Math 351 (spring 2010): Quizzes 7-11

Math 351 (spring 2010): Exam 1 solution key

Math 351 (spring 2010): Quizzes 3 to 6

Math 351 (Spring 2010): Quizzes 1 & 2

Math 120 (fall 2009): Quiz solution keys

Math 120 (fall 2009): Chapter 7 quiz solution keys

Math 32 (Spring 2009): Exam 1 solution key

Math 32 (Spring 2009): Exam 2 solution key

Math 32 (spring 2009): Exam 3 solution key

Math 32 (Spring 2009): Exam 4 solution key

Read my book for free

The manuscript of A Stroll through Calculus: A guide for the merely curious is available in four pdfs that I have posted in the Box.net window in the margin. If you choose to read Stroll as part of your essay assignment, you can download the files at your convenience. I ask only that you not repost the files anywhere else.

The Box.net window also contains the course syllabi for Math 32 and Math 402, the two classes I'm teaching this semester. If you lose the copy you received in class, you can always download a copy from here.

Good luck this semester!

Teach to learn

If you're a calculus student and it fits into your schedule, consider being a student tutor this semester. The math department always has need for students to work as peer tutors in the Math Learning Center and the Learning Resource Center. Calculus students are especially encouraged to work as student tutors because they are familiar with more of the math curriculum than other students.

There's no better way to sharpen your math skills than to explain to other students how to solve problems. I heartily recommend it!

Math 402 (Summer 2008): Course grades

The final exam has been graded and I've double-checked the scores. Congratulations on an impressive class average of 82.9% (which was sweetened only slightly by my making it possible to score up to 105% on the final exam, which one student actually did). The course grades are shown below. The format is the same as what I've been using for the grade distributions that were posted in the back of our classroom. The only difference is the addition of a column for the final exam score and editing the grade formula to take the final into account. Your composite course score is based 15% on the homework/quiz score, 70% on the chapter tests (omitting your lowest score), and 15% on the final exam.

Thank you for a very interesting summer session. I wish everyone continued success as your education progresses and I want you to know that you are welcome to call upon me if you need letters of recommendation in the future. You know where to find me, I'm sure.

The solution key for the final exam has also been posted. I hope it clears up any remaining questions you might have.

[Click on the grade chart if it's too small for you to read.]

Math 402 (Summer 2008): Bonus problem

I'll add ten points to your quiz score if you write out a neat solution to the following and hand it in on Thursday:

Parameterize the sphere ρ = a in terms of φ and θ. Use the parameterization to find dS for the sphere. (Don't forget to include dφ and θ in your final answer.)

A good way to check your result is to see whether the integration of 1 over the entire sphere produces the correct value for its surface area. Or use it to see if you get the right answer (10π) for Quiz 32.

An invitation to stroll through calculus

Summer session has begun and I have posted a pdf of the first part of the book manuscript for A Stroll through Calculus. (To download it, just click on the filename in the Box.net widget in the left sidebar.) It's a casual introduction to the ideas behind calculus and is written at a deliberately nontechnical level. I wrote it to help people get some notion why calculus is so powerful and what its fundamental concepts are. The book begins with a discussion of measuring area and how one can generalize this notion to cover a broad range of useful computations.

Anyone who wants to take a look at it is welcome to download the 1.3 megabyte file and peruse it at leisure. I would, however, greatly appreciate hearing what people think of it. Use the button in the left sidebar to e-mail me with feedback.

Thanks!

The 50-minute class period is dead

Welcome to Fall 2007 semester, our first term under the compressed calendar system. When the faculty voted in favor of trimming a week and half from the 18-week semester, it became necessary to lengthen class periods to make up for the lost time. Under the old system, a 5-unit class usually met daily for 18 weeks. That's a total of 5 × 18 = 90 class hours. A normal class "hour" is 50 minutes, so we end up with 90 × 50 = 4500 minutes. We have to fit those minutes into 16.5 weeks.

One more complication: Most classes under the compressed calendar are offered on only two- or four-day schedules. Daily classes are now few. Class periods must be longer to make up for both fewer weeks and fewer days. My Math 100 class this semester meets four days a week, Monday through Thursday, from 7:00 till 8:05, a 65-minutes period. The total number of minutes for the compressed semester is 16.5 × 4 × 65 = 4290. That turns out to be just over 95% of the usual 4500 minutes, which is enough to comply with state education requirements. We will recover some additional time because fewer class meetings should mean less time lost to settling down at the beginning or packing up at the end.

The compressed calendar is full of challenges, making it more difficult to create schedules that fit together neatly. Take careful note of the beginning and ending times of your classes, because these vary significantly from what they used to be.

Good luck with your classes in this semester of experimentation.

