Wednesday, August 24, 2016

Notes for Homework 1


Notes on rounding and rounding error with fractions.


Notes on binary and decimal representation of numbers.


Notes on rounding to significant digits. 


The link to rounding to significant digits deals with rounding a number great than 1. For example 2^16 = 65,536.

65,536 rounded to one significant digit = 70,000

65,536 rounded to two significant digits = 66,000
65,536 rounded to three significant digits = 65,500

Let's consider rounding a number less than 1.

2^(-16) = 0.000015258789...

If we were asked to round this to the nearest thousandth, we would get 0.000. It's never a good idea to round a number that isn't zero to zero. Doing this means we aren't thinking at the right scale. Rounding to significant digits ensures we will never round a non-zero number to zero.

0.000015258789... rounded to one significant digit = 0.00002
0.000015258789... rounded to two significant digits = 0.000015
0.000015258789... rounded to three significant digits = 0.0000153

In most cases except scientific papers, rounding to three significant digits is considered sufficient.


Monday, August 22, 2016

Link to the stories of the four famous mathematicians


Short biographies of Archimedes, Newton, Euler and Gauss.

Important dates for Fall 2016

Add and drop dates
Last day to add: Sunday, September 4
Last day to drop class without a "W": Sunday, September 4
Last date to drop class with a "W": Friday, November 8

Holidays
Labor Day: Monday, September 5
Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 24

Test dates for Monday-Wednesday class
Midterm 1: Wed., Oct. 5
Midterm 2: Wed., Nov. 9
Comprehensive Final: Wed, Dec. 14 8:00-10:00 am (note time change)

Test dates for Tuesday-Thursday class
Midterm 1: Thurs., Sept. 29
Midterm 2: Thurs, Nov. 3
Comprehensive Final: Tues., Dec. 13 (normal class period)