Day 1 in Mat229

Next time

Today:

Announcements
- Welcome! I'm glad that you're here.
- I'd like you to fill out a 4x6 card for me:
  1. Name (that you want me to call you)
  2. Hometown
  3. What is your calling? ("a calling has to do with one's larger purpose, personhood, deepest values, and the gift one wishes to give the world.... A calling is about the use one makes of a career." David Orr, Earth in Mind)
  4. What is your dream job?
  5. What is something special about you?
- I am hearing-impaired (wear hearing aids): teaching has become even trickier with masking (fortunately that's not quite the problem it was, but it may flair up again). But if I don't understand your question, please be patient with me; or if I misunderstand what you've said, just let me know that I'm off track!
FACE: there are certain goals that we must strive to achieve everyday:
- Focus
- Attitude
- Creativity
- Effort
All of these work together: when you improve one, the others will improve as well.
Some course details:
- I'm not using Canvas, so you'll have to make sure that you note (and bookmark) the course webpage:
  http://www.nku.edu/~longa/classes/mat229
  The daily agendas will be found on this website, and all links (e.g. resources) will radiate out from it.
- Syllabus: logistics, etc.
- Mathematica: We'll be using Mathematica in class (for lectures), and you should use it on your homework and exams, whenever possible and convenient and allowed. You can get a personal student copy as an NKU student by following the directions for "Student Download".
- Class Discussions: I encourage questions and discussion. Never fear to ask a question. If I'm moving too fast, ask me to slow down. If you don't understand, ask me to explain it in a different way. Maybe I'll ask another student to try to explain. Maybe you'll have a problem that someone else can solve; maybe you'll be able to solve someone else's problem!
- Agendas: For each day, MTRF, there will be one of these "daily agendas". It will have announcements, perhaps some calculus ( $\frac{d f}{d x}$ -- here's a gratuitous derivative for you!), and links to materials you'll need for that day.
  I tend to tinker with these agendas right up to the last moment before class. If you peek before class, you might be surprised to see that they've changed a bit, or even a lot!:) by class time.
- Calculus Materials: For each topic, or section, there is a
  1. reading: Generally a section from our on-line textbook, and sometimes a Mathematica notebook as well). These resources seek to "talk you through" the topic, with questions along the way which we hope you will attempt.
  2. lecture: I will summarize the material, and work some problems, perhaps using Mathematica, Desmos, etc.
  3. section homework: Associated with each Strang section is a homework assignment. While I will not grade these per se, I promise to include some of the homework problems (verbatim or nearly so) on the quizzes and exams.
- Labs: On Friday's we'll be in the computer lab, to carry out some computer work which will elaborate on material covered in prior days. We'll be using Mathematica (a very powerful piece of mathematics software).
  While these labs will not be graded per se, your lab exams (taken on the Fridays when we have an exam) will cover the same terrain.
- Schedule and Assignments: this will be continuously updated with assignments. You can also see our plan right now for exams.
- A Math/Stat Tutoring Lab, run by the Mathematics Department out of MEP457 and staffed by our upper level students, provides free tutoring to Calculus students in our department.
Let's begin with a little review of Calc I: some critical notions
- I begin by reminding you to do the reading in advance; and your first assignment is to read up on "the function zoo". There are certain classes of functions that are especially important, and which you should have already encountered in your mathematical career. The section also illustrates some important techniques for making new functions from familiar functions (e.g. translations, reflections, etc.), in case you need reminding.
  The reading from Strang, along with some exercises, will form the basis of your first quiz this Thursday.
  The text also includes a precalculus review (just saying...:).
- Permit me to begin with a few examples which illustrate our interest and our objectives in calculus. Calculus is about change (often represented by the symbol $Δ$ ). These examples illustrate various quantities changing over time:
  - Duke Energy Usage
  - Your Professor's Hearing Loss
  - How Noah Lyles Won the Men's 100-Meter Gold by a Fraction
  - Keeling's Data: ppm of CO₂ in the atmosphere and Global Temperatures.
  - Eunice Foote's climate change experiments, in 1856, leading to these log models for temperature increase (from this article).
  In each case, you see that we have data, provided by some person, group, or governmental agency, and that data is then modelled by a (generally) continuous function.
  These types of situations form the backbone of a lot of our applications of calculus.
- Now for the review: I'd like you to create a "one-pager review" of calculus (or so). If you need paper, let me know!
  We're going to be drawing, which is why a straight-edge is necessary. Work hard to make your figures nice, and I'll try to do the same! (Ultimately software helps with that, of course, but for exams you may be on your own....)
  - $\frac{Δ y}{Δ x}$
  - $lim_{Δ x \to 0} \frac{Δ y}{Δ x}$
  - $lim_{h \to 0} \frac{y (x + h) - y (x)}{h}$
  - $\int_{a}^{x} y^{'} (t) d t$

Website maintained by Andy Long. Comments appreciated.
Updated on 01/13/2025 17:52:35