam during any of my office hours next quarter. The exam median was 83.4% and the exam average was 78.8%. There were many high exams (Well over a quarter of my students scores above 90%) included in this are several perfect or near perfect exams. I think this indicates that the exam was more than fair.
- Good luck in the future and thank you for letting me work with you this quarter.
Announced 12/4/2006: PLEASE MAKE SURE YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR FINAL EXAM IS!!! The final exam is Saturday, Dec. 9, at 5:00-8:00 pm. Click here for exam rules. Your exam location depends on your lecture time as follows:
- LECTURE A (AA, AB, AC, AD): KANE 130
- LECTURE B (BA, BB, BC, BD): KANE 130
- LECTURE C (CA, CB, CC, CD): SMITH 120
Announced 11/27/2006: Hints for Homework 7 can be found at the right of this page.
Announced 11/20/2006: Exam 2 Solutions are posted at the right of this page.
Announced 11/16/2006: Homework 6 is due Wednesday, Nov. 22. I have eliminated problems 17.6 and 8.11 from the homework list. I did this to make it easier for you to finish the assignment on time. However, I recommend that you also look at these problems when you are studying for the final exam.
Announced 11/7/2006: Sinusoidal modeling will not be on Exam 2. This material is covered in Chapters 17 and 18. Some second exams in the archive mention sinusoidal modeling, please ignore these questions. Also ignore point 9 on the second review sheet. You will need to know about sinusoidal modeling for the final exam only.
Announced 11/6/2006: Exam 2 is Thursday, Nov. 16 in quiz section. Please, please, please start studying now. Look at old exams. Glance through the review sheet. Look at your notes and homework for problems and concepts that were central to each chapter.
Announced 10/31/2006: Please note that problems 12.4 and 13.9 have been eliminated from Homework 4 (this was announced in class). The online homework list has been updated so that these problems are not included. Also, I have posted a page giving advice as to how to start preparing for exam 2 now. Finally, questions concerning exam 1 grading must be brought to me by Friday, Nov. 3 (after this time I will not discuss Exam 1 grading).
Announced 10/26/2006: GRADES have been posted. Please read the announcements and notes on the grade page before looking for your grade. And please check that the scores have been recorded accurately.
Announced 10/24/2006: If Exam 1 did not go well, then you probably should review your studying techniques. To help you look back at how you needed to study for the exam, I hope that you find the following helpful:
- Below are the problems, examples, and old exam questions that look similar (or almost identical in some cases) to the problems on your first exam:
  - PROBLEM 1 (Lines and Circles): HW 4.8, Loveless Winter 06 #2, and Examples on Oct. 4th Lecture were nearly identical to this problem. In addition, you had the opportunity to study several similar problems including HW 3.4 and 3.7, Loveless Fall 05 #1, Conroy Spring 06 #2, Conroy Winter 06 #1, and Examples on Oct. 2 lecture.
  - PROBLEM 2 (Maximizing and Vertices): HW 7.12, Conroy Spring 05 #2, and Examples on Oct. 13 Lecture were nearly identical to this problem. In addition, you had the opportunity to study HW 7.11 and 7.13, Conroy Spring 06 #3, and many other general maximization problems.
  - PROBLEM 3 (Multipart/Equations for Lines and Semicircles): HW 6.11 and Examples from Oct. 9 Lecture where nearly identical to this problem. We found equations for lines and semicircles many times in lecture and on the homework, so this should have been your first instinct on any such problem. In addition, 6.10 made you work extensively with multipart functions and semicircles. We also discussed a similar problem during review.
  - PROBLEM 4 (Functional Notation/Composition/Solving Multipart): In addition to the problems and examples described below, we discussed several similar problems during review.
    - PART(a): HW 5.2, Loveless Fall 05 #2, Loveless winter 06 #1, and examples from Oct. 6 Lecture.
    - PART(b): HW 8.2, Loveless Winter 06 #4, Loveless Fall 05 #3, and examples from Oct. 13 Lecture.
    - PART(c): HW 6.3, Loveless Winter 06 #4, Loveless Fall 05 #3, and examples from Oct. 9 Lecture.
- I believe that my exam matches the expectations that I have clearly laid out throughout the course. I was not trying to surprise you. If the exam did not go well, I suggest you to use this information to adjust your study habits so that you can do better on Exam 2 and the Final.
Announced 10/23/2006: SOLUTIONS for both versions of Exam 1 can be found at the right of this page. Check back later this week to view your current grades. Please carefully consider the solutions before bringing a question to me or your TAs. If you do have a grading question, please write a short (1-2 sentences) explanation of your complaint and return your exam to me.
Announced 10/18/2006: EXAM 1 IS THURSDAY, OCTOBER 19, IN YOUR NORMAL QUIZ SECTION. Remember the rules:
