Math 202: Calculus III

Fall 2002, UAF

Instructor: Ed Bueler
Office: Chapman 301C. 
Office hours are online and on the back of many assignments.
Phone: 474-7693, eMail: ffelb@uaf.edu
Class Time:  MWThF 8:00 -- 9:00 am,  Gruening 208
Text: Thomas' Calculus
Web Site: http://www.math.uaf.edu/~bueler/

The Course:   We will cover vectors, vector fields, and the calculus (partial derivatives and integrals) of functions of several variables.  In particular, this means most of chapter 9 (vectors in 2D), almost all of chapter 10 (vectors in 3D), all of chapter 11 (partial derivatives), all of chapter 12 (multiple integrals including polar, cylindrical and spherical coordinates) and hopefully a bit of chapter 13 (integration in vector fields).
    You are expected to ask questions in class about recent lecture or homework assignments.  Answering these is a great use of the class' time--you are likely not the only one with that question!

The Grade:  Three fourths (75%) of your grade will be determined by  four hours of exams:

Exam # 1 
Exam # 2
Final Exam		 Thursday, Oct. 10 (one hour in class)
Thursday, Nov. 14 (one hour in class)
Thursday, Dec. 19  10:15am-12:15 (two hours)
The final exam will have two parts, one hour of which will cover new material, and one of which will cover the entire course.  You will drop one of these four hour-long equally weighted exams.
    One fourth (25%) of the grade will be determined by approximately 11 quizzes.   These will be 20 minute or 30 minute in-class quizzes every Thursday.  On Wednesdays you will, in groups, take practice quizzes and talk about/present the solutions.
    There will be weekly homework assignments, which will not be collected.  They will contain many odd problems, for which the answers appear in the back of the book, and a few even problems.  When I assign an even problem it is a strong hint to ask about that kind of example in class.
    The course grade will be determined by points on the exams and homework, according to the following schedule:

Percent
90 - 100 % 
79 - 89 % 
68 - 78 % 
57 - 67 % 
0 - 56 % 		 Grade
A
B
C
D
F

Prerequisites and related Courses:    Math 201 is the prerequisite.  The main topic from 201 that will get used is "techniques of integration".  Essentially all of Math 200 (limits, derivatives and applications, integrals) will get frequent use.  The power series material from 201 is not used, though it gets some use in Math 302 Differential Equations.
    Note that you can take Math 314 Linear Algebra at the same time as 202 since the prerequisite is 201.  I strongly recommend learning linear algebra as soon as possible for any student intending to stay in mathematics, physics, computer science or engineering.  Between them, 202 and 314 represent much of the mathematics actually used by professionals in these fields.

Policies and makeup exams:   The department has reasonable policies on incompletes, late withdrawals, early final examinations, etc.  See http://www.dms.uaf.edu/dms/Policies.html .  Note that you are covered by the UAF Honor Code (p. 22 of the catalog and at http://www.uaf.edu/catalog/current/undergrad/regs3.html#Student_Code_of_Conduct .
    I will create makeup versions of Exam #1 and #2 if needed, but you must let me know at least two class days before the exam.  The makeup must occur no later than two class days after the exam date.

Resources:  Don't complete the semester without taking advantage of some of the following resources.  They likely will make your class work easier, and certainly more interesting and fun.
Mathlab:  This is a study room and tutoring center in Chapman 305.  Find the hours posted there.  It is staffed by other students who can be quite helpful.  As doing math homework can be lonely at times, I suggest going occasionally even if you don’t need help.
Chapman Computer lab:  The math department has a roomful of computers in Chapman 103.  Find the hours posted there.  The computers have Mathematica and Matlab preinstalled.

On Calculators and Computers:   Please use them on homework!  They will never be required, but I strongly recommend that you build facility with a mathematical computer languages (for instance Mathematica or Matlab).  I suspect that using technology will not save you time, but will help you learn!  These tools will help you visualize some of the hard to imagine mathematical objects of Calc III.
    No calculating tools other than your head are allowed on quizzes and exams.  No sliderules either.   It follows that if you somehow use a computer program to do a homework computation you don’t understand, for instance, then that lack of understanding is likely to hurt you on the next exam.