Homework assignments, Preparation for Calculus (Math 135)

Prof. Janeba, Fall 2015

 Week #1:

• Aug. 26: 
• Read syllabus (quiz next period)
• Read this book summary by Carol Dweck (four pages, read the part in the big red box, click on the pointing finger to get to the next page).  Reflect on your own "mindset" - do you tend to see your mathematical abilities as fixed or changeable?  Why does it matter?
  
• Study chapter 1.1, taking notes (in case there's a reading quiz on Friday)
  
• Do WeBWorK orientation assignment (Due Thursday evening)
• Also start the WebWork set on Functions (same link as above); you'll have a chance to ask questions on Friday, before finishing the set on Sunday evening.
  
• Aug. 28:
• Read chapter 1.2 and 1.3 in our text, taking notes
• Start WebWork assignment "Set2_Rates_of_Change", due Tuesday evening.  NOTE that three of the problems in this set allow a limited number of attempts.

Week #2:

• Aug. 31:
• Start WebWork assignment "Set3_Linear_Functions_and_more," due Thursday evening.
• From the textbook, do chapter 1.1 problems #4-7, 15, 21,25,29 and chapter 1.2 problems #11,13,19,24,26
• Read chapter 1.4
• Sept. 2:
  
• Do chapter 1.3 #21 (this one added just today, as mentioned in class)
  
• Do chapter 1.4 "Skill refresher" problems S1,S3,S5,S7
• Do chapter 1.4 "Exercises" #1,3,7,11,15, 17,18,19, 25,29,37 (see note atop page for #37) and #39
• There is another WebWork - set 4, Linear Function Formulas, due Monday night.  Notice you only get 4 tries on the first problem.
  
• Sept. 4:
• Read chapter 1.5
• What follows is lots of relatively straightforward practice and concept review (the next two lines)
  
• Do chapter 1.5 #1,3,7,9,11,15
• Read "Skills Refresher" (p. 61-65) and do p. 64-65 #7,9,11,13,15,17,23,25
  

Week #3:

• Sept. 7: Labor Day (class does not meet)
  
• Sept. 9:   Quiz 1; 
• Read "Quick Notes on Units" (on the WISE site)
• Following the reading above, AND USING its method of "multiplying by 1," try a few conversion problems:
• Convert 35,000 feet to miles (hint: 1 mile = 5280 feet)
• Convert 60 miles per hour into feet per second
• Convert $3 per gallon into Euros per liter (Hint: 1 liter = .264 gallons, and currently, 1 Euro = 1.13 dollars)
• Start preparing your "Page of Notes" for use on Next Wednesday's Group Exam
  
• Sept. 11:
• Read chapter 2.1 & 2.2 (they are very short) and do 2.1 #13,15,18,21 and 2.2 #21,22
  
• A new WebWork assignment, set 4.5 is up, due Monday evening.
  
• It will be helpful to know:
• 1 Acre = 43560 square feet
• 1 teaspoon = 4.93 cubic centimeters
  
• Do problems 1,2,3,6,7,9 on the Miscellaneous conversions handout.  Note these are a little more involved;
  e.g. on problem 1, you convert 0.25 million miles into "dollar-bill-thicknesses" using the given fact that 1 dollar-bill-thickness = 0.1 mm.
  on problem 2, you convert 5 "Mbps" (Mbps is defined in the problem) to "Kitty Photos per day" using the given fact that 1 kitty photo = 0.75 Megabytes
  
• Additional helpful facts that you need to remember: 
  
• "mm" stands for "millimeter"; there are 1000 millimeters in 1 meter.  In general, "milli" stands for "one thousandth."
• "Mega," in general, stands for "one million", e.g. "Megabyte" means one million bytes.
  
• Additional helpful facts taht you don't need to remember, but will need for this assignment:
• 1 gallon = 3.79 liters
• 1 liter = 1000 cubic centimeters, i.e. 1 liter is the volume of a 1000 cubes that each measure 1 cm on each side.
  

Week #4:

• Sept. 14:
  
• Here's a fun conversion problem, along the lines of the Ben Franklin webwork:
  Consider the Gold Man atop the capital building across State Street (the official name is "Oregon Pioneer Statue")  He's really a hollow cast bronze statue, covered in gold leaf -- which is gold hammered really, really thin.
  (Take a moment sometime to look and make sure you know which statue I'm talking about.  It's really tall.)
  
• Newspaper articles report that only 11.83 ounces of gold was used to "gild" the statue.  11.83 ounces (probably "Troy" ounces) of gold should come to 19.1 cm^3 in volume (trust me on this one).
• Another newspaper article reports that the gold on the gold man is "about five-millionths of an inch thick."
• Question: What is the surface area of the Oregon Pioneer Statue?
• Do chapter 2.2 #5,7,11 (algebraic problems, and 25, 27, 35, (in that order), 29a and:
• Continuing problem 29, the walking calories data is not perfectly linear, but pretty close.  Give a linear model for walking calories as a function of weight (C = f(w) ).  Hint:  Use any two points in the table that are fairly far apart, that will give pretty good fit.
• Continuing still:  Test your model at any of the points (100 lb, 120 lb, etc) that you didn't already use to find your model.  Your answer probably won't agree perfectly with the table, but how close is it?
• Use your model to do 29(c)(iii) and 29(c)(iv).
• Finish up your "Page of Notes" for Wednesday's Group Exam.
  
• Sept. 16: Group Exam #1; There is another webwork, mostly review of lines, due Sunday.  Catch up on your textbook homework, and do 4,9,10 on the Miscellaneous conversions handout. 
• You will need to look up some conversion factors; Google is your friend; just type into Google, for example, "Convert 1 cubic foot to gallons."
  
