Due February 2, 1999
Some Preliminaries
1. Please be sure you have a calculator that does at least
arithmetic
(+, , ×
, ÷ )
and powers (38). We will use calculators regularly both in class and for
assignments.
2. Included with your course outline is a diagnostic test that gives you
an idea of skills that you should have going into the course. This test
is for your own use. I recommend taking it, grading it, and asking me
for
help if you have deficiencies. It is not an entrance exam for the
course!
3. PLEASE activate your email account. It is easy to do and I can give
you
instructions or help you. You need your student ID number and PIN number
to do this.
4. PLEASE learn how to access the World Wide Web and then visit the
course
home page (along with 10 million even more interesting sites). Once
again,
I can help.
Reading
1. Please read the Prologue of the book.
2. Please read all of Chapter 1 of the book. Unit 1A is probably
familiar
to you from previous courses, so we will not spend much time on it in
class.
We will discuss Units 1B, 1C, and 1D thoroughly in class.
3. As you will see, there are many problems at the end of each chapter
of
this book. It would be impossible to assign or do all of the problems.
Nevertheless,
there are many important and interesting topics presented in the
problems.
It would be a good idea to skim the problems at the end of each unit and
at least look at the problem titles.
Problems
The following list of problems is minimal. This means that
you
should not hesitate to do additional problems, particularly if you don't
fully understand a topic . You will master the course material only by
doing
plenty of problems. I am available in office hours or by email for help!
Answers (not solutions) to odd-number problems are in the back of the
book.
Please write up solutions to the following problems.
Guidelines for Solutions:
· Either write your solutions
very
neatly or use a word processor. You can also use a word processor for
text
and write the mathematics by hand.
· When explanation is required,
please
write in good English! This means you must use complete sentences,
good
grammar and correct spelling.
· Answers alone will not suffice!
You
must show complete solutions to problems. When you do a problem, it
must
be presented neatly and sequentially, showing how you got from one
step
to the next.
· The general guideline is that
your
solutions should be useful and understandable to you if you
were
to read them five years from now (and hopefully you will)! If this is
true,
they will be understandable to me today.
Just For Fun: Read and Think Carefully Problems (not collected or
graded)
a. Anna has six apples and eats all but four of them. How many apples
are
left?
b. If there are 12 one-cent stamps in a dozen, how many two-cent stamps
are there in a dozen?
c. If two peacocks lay two eggs in two days, how many eggs can one
peacock
lay in one day?
d. There are five apples in a basket. How can you divide them among five
girls so that each girl gets and apple but one apple remains in the
basket?
e. How many marbles can you put in an empty bag.
f. Do you know how long cows should be milked?
g. In what month do Americans eat the least?
h. The butcher is six foot, four inches tall and wears size 14 shoes.
What
does he weigh?
j. How long will a seven-day grandfather clock run without winding?
k. What is the best way to get down from a camel?
l. If Mr. Jones rooster laid an egg in Mr. Gomez' yard, who owns the
egg?
m. Is it legal to marry your widow's sister?
n. You have two bills in your pocket that total $21 and one of them is
not
a $1 bill. How is this possible?
o. A rope ladder hanging over the side of a boat has rungs one foot
apart.
Ten rungs are showing. If the tide rises five feet, how many rungs will
be showing?