Math 21A: Calculus (Fall, 2017)

Math Placement Requirement (Important!)

You must satisfy the MATH PLACEMENT REQUIREMENT (MPR) to be enrolled in this course. Every student who has not met the MPR will be ADMINISTRATIVELY DROPPED by the Math Department after the first week of classes.

If you have not previously passed the MPR, you should have been automatically registered for one of the Fall Quarter testing sessions. If not, you can fill out the manual registration form at the link on this webpage to sign up for the last Fall Quarter MPR Testing Session.

To be enrolled in MAT 21A you must take the MPR and get a total score of 35 or more with a trigonometry sub-score of 3 or more.

Important Dates

• Instruction begins: Wednesday, September 27
• Last day to add: Thursday, October 12
• Last day to drop: Tuesday, October 24
• Last class: Friday, December 8
• Academic holidays: Friday, November 10; Thursday, Friday November 23-24

TA information

Benjamin Schiffman (lead TA), bschiffman@math.ucdavis.edu, MSB 3127
Victoria Kelley, vmkelley@math.ucdavis.edu, MSB 2229
Kenneth Peterson, kgpeterson@ucdavis.edu
Brett Leroux, leroux@math.ucdavis.edu, MSB 3202
Zhenyang Zhang, supermikezzy@math.ucdavis.edu, MSB 2232

Discussion sections:

• A01, T 4:10-5:00pm, Bainer 1130, Victoria Kelley (Calculus Room Mondays and Wednesdays 5-6pm)
• A02, T 7:10-8:00pm, Physics 130, Kenneth Peterson (Calculus Room Tuesdays 5-6pm)
• A03, T 7:10-8:00pm, Olson 118, Zhenyang Zhang (Calculus Room Thursdays 3-5pm)
• A04, T 5:10-6:00pm, Bainer 1130, Victoria Kelley (Calculus Room Mondays and Wednesdays 5-6pm)
• A05, T 8:10-9:00pm, Olson 118, Zhenyang Zhang (Calculus Room Thursdays 3-5pm)
• A06, T 6:10-7:00pm, Olson 118, Brett Leroux (Calculus Room Wednesdays 2-3pm and 4-5pm)
• A07, T 5:10-6:00pm, Olson 118, Brett Leroux (Calculus Room Wednesdays 2-3pm and 4-5pm)

Calculus Room

The calculus room is located in the ground floor of the Mathematical Science Building (MSB 1118). It is staffed with MAT 21 TAs from 1:00–7:00 p.m. Monday to Thursday and 1:00–6:00 p.m. on Friday. The TAs can answer questions about the homework and course material.

Grade

Grades will be based on webwork homework, weekly quizzes, one midterm and the final exam, weighted as follows:

• 10%: Webwork Homework
• 25%: Quizzes
• 25%: Midterm
• 40%: Final

There will be no make-up exams. If you require special accomodation in taking the exams, please let me know well in advance of each exam. If you miss the midterm for an excused, documented reason, your final exam will count 65% of your grade.

Quizzes will take place each week in your discussion session. The quizzes will be based on the assigned homeworks from the book (which will be assigned before the quizz each week, so you will know the problems!). There are no make-up quizzes, but the lowest 3 scores will be dropped.

Ungraded homework problems from the book will be assigned in Canvas each week. They will be discussed in the discussion sessions. These homeworks will not be collected or graded, but the quizzes, midterm and final will be based on the homework problems. Don't expect to pass this course unless you do the homework.

There will be weekly online homeworks through WeBWork. Instructions on how to log onto the system are given here. If, for some reason, you have trouble with WeBWork, please contact our lead TA Benjamin Schiffman.

The course grade will be determined on an absolute scale with slight modifications using the normal distribution curve if appropriate. An approximate guideline is

• 85% - 100% = A-, A, A+
• 70% - 85% = B-, B, B+
• 55% - 70% = C-, C, C+
• 45% - 55% = D-, D, D+
• Less than 45% = F

Exam dates

• Midterm: Friday, October 27 in class

• Final: Friday, December 15, 2017, 10:30am–12:30pm in GIEDT 1001

All exams are closed book. No calculators or other electronic devices are permitted.

Exam scores will be posted on Canvas.

Syllabus

The department syllabus for MAT 21A is here. We will cover the following topics from the text:

• Chapter 1: Functions
• Chapter 2: Limits of functions and continuity
• Chapter 3: Derivatives
• Chapter 4: Applications of derivatives

Text

The text (Thomas' Calculus) is a new (13th) edition (Early Transcendentals), which comes in both print and digital form. Homework problems will be assigned from the text, but you can use either the print or the digital form. You aren't required to buy the digital text if you don't want to. We will not be using MyMathLab. Access to the online content for this course has been arranged at a reduced cost through the UC Davis Inclusive Access Program and will be billed to your MyBill account after the 10th day of class. You can use the generic Course ID for UC Davis to log on (course08483). Please visit http://inclusiveaccess.ucdavis.edu for billing details, opt out info, and current access status. In case you need more information, please contact Kelly Holt at the UC Davis bookstore or studentservices@math.ucdavis.edu.

The numbering of homework problems and sections in older editions of the text may differ from those in the newest edition, so I recommend that you get the 13th edition (which will also be used in subsequent quarters of the MAT 21 calculus sequence). If you do use the older 12th edition, it is entirely at your own risk, but you may find this transition guide useful.

Other Resources

Calculus Textbook by Gilbert Strang. The entire content of this book is available free of charge in the pdf format. The chapters we cover in MAT21A roughly corresponds to Chapters 1 - 4 of Strang. It is quite handy to carry the whole calculus textbook in your smartphone or iPad.

Calculus on the Web by Gerardo Mendoza and Dan Reich. Their "Calculus Book I" corresponds to our MAT 21A.

Sage for Undergraduates by Gregory V. Bard. Sage is a free open-source software system that can help you to define and plot functions, take their derivates and integrals! Also have a look at the online tutorial. You can sign up for a free account on CoCal.