Professor George Francis
10:00 am MTWF
143 Altgeld Hall
contact: gfrancis@uiuc.edu, 102 Altgeld Hall, 333-4794
Required Texts: Martin Liebeck, A Concise Introduction to Pure Mathematics,
2nd paperback edition, Chapman&Hall/CRC, Boca Raton, 2006.
and Otto Toeplitz, The Calculus: A Genetic Approach paperback,
U. Chicago Press, reprinted 2007.
Prerequisites: Calculus II (Math 130 or 135 or the equivalent) and completion of the campus Composition I general education requirement.
Goals: This course prepares freshmen and sophomore students for work in upper division mathematics courses by teaching selected fundamental topics from discrete and continuous mathematics, techniques of proof and computer simulationa, and clear mathematical exposition. Central goals of the course are to enable students to read, construct and write mathematical proofs and to help students understand the structure and conventions of written mathematical arguments. New this edition of the course is an introduction to programming simple mathematical algorithms and figures using Python. Students will learn to prepare writing assignments in LaTeX. Required are a 15 page termpaper or a substantial program with full documentation in Python or another suitable computer language.
Policies: Additional information will be added to this website periodically, and linked at the top of this page.
Essential Information: The course can be taken for a plus/minus letter grade or an S/U grade, for either 3 or 4 credits. The two hourlies are scheduled on 26sep08 and 21nov08. Exams may be taken at DRES. Please do not schedule an absence from class on these dates. Officially excused absences from scheduled tests can be made up by taking an oral examination on the subject missed. There is a written three hour final examination at the time scheduled on the non-combined finals schedule at 8-11am, Friday, 19dec08.
Since this is a limited enrollment, single section course no conflict final is required. Please resolve all conflicts with your other course instructors.