- Show up on time.
- You are allowed one 8.5 x 11 inch sheet of handwritten notes (front and back). Put your name on the note sheet, you will be turning it in with your exam.
- You are allowed a graphing or scientific calculator. You may use your calculator to compute numerical answer and to check your work. However, calculator answers are not sufficient. You must show your work and use appropriate handwritten techniques to solve the problems.
- You will be given 50 minutes to complete the exam.
- THERE ARE MULTIPLE VERSIONS OF THE EXAM!!! Any student found engaging in cheating will get a 0 on the exam, will have to appear before the academic misconduct board, and will likely get academic probation. IF YOU CHEAT, YOU WILL BE RISKING YOUR ENTIRE ACADEMIC CAREER!
Announced 10/11/2006: The final exam locations and times have been announced. They can be found at the left of this page. To see the final exam policies please look at the following website: Final Exam Rules.
Announced 10/6/2006: HOMEWORK CHANGE!
I have removed problem 5.9 from Homework Assignment 2. You do not need to do this problem.
Announced 10/5/2006: ADVICE TO MATH 120 STUDENTS! Many students find the first two weeks to be the most difficult in this course. It is an adjustment and I do believe that you will get more used to it. My main advice is as follows:
- Start the homework as early as possible.
- Try all tutoring options including: the math study center, CLUE (in Mary Gates Hall Commons, 9:00 pm - midnight, Sunday - Thursday), use quiz section wisely, visit your TA's office hours, and visit my office hours
- HOMEWORK COMPLETION STRATEGY:
  - First, work through each problem systematically as we have done in class (that is, visualize, find equations for curves, translate the question, and solve for what you can). If you do all this and still get stuck, then look at examples from lecture and from the textbook. If you still are stuck, then make a note of the problem and move on to the next one. I don't want you to spend more than 10-15 minutes on your own on one problem.
  - When you have completed the problems that you can do, then you can go back and look at the problems you were stuck. Perhaps you will have fresh ideas after working on the other problems. If not, then you need to first discuss the problem with a classmate. Then ask a question during quiz section. Then visit the math study center or CLUE. In this way you can be efficient with you time. Again this does not work, unless you start the homework as early as possible.
- Please note that our grading policy on the homework allows for a little bit of flex. I select 3 problems at random to be graded carefully (out of 3 points each). I also give 6 points for overall completion and presentation. So if you occasionally cannot complete one or two problems on a given homework assignment, then it will likely not have a great impact on your grade. As long as you show some attempt on all the problems, then your homework scores will likely be in the 12-15 out of 15 range. So if there is one or two problems on this first assignment that you absolutely cannot finish, it's okay. Just don't make it a habit.
- If you are worried that you will have difficulty on the exams. It is a good idea to start looking at old midterm exams. If you see a certain type of problem on several old exams, then it is somewhat likely that a related problem will appear on your exam. So if you know the appropriate techniques for such a problem, then you can almost guarantee yourself a certain amount of partial credit.
Announced 10/2/2006: The following contains hints concerning problems 1.17 and 2.3:
- 1.17: The last sentence reads "Congress claims that this law would ultimately cut peoples' tax rates by 75%. Do you believe this claim?" The word "ultimately" is asking you to think about the behavior when x gets larger and larger. Cut by 75% is the same as saying that the new rate will be 0.25r %. So is it true that when x gets larger that the value of the formula will be less than 0.25r. (Note that you could even solve for when the formula equals 0.25r and draw appropriate conclusions).
- 2.3: The positive solution to (6+3t)^2+(3.5t)^2=25^2 is t = 4.48540361978. You do not need to show this. You just need to set up the problem, then use this value of t to get the answer. Note: This problem will not be selected for grading.
Announced 9/27/2006: Don't forget that Homework 1 is due October 6 (START EARLY). If you finish early and would like an extra challenge, try the following problem.
Announced 9/16/2006: Welcome to Math 120.
Your first task is to get the textbook at Professional Copy 'n' Print at 4200 Univesity Way NE (One block South of the bookstore).
Then you need to print off a homework schedule. This is a tentative schedule, any changes will be announced in lecture. See you all in class.

Math 120: Fall 2006

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OLD EXAMS

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