Summer session 2007: Welcome to Math 402

In some ways, Calculus III is a re-run of Calculus I (derivatives) and Calculus II (integrals). We are going to differentiate and integrate functions again, but this time in higher dimensions. Instead of limiting ourselves to functions of one variable, as we did in the past, we are going to deal with functions that have two or three (or more) variables. Calculus III will therefore involve familiar operation, but in unfamiliar contexts. Your basic differentiation and antidifferentiation skills will be employed in new and more realistic situations. In particular, physics students will recognize that many of our Calculus III theorems relate directly to discoveries in electromagnetism and the properties of gravitation.

You have access to several sources of assistance. One is ARC's own Learning Resource Center, where tutors help students with their problems. Unfortunately, we have relatively few tutors who are able to provide much help with Calculus III, so it may be difficult to get the assistance you need. You can click the sidebar entry for our Larson/Hostetler/Edwards calculus text to access the student aids provided by the publisher, which include www.CalcChat.com and on-line practice exams for each chapter. You should also try out http://Hotmath.com, for which I have an access code that I'll be sharing with the class.

If you lose your syllabus, you can download a pdf copy from this website. Click on the appropriate sidebar link.

As part of your Quiz 0 assignment, you have read this blog entry and now you need to send your instructor an e-mail message. Either click on the sidebar where is says “about Math 402” or write me directly, but don't forget to include Math 402 in the subject line. (That's something you should do for all messages you send me about the class this summer.)

Good luck!

Spring 2007 final exam schedule

I have worked out my schedule during this semester's finals. If you can't see the image clearly enough, just click on it. I may be around at times other than the listed office hours, so don't hesitate to stop by my office in Howard Hall if you're on campus. If you need to talk to me when I'm not at school, you can always e-mail me at barcela@arc.losrios.edu.

A Hallmark moment

Math 342: Problem 7.3.17

It's always entertaining when your teacher gets stuck on a homework problem during a review session for an exam. The problem in question, Exercise 17 from Sec. 7.3, concerns a greeting card company that stashes its cards in two warehouses and wants to ship them as economically as possible to its outlets in San Jose and Memphis. Since I think you're owed a proper explanation of how to solve the problem, let me pick apart the many components of this exercise and try to give you a good and reasonably straightforward solution.

First of all, we're given a broad (and perhaps confusing) hint about what to use as variables. Let's assign them this way: x will be the number of boxes of cards shipped from Warehouse I to San Jose and y will be the number of cards shipped from Warehouse I to Memphis. Since San Jose really wants 350 boxes, it will still need 350 − x boxes (if any) after receiving the shipment of x boxes from Warehouse I. Therefore the balance, 350 − x, must come from Warehouse II. Similarly, since Memphis wants 250 boxes, it will receive y from Warehouse I and 250 − y from Warehouse II.

The object of this exercise is to minimize the total shipping costs in filling the orders from the two stores. We're given this cost grid:


We conclude therefore, that the total cost of shipping the cards from the two warehouses to the two stores will be

z = 25x + 23(x − 350) + 22y + 21(250 − y).

I'm expressing the cost in pennies so as to dispense with the decimal points for now. As we saw in class, when you multiply this out and collect like terms, the object function reduces to

z = 2x + y + 13,300.

Now we need to find a feasible region in the xy plane at whose vertices we can check the object function. Let's list what we know:

Warehouse I has only 500 boxes of cards in stock, so

x + y ≤ 500.

Warehouse II has only 290 boxes of cards in stock, so

(350 − x) + (250 − y) ≤ 290.

When we remove the parentheses and collect like terms, this becomes

600 − x − y ≤ 290,

so

−x − y ≤ −310,

and (dividing by −1 and reversing the inequality)

x + y ≥ 310.

When we graph these two inequalities together, we get two parallel lines and the region between them:


We already know that x and y are both nonnegative, so we care only about points in quadrant I. We must also have 350 − x ≥ 0 and 250 − y ≥ 0 since these are the number of boxes being shipped from Warehouse II. The first condition implies that x ≤ 350 and the second requires that y ≤ 250. When we include these conditions on the graph, we get our feasible region for this problem:


We can now start reading off our vertices. The points (310, 0) and (350, 0) lie on the x axis. The points (350, 150) and (250, 250) are also easy to read from the graph. The remaining vertex lies on the intersection of the line y = 250 with the line x + y = 310. If we plug in 250 for y, we find that x must be 60. Our last point is therefore (60, 250). We can fill in our points and compute the values of the object function at each one:


As you can see, the object function is minimized when x = 60 and y = 250. That means San Jose gets 60 boxes from Warehouse I and 350 − x = 350 − 60 = 290 boxes from Warehouse II, while Memphis gets all of its order from Warehouse I (nothing from Warehouse II). Since we've been expressing the cost in pennies, we should convert it to dollars as we conclude that the minimum shipping cost is $136.70.

