Math 365, Fall '03

ANNOUNCEMENT (12/11/03): Your last homeworks are now graded, and you can pick them up at my office. I should be around tomorrow (Fri) afternoon late (3 PM, maybe, 4 PM to be safe--depends on when a meeting ends). Additionally, I'll make a point of being in my office on Monday afternoon from 3-5 PM and Tuesday afternoon 4-5 PM. You're welcome to try me at other times, too, if you like--I just don't promise to be around/available then without advance warning.

ANNOUNCEMENT (12/08/03): The final exam will be held in 125 Hayes-Healy (our usual room) from 8-10 AM on Wed 12/17.

Instructor: Jeff Diller (click for contact info, office hours, etc.)

Time and place: MWF 10:40-11:30, Hayes-Healy 125. I'm toying with the idea of running a weekly evening section for this class--it'll depend on you folks agreeing on a good time for it.

Textbook: Principles of Mathematical Analysis by Walter Rudin.

Other references: (all on reserve in the math library)

• The Way of Analysis by Robert Strichartz. This book covers more or less the same material as Rudin but at much greater length and in a different order. This has been used as a text in 365 at least once in the past, and I considered using it this time.
• Mathematical Analysis by Andrew Browder. Another really nice analysis book--a bit harder than Rudin, but with some cool topics (e.g. continued fractions, abstract manifolds) that Rudin omits.
• Calculus on Manifolds by Michael Spivak. Good general purpose book concerning analysis in several variables.

What we'll cover: By the end of math 366 next spring, I'd like to finish the textbook, perhaps omitting a section here and there. Where we'll be at the end of this semester is less clear to me. There's a lot of overlap between chapters 3 through 6 and the material covered in math 165-166, so I'm looking at the end of chapter 7 or 8 as a possible goal for this term.

How you will be evaluated:

• Homework: 40% of your grade. I plan to give and collect one assignment consisting of five to ten problems every Friday. Unless I come up with some extra special problem that I ask you explicitly to tackle alone, you can work together on homework problems. I recommend it in fact. However, I do not want to see outright copying, and I want you to name anyone else with whom you've collaborated in significant way on a given assignment--think of it as including a bibliography with your homework.
• Exams: a midterm (Oct 6, 7 PM) and final (Dec 17, 8-10 AM) worth 20% and 30% of your grade, respectively. I'd like to give these in the evenings outside class so there'll be less time pressure. I'll check for a good evening the first week of class. I might also include take home components on one or both exams. Regardless, you may not talk to anyone but me about exam problems.
• Class Participation, etc: 10% of your grade. This will represent my impression of how 'engaged' you are in this class. Are you coming to class? Asking questions? Trying to answer questions? Are you keeping up with the reading? These are the sorts of things I'll be watching. Yeah, I admit, it's subjective, but this is a small class without a TA or a grader, so I think I'll be able to get a pretty good impression of your overall attitude by course's end.

Further comments: Keep up with the reading in this class. Even if all I do is lecture, I'll probably have to skip things to get through the material. And since I will spend time in class asking and answering questions, motivating and supplementing the textbook, etc, reading the book will be essential for doing well. After all, it's a little silly for me to try to duplicate the book on the blackboard when you just paid $100 for it. You might, I suppose, argue a bit about exactly what aspect of that situation is silly.

I will not take late homework. Regardless of how much you have left to do or how good your reason is, I will only grade the work that you give me at the beginning of class each Friday morning. If you think you've got a good reason (e.g. medical emergency or something equally dire) for not finishing some assignment, we can talk about discounting it, but there will be no late grading.

Under extreme circumstances, I will consider giving a makeup exam, but you'll need an excuse from whoever it is at ND that officially doles these things out. Also, I reserve the right to shift weights in the final grade so that a makeup exam is less heavily weighted than its regularly scheduled counterpart.

Do not hesitate to ask me questions. Answering questions is one of my favorite things to do. It makes me feel important. The exception to this concerns last minute questions about homework. Since you have a week to complete each homework assignment, I'll be loathe to deal with basic questions about an assignment (like "how do I start problem 3?") the day before it's due.