Math 102
2009-10 Fall
Clark Bray

Instructor

Clark Bray, 035 Physics Building, 660-2822, cbray@math.duke.edu
Office hours: Tuesday 10:30-11:30am, or by appointment

Teaching Assistants

Matt Bowen -- Office:  274E Physics;  Phone:  660-2855;  Email:  mmbowen@math.duke.edu
Office Hours:  Monday 1-3pm, or by appointment

Oliver Gjoneski -- Office:  021 Physics;  Phone:  660-2832;  Email:  gjoneski@math.duke.edu
Office Hours:  Monday 3:30-4:30pm, or by appointment

Textbook

Mathematics for Economists, Simon and Blume; Notes on Integrals for Math 102, Bray (available for download on Blackboard)

Who Should Take This Course

Math 102 was designed specifically for students majoring in economics.  It may also be a good choice for students in the social sciences.  However, engineering and science students in majors that require Math 103 should take Math 103, not Math 102.  For most majors other than economics, Math 102 will NOT satisfy the multivariable calculus requirement.  If you are double majoring in economics and a major that requires 103, you should take 103.

If you are not completely certain that Math 102 is the right course for you, please read this more detailed discussion.

Course Information

General Policies -- Students are required to have read all of the text at this link!

General Comments -- Students are required to have read all of the text at this link!

Exams, Homeworks, and Grading -- Students are required to have read all of the text at this link!

Syllabus -- This document shows all of the sections that will be covered in this course, in chronological order.  As we proceed through the semester, I will add homework exercises before or soon after we complete each lecture.

Lecture Schedule -- This schedule has the dates of all of the exams, and a rough schedule indicating which lecture (from the syllabus) will be given on each class day.  Students are urged to read the appropriate sections of the book BEFORE the lecture, so that they will have a general idea of what problems will be addressed and what approaches will be taken so that they can make better use of class time.  Note that very often, there will be material in the book that we will not have time to present in class, so it is also important to read the appropriate section of the book AFTER the lecture as well.

Note, the schedule of lectures is just an approximation; we may find ourselves ahead of or behind schedule, depending on some unknowns.  Your regular attendance in class will ensure that you will be aware of such changes.

Blackboard -- This will mostly be used for recording and reporting exam grades in this class.  Your exam and homework grades will be (securely) posted there so that you can know your grades as quickly as possible, and so that you can verify that they have been recorded correctly.  Make sure to log in after each assignment is returned to make sure that the grade was recorded correctly; if it was not, contact me as soon as possible so that the correction can be made. 

(Note -- ignore the "Total Score" reported on Blackboard in this course!  Blackboard is not set up to compute totals the way I prefer to do it, so its computations of totals are completely irrelevant in this course.)

You will find on Blackboard the document "Notes on Integrals for Math 102", which is one of the references for the course.  

You will also find there a document of scans of all of my personal lecture notes from the Spring 2007-08 course.  You may use these as a tool for helping you take notes if you prefer.  For example, you might bring these to class with you, and then add your own notes on the same page in a different color pen.  

But these personal notes come with the following comments and disclaimers:
- They might not include everything we will do in class this semester.
- They are very terse, and are more like an outline than a text reference.  They are NOT to be considered a substitute for class attendance.
- They might contain errors; if you find one, please let me know.

Lecture Recordings -- Feel free to watch these recordings if you missed lecture due to illness, or if you would just like to go over the material again for yourself.  Note, these recordings are NOT to be viewed as an alternative to class attendance.  Also, this link and the lectures contained there are intended for viewing only by students enrolled in the course this semester.  Please do NOT distribute either.

The lectures are available as streaming video and as downloadable video files.  (Note, the lectures before 2009-09-07 did not record correctly.)

Remember that these lectures start automatically, at a time that I do not control.  So with some of these recordings the first part of the lecture might be cut off, and with some others you might need to fast-forward to the start of the lecture.

Other Useful Links

Exams and Solutions -- Here you will find old exams and solutions that can be useful study materials (make sure to note the list of errors on solutions contained in the text document "ErrorsNoted").  You will also find here the solutions to this semester's exams (after those exams are administered, of course).

Additional Homework Problems -- Here you will find the problems that are labelled with "AHP" on the syllabus.

Math Information for First-Year Students -- This page has many useful links; make sure to familiarize yourself with it.
Values of Sine and Cosine at Standard Angles -- All students are strongly advised to know the values of the six trig functions at the standard angles (all multiples of pi/4 and pi/6); this short commentary and the linked diagram will help you both remember these values, and understand the fundamental relationship between trigonometry and the unit circle.

The Remainder Theorem and the Factor Theorem -- These are fundamental facts about polynomial algebra, and they are simply stated and easy to prove; but for some reason they are not covered in most high school curricula any more.  I strongly encourage students to look at this brief description and ensure an understanding of these theorems and their proofs.

Some comments about Single Variable Integrals -- This is a document that I wrote in the Fall of 2004 after teaching the Math 103 section about integrals of parametric functions.  When we get to the integrals portion of this course, the first part of this could be useful to you.

My other Course Websites -- Students can find here all of the websites for every course I have ever taught. 

Java Applets -- This is a site that was created by a colleague at Stanford; several of the tools there could be useful to you for visualizing multivariable functions.