Welcome to Math 141! Calculus is a beautiful, important, challenging, and fascinating subject.

Instructional Staff :

• Instructor: Frank Thorne, LeConte 400G, thorne [at] math.sc.edu.
  Office Hours: Monday 3:30-4:30, Tuesday 3:30-4:30, Friday 2:30-3:30.

  (Note: I might have to reschedule these for meetings and such)

• Substitute Instructor: Heather Smith, smithhc5 [at] email.sc.edu.

  Heather will sub for me when I'm away at conferences. Office Hours: TBA (only on weeks when I'm out of town)

• Teaching Assistant: Wilson Harvey, LeConte 122B, harveywa [at] email.sc.edu
  The TA will hold discussion sections and office hours and grade the homeworks. His job is to help you get through the course.
  

  Office Hours: Monday 11-12, Wed/Fri 10-11.

• Supplemental Instructor: Stuart Sands, sandss [at] email.sc.edu.
  The supplemental instructor is an undergraduate who has done very well in Math 141 in the past. He will attend all the lectures and is here to help.
  In place of office hours he holds SI sessions (see below) that you can go to.

Learning outcomes:

Successful students will:

• Have ample opportunities to practice and use algebra and trigonometry, further increasing their skills in these areas. Algebra is an absolute prerequisite for calculus, but at the same time the course will be directed towards students whose algebra skills may be slightly rusty and in need of practice.
• Understand quantitative data and its presentation. In calculus, this usually takes the shape of a function. Functions will be presented in terms of equations, or in terms of graphs, or in English text, and students will be required to seamlessly translate between these.
• Develop the ability to explain their work clearly. As with the previous bullet point, this will involve a combination of equations, graphs, and English text. Students are expected to learn to write well.
• Understand what definitions and theorems are. The student will be able to give precise definitions as well as informal explanations and will be able to explain the correspondence.
• Tackle problems that require more than one step to solve, or whose solution is not obvious. Typically this means that you try something, and if it doesn't work you try something else.

• Master concepts and problems involving limits, derivatives, integrals, and applications of all of the above.

Warning. There is a ton of homework. It will be collected and graded. That is because this is the most effective way for you to learn. But:

• This class has a 12-point curve (i.e. A=88, B=76, etc.) as opposed to the usual ten point curve. My standards are high and so I think it is fair that you should have more wiggle room.
• All of the assignments for this course, including a complete list of questions that may show up on the exams, are posted below. So everything is completely predictable, and you can look before you leap.
• My goal is that you will earn the highest grades of any 141 class. To that end, I've made my expectations very clear -- the standards are high, but you can meet them and it is my job to help you.
• If the numerical average on any midterm exam is at least 76%, then we will have a pizza lunch (in class) the day I hand back the exams.

Text : James Stewart, Calculus, Early Transcendentals, 6th edition. We will use a custom edition of this book, available in the campus bookstore. It has not changed since last year, so please feel free to buy a used version from an upperclassman.

I also highly recommend Calculus Made Easy by Silvanus Thompson. If nothing else, read the epilogue on p. 283.

Meeting schedule :

• Lectures: MWF, 12:20-1:10, LC 113.
• Maple Lab: (TBD)
• Recitation: (TBD)

• Precalculus Exam (half exam, really more of a long quiz), Monday, September 3. Will be dropped from your final average if this improves your grade.
• Midterm Exam 1: Wednesday, September 26.
• Midterm Exam 2: Wednesday, October 31.
• Midterm Exam 3: Wednesday, November 30.
• Final Exam: Thursday, December 13, 12:30 p.m.

The midterm exams will be very similar to the homeworks, and several problems will be taken exactly from the homework assignments. There will not be any topics on the exams that were not covered in the homeworks.

The final exam will be taken exactly from the homeworks. See here.

Practice Exam 1, solutions.

Practice Exam 2, solutions.

Practice Exam 3, solutions.

Practice final exams: See below. These were two of the midterm exams from last year: (Note that the selection of material was a little bit different.)

Exam 1, solutions.

Exam 2, solutions.

Homework : Homework is due to your TA by 5:00 p.m., on Fridays except as otherwise noted below. (Your TA will tell you where to turn in your homework.) The homework will be graded and returned to you, according to the following scheme. Each homework is worth 10 points. Out of that, three problems will be selected each week (randomly, for the most part) and graded carefully, and each is worth 2 points. The remaining 4 points are for overall quality and completion.

All the homework assignments can be downloaded from this website (see below). They are long. Do not start the night before.They are also very important.

Each homework will have ''required'', ''additional'', and (one or more) ''bonus'' problems. The additional problems are not required; if you do them then the points taken off elsewhere will be reduced by up to 50%. The bonus problems are extra credit.

All exam problems will be taken verbatim from the homework assignments.

Grading :

You will be graded both on correctness and on quality of exposition. The standard is that someone who doesn't know the answer should be able to easily follow your work. Any work that is confusing, ambiguous, or poorly explained will not receive full credit.

The grade cutoffs are: A for 88%, B+ for 84%, B for 76%, C+ for 72%, C for 64%, and D for 50%.

	% of grade
Three in-class exams:	20% x 2
Final exam:	30%
Maple lab assignments:	15%
Homework:	15%

Only your highest two midterm exam grades will be counted. Also, the above does not include the precalculus exam the week of September 3. This exam will be counted 10% or 0% of your total, whichever makes your grade turn out higher.

Make-up policy :

If you have a legitimate conflict with any of the exams it is your responsibility to inform me at least a week before the exam. Otherwise, makeups will only be given in case of emergency. Late homework will generally not be accepted, but please ask your TA if you have special circumstances.

