Course Description and goals:
Math 108 is a special topics course that satisfies
the general education requirement for math at the University of Rhode Island.
The content of the course varies from section to section and semester to
semester.
In this section of this course, you will have the opportunity to review Basic Math Skills. To better appreciate the variety of subjects within mathematics, you will be introduced to some exciting ideas in mathematics that come from a wide variety of disciplines such as game theory, graph theory, probability, theory of numbers coding theory, and geometry. These topics will be presented along with real world applications such as street networks, planning and scheduling, voting schemes, etc. Also we will discuss aspects of the culture of mathematics, including its history in different cultures and its role in present day culture, particularly, in relationship to some gender issues. In this section we will also discuss math anxiety.
I hope that you will have a better understanding and appreciation for mathematics by the time you finish this course, that you will no longer think that math is only about balancing a check book and designing rockets, and that you will be proud to say that you LIKE math. You may be surprised to find that taking further math courses is both possible and desirable.
Text:
The text for the course is: For all
Practical Purposes, 5ht edition, by CoMap. We will cover all
or part of the following chapters.
1: Street Networks
2: Visiting vertices including Hamiltonian
Circuits
3: Planning and Scheduling
9: Identification Numbers
10: Transmitting Information
12: Weighted Voting System:
14: Apportionment
Note: There is much more material in our text,
For
All Practical Purposes, than we could possibly cover this semester,
so I will let you know specific pages that you are responsible for and
that will accompany what we cover in class. Read as much of the rest as
you like.
I may help you with questions during office hours (MWF 10-11am or after 3:15pm), or at other times by appointment. Also, I will try to answer questions sent by electronic mail as promptly as possible. Students who require accommodations and who have documentation from Disability Services (874-2098) should make arrangements with me as soon as possible.
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