MATH 646 A Survey of Mathematical Problems II
Spring 2014
Professor: Dr. Sue Geller
Office: 128 Milner (MILN on the map) until I move to 219 B in Blocker (date unknown)
Office Hours: Tuesdays and Wednesday, 9:45-11:15, or by
appointment.
Email: geller@math.tamu.edu
Phone: 979-845-7531
Fax: 979-845-6028
Welcome to the home page for Math 646 A Survey of Mathematical
Problems II for the Spring of 2014. These pages will continue to be
under construction, so please check them regularly for any changes,
especially in due dates and assignments.
This course will consist of reading assignments, problem assignments,
and a term paper. You may find yourself challenged in
new ways by the assignments because some of the problems are difficult.
If using other sources, please give references.
Textbook
There are two main sources for this course,
only one of which you need to buy. The collection of readings needs to be
bought from Copy Corner, 2307 Texas Avenue South, College Station,
TX 77840; phone 979-693-0640 and email
classnotes@copycorner.com . An electronic copy is available through their website, http://copycorner.com or you may call Vicky Ward for a hard copy.
The rest of the materials will be available in .pdf form from this website.
Student's Guide -
pdf format. This gives the whole book. We will be doing chapters 9-12 and a list of special functions may be found in chapter 13.
Homework
- The assignments will be posted on
Homework . Notice that the list of
readings are for a given week (week of x where x is a Monday) with the
homework on those chapters due the Wednesday of the following week (x+9).
- Homework is due by 2:00 pm CT on the listed due date.
- You may send your homework to me via email or fax (979-845-6028).
If you send by email, please make the subject line Math 646 homework i,
where i is the number of the homework set (1-13), and send the answers in the
body or as an attachment in word, or as a .pdf file, word processed or handwritten.
If you fax it to me, be
sure to mark clearly on the first page that the fax is for Dr. Sue Geller
so that it gets to me and be sure to use very black ink (and clear handwriting)
as fax transition is rarely of high quality and tends to blur what is sent.
- When working on the homework, you may email me, talk with classmates,
or look things up on the web or in a book, but you may not copy
answers - that is plagiarism. I will set up a Piazza.com discussion listing for the course once I know who is enrolled. You will receive an email asking you to enroll. Please do. I monitor the discussion and toss in suggestions or answers as I think I can be helpful.
Term Paper
- Each paper should be typed in 12 point, double spaced, and fully
referenced, but any reasonable style of referencing is acceptable.
- A superficial discussion is not sufficient.
The term paper should be a thoughtful discussion of your special function including
the appropriate mathematics and history. I want to know by
reading the paper that you learned some things and thought seriously about
the special function.
- You may write your term paper in the form used by the course book, i.e., text with exercises followed by a set of homework problems. If you choose this option, you must provide answers to both the problems and exercises after the homework problems and starting on a new page or as an appendix.
- At most two students may write on each special function if there are more students than 11 students in the class, so pick one and have it
approved by me. (First come, first served.)
- Acceptable special functions and some questions to get you started may be found in
chapter 13 of the course book (not the readings). A list of them along with
who has taken them can be found here.
Feel free to suggest others, but they must be approved.
Due Dates:
The topic must be chosen by you and approved by me
by 3:00 PM CST on 22 January.
The term paper is due by 2:00 pm CDT on 30 April.
Grades
Your final grade will be determined by your performance on the homework
and term paper. Since some of the work is doing problems and
writing essays, I think this course does not lend itself to numerical grades
only. So some grades may be numerical and others may be letter grades. The final
grade will be determined counting the term paper as half the homework
(200 points homework, 100 points term paper, if we were working in points).
The grading
scheme is:
A: Did all or almost all of the work and did it well.
B: Did a large proportion of the work well or did almost all of
the work but did some of it wrong or incompletely.
C: Did almost all the work but did it poorly or didn't do a lot of
the required work.
F: Did very little or nothing.
Late Work
I realize that almost all of you are working and/or have families, so you
have different constraints than students on campus. It is very helpful to me
as well as useful for you to do each assignment on time. For example,
I know from experience, as do many
of you, that it is much harder to grade fairly when papers are graded
at various times. Therefore,
late work will not be accepted without prior arrangements, but
reasonable excuses will be accepted as long as the privilege is not abused.
When arranging
for late work, be prepared to tell me when you will get the work to me.
Notes:
If you want to discuss a problem by voice (i.e. phone), please give me
some times when you will be available, and I try to call you then.
Otherwise you may call me at work at any time. I should always be in the
office during my office hours.
All email correspondence must contain the course number in the subject
heading so that I can easily distinguish it from spam and other types of
correspondence.
Cheating and plagiarism will not be tolerated.
Simply changing some words from a passage is still plagiarism unless you
reference the source. There is an old quip "Stealing from one source is
plagiarism, from many research." As with most quips, it is both true and
false. To be true research there needs to be something from yourself in
the essay/answer. The truth in the quip is that research is built
on the results of many before us, but they need to be given the credit for
their work for it to be morally, ethically, and legally correct.
Also, simply copying an answer from someone is both cheating
and plagiarism. Don't cheat nor plagiarize.
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) Policy Statement
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a federal
anti-discrimination statute that provides comprehensive civil rights
protection for persons with disabilities. Among other things, this
legislation requires that all students with disabilities be guaranteed a
learning environment that provides for reasonable accommodation of their
disabilities. If you believe you have a disability requiring an
accommodation, please contact the Department of Student Life, Services
for Students with Disabilities, in Room 126 of the Koldus Building or
call 845-1637.
Academic Integrity Statement
"An Aggie does not lie, cheat, or steal or tolerate those who do."
See the
Honor Council Rules and Procedures for more information.