Note: This problem could have been done as a four-variable linear programming problem, using the techniques that appear later in this chapter. However, with a creative choice of variables it was possible to solve it with only two variables. That permitted us to do it with a graph in the xy plane. Unfortunately, we won't be going on to those sections of the book that allow us to do more complicated linear programming problems.

Sharon Olson-Hansen

We say goodbye to a dear colleague

It may seem greedy to complain that we had only a year to bid farewell to Sharon, but I'm going to complain anyway. We have been robbed of a dear friend, a cherished colleague, and a great teacher. We are weakened in every way by her loss. The entire mathematics department—the whole college—is in mourning. I can scarcely even begin to imagine the magnitude of the grief among her family members.

Sharon came to us in the fall of 1988 with a full-time faculty appointment for one semester. I knew what she was going through, because I had joined the ARC faculty one year earlier under the same circumstances. When I accepted my appointment, with no guarantee of a subsequent assignment, I had to give up the security of my civil service position in the State Treasurer's Office in a gamble that it would all work out. Sharon made a similar decision about her position as a senior faculty member at Del Campo High School: her seniority and her priority for the best teaching assignments were surrendered when she took the temporary ARC job.

When Sharon arrived, I had just won my wager and was beginning a new tenure-track appointment. She was not quite as lucky. There was no assignment available for her when her fall semester appointment expired. Sharon was reduced to a part-time teaching position during the spring, but she hung in there, hoping that a new opportunity would present itself for fall. Fortunately, new positions were approved for fall semester for the math department and we snatched her up for a full-time appointment. It has always been a particular point of pride with me that I was on the hiring committee that sent Sharon's name to the college president as a finalist for a permanent faculty position. It was one of the best decisions we ever made.

During her years of full-time service on the ARC math faculty, 1989-2005, Sharon demonstrated how important one determined and dedicated person can be even in a large organization. She was a tireless worker on behalf of her colleagues and her students. She served as department chair, a position with plenty of responsibilities and minimal benefits, requiring both an attentive ear and diplomatic skills. Her success in the position was so great that people were always trying to talk her into a second term, but she wisely resisted. Besides, she was busy with her work on the college's facilities, making sure that our planning process was fully informed of the practical needs of instructors and students, the people who actually occupied and used those facilities. Sharon chaired the committee that drafted the facilities chapter of the college's accreditation self-study, making a significant contribution to the excellent evaluation ARC later received from the visiting accreditation team.

Sharon was an early supporter of our highly speculative plan to put Howard Hall in our educational master plan, back in those days when no such building was even on the drawing board. When the college administration revealed an initiative to construct a new faculty office building on campus, we were first in line with our documented need for a new facility. (And, yes, we did succeed in getting it named “Howard Hall,” after our late dean and vice president of instruction.) We're going to miss having Sharon's help in facilities planning as the renovation of the campus center looms on the horizon, but we'll do our best to remember her lessons and dedication. It will be so much more difficult without her.

Some of Sharon's students planned to try to get Sharon the Instructor of the Year award during the 2005-06 school year. They were going against the odds, of course, nominating an instructor who was gone from the campus and fated never to return, but it was a noble and kind gesture by students who were devoted to their teacher. In truth, it should have been only a matter of time before Sharon was properly recognized as one of the college's most skilled and thoughtful instructors. The loss to our students is as great as the loss to colleagues and campus. One of our small comforts is the thought that Sharon's students are part of her legacy, and their experiences with her will last throughout their lives.

The spring of 2005 was difficult for Sharon. She never felt entirely well and the cause was eventually traced by her doctors to a gall bladder problem. Or so they thought. She had the gall bladder removed at the end of the school year and returned to the classroom for the 2005 summer session, but her problems continued. The doctors began to suspect liver problems. She turned her summer session class over to a substitute and continued her search for a definitive diagnosis and treatment. On June 29, I ran into Sharon and her son Ryan at a local Davis restaurant and she invited me to join them for lunch. She was in a festive mood, telling me they had just received good news on her prognosis: the liver problem was manageable and she was greatly relieved. Later she told me that false hope had given her and her family their happiest day after weeks of worry.

Immediately thereafter she learned the doctors had been wrong in their optimistic assessment. Sharon composed a message to her math department colleagues, sharing the bad news. We were all aghast to learn she had inoperable pancreatic cancer, but she was determined to fight it long enough to see her sons graduate from school: Colin from San Diego State in December and Ryan from Da Vinci High School in June. Despite the long odds, she succeeded, as those who knew her always believed she would.

