MAT 115: Mathematics for Liberal Arts

• Final exam: May 8th, 10:10-12:10am
• Syllabus
• Assignments
• Classroom Agreement

• Materials for individual days/chapters/ideas:

  Week 1: Counting Day 01: Welcome! Day 02: Numbers and counting Day 03: Numbers and counting Week 2: Primes and other numbers Day 04: Rock Groups Day 05: Primes Quiz 1 Week 3: Math in other cultures Day 06: Babylonian Math Day 07: Mayan Math Day 08: Writing numbers using trees Quiz 2 Week 4: Bases Day 09: Bases and Fraudini Day 10: Binary (base 2) Day 11: Egyptian Multiplication Quiz 3 Week 5: Egyptian Math Day 12: Egyptian Division Day 13: Egyptian Division Day 14: Review for exam/Egyptian Division

  Week 6: The Greeks Exam 1 Pythagoras Pythagorean Theorem Quiz 4 Week 7: More Greeks, and Indians Irrational numbers Indian Mathematics Win with Nim Quiz 5 Week 8: More fibs, and graphs Strategy of Nim Review Fibonacci Spirals Quiz 6 Week 9: Graphs Bridges of Konigsberg More Graphs Exam 2

  Week 10: Graphs and Algebra More Graphs Algebra Algebra Quiz 7 Week 11: Algebra and Geometry Finish Algebra Mobius Music Probability Quiz 8 Week 12: Probability more Probability Conditional Probability The end of Probability Quiz 9 Week 13: Statistics Statistics Statistics Exam 3 Week 14: Statistics, Fractals More Statistics Fractals More Fractals Quiz 10 Week 15: To Infinity, and beyond! Infinity More Infinity (can it be?) Logo Day

• Lessons for life:
  1. Keep an open mind.
  2. Just do it. Jump in. Make mistakes and fail, but never give up.
  3. Often when we've done it once, we do it again. Follow up one good deed with another!
  4. Understand simple things deeply.
  5. Break a difficult problem into easier ones.
  6. Look for patterns and similarities.
  7. Explore the consequences of new ideas. Generalize.
  8. Examine issues from several points of view.
     Don't be a turkey -- be a dog! (this one may require a little explanation....)
• Links:
  • Nice website with examples of Cantor, Koch, and other fractals
  • Anna Ting just died.... Inhabiting Geometry
  • Fantastic math videos from Vi Hart
  • Fractal generation
  • Fractal quilts (and the fractal sums that took me to them!).
  • Mobius molecules
  • Norsemathology wiki
  • Platonic Solids (and the Platonic solids in 2-D (paper template))
  • Tom Lehrer sings math music (here are the lyrics - local copy).
  • An on-line game, another form of Nim. There are four rows, of 6/5/4/3 pearls. One chooses any number of pearls from a single row, and the last one to take a pearl is the loser.
  • A previous visitor, Ivars Peterson, produced a piece in Science News about how Sunflowers twist in Fibonacci spirals! Check it out....
  • Imhotep: Doctor, Architect, High Priest, Scribe and Vizier to King Djoser of Egypt
  • Leonardo da Vinci's Polyhedra
  • Paper Folding - Models of the Platonic Solids
  • Graph paper (double-sided)

Notes:

• Feel free to email me with your questions.
• The Departmental Syllabus for all Mathematics courses is a part of the syllabus for this course, and is available upon demand.
• Taking tests in my classes
• Suggestions for the NKU Math/CS student
• Free tutoring for any NKU student is available from the the learning assistance center, BEP 230: call 5475 before problems arise!
• Women in Transition (WIT) supports non-traditional female students, juggling school, work, and family. Call the Women's Center at 572-6497 for more information.