Homework assignments, Contemporary Math

Section 1 (Janeba), Fall 2009

Links of general interest.  Class handouts.

• Sept. 2:
• Read sections 1.1-1.3
• Prepare study questions, particularly #1,2 (two methods and criteria so far), and 3-4 (for the methods studied so far), and finally 5-7
• Read the syllabus and prepare for an oral quiz pertaining to the syllabus on Friday (corrected)
  
• You may also start working on text homework problems:  Chapter 1 #1,2,4, 12,15, 17
• Sept. 4:
  
• Read section 1.4 (and 1.5 if reasonably possible). 
  
• Do Chapter 1 #19,20,21, 23,25 
  
• Re-read the study questions, particularly #1,2 (one new method and one new criterion per section) and 3-4 as above, and #8-10

• Sept. 9:
  
• Read chapter 1.6, through the "Conclusion: Elections, Fairness, and Arrow's Impossibility Theorem" section.
  
• Review the study questions one last time, will all the methods, all the criteria, and all the questions through #11.
• Do Chapter 1 #27,29,33,35,39,41, and ... 61,63,69
  
• Sept. 11: Read Chapter 2.1,2.2.  Do Chapter 2 #1-3,7-10

• Sept. 14: Do chapter 2 #11, review this handout about voting methods and fairness criteria
  
• Sept. 16: Quiz #1; Read 2.3,2.4 Do Chapter 2 #12,13,15,19,21,22
  
• Sept. 18: Read the rest of chapter 2 and do #25-28,30
  

• Sept. 21: Additional problems to consider for Wednesday's exam:  Chapter 2 #33,41a-c,43,48,52,53.  These are harder, and you shouldn't stress if you can't do them all, but it would be good if you could do some of them.  Some are computational, some require verbal explanation of the concepts.
  
• Sept. 23: Exam #1
  
• Sept. 25: Read 3.1-3.3
  

• Sept. 28: Read through 3.4, do chapter 3 #1,2,3,5,7,10,15,21,23,25
• Sept. 30: Read 3.4,3.5, do chapter 3 #33,36,37(assume "hates" means "assigns a value of zero"),41,75,77
  
• Oct. 2: read 3.6; do chapter 3 #43,46,49,51

• Oct. 5:
  
• Do Chapter 3 #53,55,56,59,78 (in this special case, the fair shares are all negative - think of them as a fair share of the duties.  However, the pool is still positive or zero).
• Work on the chapter 3 study questions.
  
• Oct. 7: Quiz #2; Read 4.1,4.2, do chapter 4 #1,3,4,6,11,13
  
• Oct. 9: Read 4.3-4.6, do chapter 4 #23-26
  

• Oct. 12:
  
• Read the rest of chapter 4.
  
• Do chapter 4 #35,45, (and compare with your answers in #25,3)
• ALSO do #56ab, and work on the study questions for chapter 4.
• If you want more practice, do #34,33, and compare to #24,4. 
  
• Oct. 14: Exam #2
• Oct. 16: Read Chapter 5 sections 1-5.  Do chapter 5 #1,3,5,7,9,11,17,21,23
  

• Oct. 19: Chapter 5 #24,25,26, 29,30,31,32,35,49,52(hint: don't confuse the number of vertices with their degree, use #49).
• Oct. 21: Read Chapter 5 sections 6-7.  Do chapter 5 #37-39,41,42,43,44
• Oct. 23: Mid-semester day (no classes)

• Oct. 26:  Read Chapter 6, sections 1-5, do chapter 6 #1,2,5,9, 13,14,16, 17,23,25, 29
• Oct. 28:  Read the rest of Chapter 6, do chapter 6 #31,32,34a,b,35,37,53(but in 53, you may find a merely approximately optimal tour),66
• Oct. 30:
  

• Nov. 2: Do chapter 6 #38,41,43,44,47.  Read chapter 8.1-8.3, do chapter 8 #17,18,22,23,29,31
• Nov. 4: Quiz 3
• Nov. 6: [Deadline to withdraw with a W] Read the rest of chapter 8; do #32,37,39, 45
  

• Nov. 9: Do chapter 8 #47-49 (#48a is a bit of a repeat; think about it before doing it, and use #47),69.
• Don't forget to review the study questions for chapters 5 & 6, and watch for study questions to chapter 8, to be posted on the handouts page.
  
• Nov. 11: Exam 3
• Nov. 13: Start reading chapter 9, do chapter 9 #1,3,5,7,9,11,13,15,21
  

• Nov. 16: do chapter 9 #19 (just calculator practice), #21 (read in the text - there's a cool shortcut), #23,25,26
  
• Nov. 18:
• Nov. 20:

• Nov. 23: Do the homework problems at the end of this cardinality handout. The writing assignment has also been posted.
  
• Nov. 25: If you missed class,
  
• read Welcome to the Hotel Infinity!
  
• (you can have a look at this diagram of the room assignments of all those tour-bus passengers to help understand the confusing bit at the end)
• Here are some notes illustrating how the story is at least partly an historical allegory.
  
• You may want to practice a bit with this worksheet (MS-Word format) Note if you didn't attend class, you can't turn in the worksheet for credit, but you'll still want to do it for practice.
• Here's some not-entirely-accurate humor.

• Nov. 30: Read Chapter 10, sections 1-3.  Do #1,2,5,6,7,9,10,13,15,19 ... AND ... 21,23,25
  
• Dec. 2: Quiz 4; Read chapter 10, sections 4-5, do #37,38,45,47,49,31,33,35,36
  
• Dec. 4:  Do chapter 10 #59,61,63,64,67,68,71 (Hint for #71 - guess $10/week, which is wrong.  See what fraction of the desired ending balance we actually got.  Scale up the payment proportionally and check).
  

• Dec. 7: Do chapter 10 #73,75,77,78,79
  
• Dec. 9: Optional Exam 4; only for students who signed up by Friday, 12/4.
  
• Dec. 11: (Last day of class)
  

• Friday, Dec. 18th from 8:00 - 11:00 a.m: Final Exam.

Also interesting:

Stuff about Pythagoras and music (did you know he invented the harmonic scale?) Really cool if you have a computer with sound capability.

Prof. Janeba's Home Page | Send comments or questions to: mjanebawillamette.edu