Let me leave the last word to Sharon herself, from her message to her colleagues back in July 2005:

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I want you all to know, that I have always been so proud to be a part of this department. This is not some PR statement. I am always bragging about what a great job I have and what fascinating people I work with from faculty, to clerical and management staff, and all the other support staff—tutors, IA's, computer techs, ... Teaching gave me a sense of satisfaction that I am desperately going to miss. I loved those “Ohhhhh!” moments from students, and I told them that those were what I went into teaching for. I will miss the camaraderie in the halls, the razzing at department meetings, Brother Oliver's on Fridays, department parties, walking to class with whoever, my new little decorated office with a clean bathroom down the hall!, and so much more. You have been my family for 17 years, and I will miss all of you. But I know you will continue to make this department one of the best places for students to come and learn what we all know is the beauty of math.

I am forever thankful to have been a part of that, and I love you all dearly.

—Sharon

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Welcome to Fall 2006

This term I am teaching four classes covering three courses: two sections of Math 342 (Business Applications Math) and one section each of Math 350 (Calculus for the Life and Social Sciences I) and Math 370 (Precalculus). I've posted the syllabi as pdfs on my public directory (see the sidebar for the link). Welcome. If you have any questions or if you are doing the assignments in Quiz 0, you can e-mail me by clicking the link in the sidebar.

We have many resources at American River College for your assistance, including the math department's Oak Tree Tutoring Center in Room 132, the Learning Resource Center, and MESA (the Math, Engineering, Science Achievement program in Room 131). My office hours will be held in Room 122 in Howard Hall at 9:00-9:50 MWF and 10:00-10:50 TuTh. Howard Hall is located at the front (west side) of the campus, next to the administration building and Raef Hall. Most math classes are held in the 160s wing of the Liberal Arts complex.



All students are automatically assigned a campus e-mail address via our iMail system. Activate your iMail account immediately so that you will be able to receive messages from the college and your instructors. Since many of you already have e-mail addresses that you may prefer to use, iMail has been set up so that you can configure it with automatic forwarding to your preferred e-mail account. iMail can be accessed from off-campus via the Internet or from any of the student computers on campus, such as those in the Library or the Learning Resource Center.

Note to Math 350 students: Your WileyPlus website address is
http://edugen.wiley.com/edugen/class/cls24755/
which you can also reach by clicking on the WileyPlus link in the sidebar.

P.S.: The word is didactic.

Area under a curve

Math 400: Problem 1.1.2

How far does an object travel in 15 seconds if its velocity is given by the function v(t) = 20 + 7 cos t ft/sec? It helps to recall that we can represent the distance traveled by the area under a velocity curve. Let's look at a graph where t is the horizontal axis and y = v(t) is the vertical axis. The time units are in seconds and the velocity units are feet per second (ft/sec).

In the following graph, the red curve represents the velocity function. As we can see, the traveling object alternately slows down and speeds up (the effect of the cosine term), never going more slowly than 13 ft/sec and never going faster than 27 ft/sec. The area under the curve for time values between t = 0 and t = 15 (in blue) represents the distance traveled, if only we could figure it out. Learning how to do that is one of the goals of calculus. However, it's not too difficult to get a rough estimate.
In the second figure, I've drawn in the lines y = 13 and y = 27 to mark off the low and high points of the velocity curve. If the object were traveling only 13 ft/sec for 15 sec, then the distance it travels would be just (13 ft/sec)(15 sec) = 195 ft. That's the area of the blue rectangle that represents a lower bound on the area under the red curve. On the other hand, if the object always traveled 27 ft/sec (the upper bound on velocity), then the distance traveled would be (27 ft/sec)(15 sec) = 405 ft.

We have now figured out that the distance traveled is somewhere between 195 ft and 405 ft. That's a pretty broad range, to be sure, but we could make it better by using less extreme bounds. For example, we could try drawing triangles inside the humps of the cosine curve to estimate the area we left off while computing the lower bound. That should help. At some point, though, we would probably want something better than computing lots of different estimates. When we have the right calculus tools available, we'll be able to show that the exact distance traveled is 300 + 7 sin 15 ≈ 304.55 ft.

Escher in Sacramento

Crocker Art Museum Exhibit

M. C. Escher's work will be on display at the Crocker Art Museum in Sacramento from June 10 to September 3 of this year. M. C. Escher: Rhythm of Illusion was originally organized by the Portland Art Museum and features 70 examples of the artist's surreal art. Many of Escher's drawings are familiar to college students, especially since they are so commonly displayed in the offices and classrooms of math teachers.

An article by The Sacramento Bee's art correspondent points out that Escher's original work can surprise people who are accustomed to seeing his art as represented by the many popular posters:

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While reproductions of his work can sometimes seem cold and sterile, the actual prints have warmth, depth and texture that make them more sensual and personal than one might expect. One of the purposes of the show, [Crocker curator William] Breazeale says, is to demonstrate what a difference there is between reproductions and the real thing.

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There is an official M. C. Escher website where interested parties can find many useful resources related to the artist, including a detailed picture gallery.