• Sept. 18:  There is one more (very short) WebWork; (2 problems, due Monday) on complex conversions.  They are not as complex as the "Miles per cookie" we did in class, but they aren't simple either.
• NOTE:  You will need to remember / look up:
• either the number of square feet in an acre, or the number of acres is a square mile,
• That 1 Watt ("1W") is one Joule per second, and
• That 1 "MJ" is a megaJoule, or a million Joules.
• Catch up on the textbook homework, particularly 5.2
  

Week #5:

• Sept. 21:
  
• Sept. 23: Exam 1; Read this (Fermi Problems) article.  It's entertaining, and it also shows you how to do the problems.  (Don't mind the odd formatting of numbered paragraphs)
  
• Sept. 25:
  
• Parking meter problems:  Make Fermi estimates of:
  
1. The number of parking meters along Willamette's side of State Street (just the main campus, Winter St. to 12th)  Note:  The main campus circumference is about 1 mile.
   
2. The amount of money collected in one week in those meters.  Note: Parking is $1.50/hour, 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., five days a week. (At other times, parking is free.)\
3. The weight of the coins collected in one week.  You may assume they are all quarters (or if you wish, a mix of quarters and dimes).  Dimes are about 2.27 grams, Quarters are about 5.67 grams.
   

Week #6:

• Sept. 28:  More Fermi problems:
• The number of human deaths, worldwide, in a normal day (not disaster days, e.g.)  (World population 7.3 billion)
  
• The number of cars (currently) in the US  (US pop. ~320 million)
  
• The number of bicycles in the US
• The number of miles driven by motor vehicles in Portland, OR metropolitan area
        (OK, metro population is reported as ~2.3 million, but that counts, for example, the towns of Yamhill and Amity - tiny farm towns miles from Portland.  Go ahead and run with that, or the population of Portland itself, which is about 609 thousand - your choice.)
• Read p. 120-123, and do p. 123-125 #3,5,7,9,11,15,   25,29,31,  33, (then 35), 39, 43, and 61, 62, 75.  How many can you get right before checking in the answer key?  Remember, you can tell if your answer is correct without looking in the key, yes?
  
• Sept. 30:
  
• Another WebWork, due Sunday evening, should show up in the next little bit;
• Read p. 125-128;  do p. 124 #69,71,73,81 and p. 1,5,7,9,11,23
• Read chapter 3.1,3.2
• Think about project group partners; send me preferences
  
• Oct. 2:
  
• Project 1 assigned; work with your group; start by reading the project assignment and grading rubric
• WebWork due Sunday evening
  

Week #7:

• Oct. 5:
  
• Work on your project,
  
• outline study materials for Wed quiz;
  
• There's another WebWork
  
• Oct. 7:  Quiz 2;
  
• read p. 175-177 (exponent refresher) and section 4.1 of our text
• WebWork due Sunday
• Oct 8: Project prelim due 4 p.m.
  
• Oct. 9: 
  
• Read chapter 4.2 of our text
• Practice with 4.1 #19,21,23,25 -and- 35,37,45
• Remember that WebWork
• Work on polishing up your final project report
  

Week #8:

• Oct. 12:
  
• Polish up your project report
• Write up your page of notes for Wednesday's group exam
• Another WebWork is now online, should work on that
• Read 4.2 (again?)
  
• Oct. 14:  Group Exam #2
• Project
• project,
• project, and
• project.  And I'll post a WebWork for over the weekend, but probably not until tomorrow.
  
• Oct. 15: Project final report due 4 p.m.
  
• Oct. 16:  Mid-semester day; class does not meet

Week #9:

• Oct. 19:
  
• Oct. 21:  Exam 2
• Oct. 23:   Read chapter 4.4, 4.5, 5.1
  
• There is a new webwork due Tuesday evening.
  

Week #10:

• Oct. 26:
  
• Read chapter 5.2
• Webwork set 17 now available, due Thursday (set 16 due tomorrow)
  
• Oct. 28:
  
• Oct. 30:
  
• Webwork set 18, due Monday evening, mostly about halflives and doubling times.
• Read chapter 6.1
• Have group preferences for the next project?  Email them to me, please.
• The next project assignment is now posted; you can read it here.
  

Week #11:

• Nov. 2:
  
• Nov. 4: Quiz 3; Read chapter 6.2,6.3; there is another WebWork (on function transformations)
• Nov. 6:  Project 2 preliminary report due, 4 p.m.
• Read chapter 6.4, 2.4 (yes, way back in chapter 2)
• Do 2.4 (in the textbook) #5,7,9,11,13,22-24,27
• There is another WebWork, so
• Set 19 is due Sunday night
• Set 20 is due Monday night
  

Week #12:

• Nov. 9:
  
• Nov. 11: Group Exam #3
• Nov. 12: Project 2 final report due, 4 p.m.
  
• Nov. 13: Read chapter 6.5, 7.1
• Do 6.5 #S5, 5,7,13,15,21
• I have added two webwork sets; one wrapping up transformations,
  
• ...and an easy set related to chapter 7.1
  

Week #13:

• Nov. 16: 
  
• Nov. 18: Exam 3
• Nov. 20:
  

Week #14:

• Nov. 23: (There's another webwork, due Tuesday night)
  
• Nov. 25: Worksheet 1; if not turned in during class, then due Monday in class.
  
• Nov. 27:  Thanksgiving Break; class does not meet

Week #15:

• Nov. 30:
  
• Dec. 2:
  
• Dec. 4: 
  

Week #16:

• Monday, Dec. 7, 2015 8-11 a.m..   Final Exam
  

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Last modified Nov. 13, 2015.
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