Calculators :

Calculators will not be allowed for the exams. You may use them on the homework if you want, but this is discouraged, as the purpose of the homework is to prepare you for the exams.

Supplemental instruction :

Stuart Sands runs the supplemental instruction sessions. This is a valuable resource and you are strongly encouraged to take advantage of it. Please go to ask questions and meet other students. It is a particularly good place to work on your homework.

These sessions run Sunday at 5 pm, Tuesday at 9 pm, and Thursday at 7 pm in Gambrell 130.

There is also free drop-in tutoring available for all 100-level math courses. This is available in LC 105, MW 11-2 and 2:15-3:15, adn TTh 11-3. Also, the ACE Centers in Columbia, Sims, and Bates House dorms will operate on the following schedule: Sims, 6-9 pm M-Th, Columbia and Bates 7-9 pm M-Th.

Other help resources : Math lab, Private tutors .

Schedule of lectures, homeworks, and exams

Stars (*) indicate days in which I will be attending conferences out of town, and where the substitute instructor will fill in for me.

Homeworks are not always due on the same days of the week. This could be a bit annoying (my apologies), but it was done to make sure no one homework is excessively long.

• 8/24: What is all the fuss about?
• 8/27: Going around in circles (Ch. 1.2-1.3, Trigonometric and composite functions)
• 8/29: Growing really fast (Ch. 1.4-1.5, Exponential and logarithmic functions)
• 8/31: The cast of characters (Review and consolidation)

• Homework 1, due Tuesday, September 4. (Warning! It's not short.)

• 9/3: Labor day (no class)

  During the week's discussion section there will be a precalculus exam which will count 10% of your final grade if it helps you; otherwise it will be dropped.

  The precalculus exam will be six questions chosen at random from Homework 1. You will have thirty minutes, the rest of section will be spent going over solutions.

• 9/5 (*): Measuring a curved line (Ch. 2.1, The tangent and velocity problems)
• 9/7 (*): With a really, really small ruler (2.2, introducing limits)
• 9/10: The rules of the game (2.2, 2.3, computing limits)

  Homework 2, due Monday, September 10. (shorter, but they get long again soon.)

• 9/12: A long time ago and very far away (2.6, limits at infinity)
• 9/14: Change we can measure (2.7, introduction to the derivative)
• 9/17: What the derivative *really* is (2.8, the derivative as a function)

  Homework 3, due Monday, September 17.

• 9/19: The rules of the game, II (3.1, computing derivatives)
• 9/21: The rules of the game, III (3.2, computing derivatives)
• 9/24 (*): Review

  Homework 4, due Monday, September 24. (warning: long)

• 9/26 (*): Exam 1, solutions.

• 9/28 (*): Going around in circles, II (3.3, derivatives of trig functions)
• 10/1: It looks like a duck and it acts like a duck... (3.4, the chain rule)
• 10/3: A dirty trick (3.5, implicit differentiation)
• 10/5: Derivatives of logarithms (3.6)

  Homework 5, due Friday, October 5.

• 10/8: The more things change... (3.7, applications to the sciences)
• 10/10: 300,000,000 hungry rabbits (3.8, exponential growth and decay)
• 10/12: Of lights and ladders (3.9, related rates)

  Homework 6, due Friday, October 12.

• 10/15: As good as it gets (4.1, maxima and minima)
• 10/17: Derivatives and graphing (4.3)

  Homework 7, due Wednesday, October 17.

  10/19: Fall break

• 10/22: Derivatives and graphing, II (4.3-4.5)
• 10/24: L'Hopital's rule (4.4)
• 10/26: Derivatives and graphing, III (4.5)
• 10/29 (*): Review

  Homework 8, due Monday, October 29. Warning. This is proably the hardest homework assignment. Get a head start!

• 10/31 (*): Exam 2.

• 11/2 (*): The best fence money can buy (4.7, optimization)
• 11/5: The dog who knew calculus (4.7, optimization)
• 11/7: Running everything backwards (4.9, the antiderivative)

  Homework 9, due Wednesday, November 7.

• 11/9: Area and distance (5.1)
• 11/12: THE BIG KAHUNA (5.3: the fundamental theorem of calculus)
• 11/14: The "net change theorem" (5.4: really it's more of the same)

  Homework 10, due Wednesday, November 14.

• 11/16: Making problems easier (5.5: integration by substitution)
• 11/19: Making problems easier (5.5, more substitution)

  Note that this will not appear on the exam.

  Homework 11, due Monday, November 19. (Homeworks 11-13 are shorter than earlier homeworks.)

  11/21-23: Thanksgiving!

• 11/26: Above this and below that (6.1, area between curves)
• 11/28: Review

  Homework 12, due Wednesday, November 28.

• 11/30: Exam 3.

• 12/3: Introduction to volumes (6.2)
• 12/5: Where calculus goes from here!
• 12/7: Review for final exam

  Homework 13, due Friday, December 7.

  Final Exam Review and Extra Credit. The bonus is in the form of four practice final exams, and you can turn them in for extra credit. Each one is worth half a homework assignment, so you can get extra credit equal to two homeworks total. They are due at (or before) the final exam. If you finish them early, bring them to me and I will grade them and give you feedback.

  Practice Exam 2, Practice Exam 3, Practice Exam 4, Practice Exam 5. (Practice Exam 1 was selected at random to be the actual final exam.)

  Also you can click the link below to see how I wrote these (and the actual final).

• 12/13, 12:30 p.m. - 3:00 p.m.: Final exam.