MA121 — Single Variable Calculus
This page contains various course materials for MA121 and links to
web sites that might be of interest. Most materials are in pdf format;
viewing them requires Adobe Reader, which you can download for free
at Adobe's web site, but which is probably already on your computer.
| Problem Sets |
Syllabus, Tests, etc. |
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Interesting Stuff
- To send me anonymous feedback,
go here.
- Minimal Mathematica as a pdf
file.
- Minimal Mathematica as a
Mathematica workbook. (Clicking on this won't work, but you can
download it to your computer and open it with Mathematica.)
- Do Dogs Know Calculus? (from The College
Mathematics Journal, Vol. 34, No. 3, (May 2003), pp. 178-182.
- A update on Elvis's adventures. from
FOCUS, September 2003.
Technology
You do want to learn to do the basic operations by hand. In a pinch
(or for that matter, in an exam), you need to be able to do a quick
computation and get the answer right. That said, however, once you do
know how to do it you'll find that doing things by hand is tedious and
prone to errors in arithmetic. That's why God created software. I list
below several software options.
1. You may already own a fancy calculator. If so, it's worth your
while to check the manual to find out whether it does what you need.
There's no need to reinvent the wheel, after all.
Most calculators can do some sort of numerical calculus, and fancier ones
(e.g., the TI-89) can do quite a bit more. Read the friendly manual!
2. Many computers on campus have Mathematica installed. This
is a very powerful mathematics program. It takes a while to learn. On the
other hand, it can do pretty much all the kinds of computations we are
likely to run into. Don't be afraid to play with it.
Interesting Links
I'll be adding more of these as the course progresses.
Fernando Q. Gouvêa ---- fqgouvea@colby.edu
Last modified: Wed Apr 02 09:40:56 Eastern Daylight Time 2008