Multivariate Calculus, Math 251

This is Andrew Baxter’s website for his sections of Math 251. Important announcements and class information will be posted here, as well as links to helpful websites.

Announcements (Last Updated: May 11th)

Final Exam Grades: I do not know the grades on the final exam, nor any of the statistics.
Final Grades: I do not know your final grades. Please do not email me to ask for them. You'll have to wait until they are posted online. You should be able to look them up on my.rutgers.edu (the Academics tab) within a week.
Grade Breakdown:
Exam I: 100 pts
Exam II: 100 pts
Final Exam: 200 pts
Homework: 50 pts
Maple Labs: 50 pts
Total: 500 pts

Office Hours

I will be holding Office Hours on Thursdays from 2:30 until 4:30, and by appointment. If you make an appointment, I can meet Wednesday after class, but you'll need to tell me by Tuesday night. My office is Hill 605, although by appointment I can meet elsewhere (e.g. a computer lab). You can come in to me for help with the Maple labs - there is a computer lab down the hall from my office.

Homework

I will be collecting homework in recitation; Dr Irvine will not be collecting on Wednesdays. I will do my best to have your homework back to you before your next class, but as there are 90 of you, that may be difficult some weeks. Each homework is worth 2 points: one problem will be checked for correctness (1 point) and the remainder will be checked for completeness (another point). Don’t scoff: those points will add up.

Due on Monday (4/30):
16.2: 1, 5, 15, 17, 19, 21, 31, 37
16.3: 7, 9, 13, 15, 19, 23, 29, 31, 33
16.4: 3, 9, 11, 15, 17, 19
The exercises below will not be collected, but are recommended for preparation for the final.
Of course, do only the problems from sections you've covered in class.
16.5: 3, 5, 13, 15, 25
15.6: 1, 3, 7
16.6: 1, 3, 19, 21, 31, 45
16.7: 5, 7, 11, 19, 23, 39
16.8: 3, 5, 7, 9, 13, 15
16.9: 3, 7, 11, 15, 27

As announced in class, I will not be collecting late homeworks. I know things happen, so if something comes up and you cannot give me your homework on Monday tell me after class or send me an email (as soon as possible) and we should be able to arrange something.

These homeworks replace weekly quizzes, although I reserve the right to give quizzes unannounced if I feel people aren’t paying attention.
Solution for 12.5 Problem 70.
Solution for 14.3 Problem 7.
Solution for 15.1 Problem 8.

Maple Labs

There will be four Maple Labs throughout the semester, not including the Introduction to Maple we’ve already done. No more class time will be devoted to these: you are expected to do these on your own time, just as with homework. You are welcome to ask me for help, but of course I will not do the entire lab for you. See the links section for helpful websites. Please read them first before asking me questions.

No more Maple Labs.

How to turn off Auto-save: Because of the large file size, it can take upwards of a minute to save a graphics-intensive maple worksheet. Maple 10 has a default setting to auto-save every 3 minutes. The combination of these factors leads to the computer to appear to freeze up, when it's really auto-saving. You can turn off the auto-save feature by going to the toolbar and clicking on Tools, then Options, and then uncheckings the Auto-save box at the bottom. Hopefully that will resolve some of these issues.

Printing Issues:

I've heard the computer lab printers give trouble if you try to print out the entire lab in one go. You can avoid the problem by printing out first the 3-d material in one worksheet, and then the 2-d material in a second worksheet.
I've heard that when you print out your graphs, it doesn't print them with the orientation that you have on your screen. To fix that, use orientation=[theta,phi], where theta and phi are the viewing angles shown in the upper left corner of the screen when you click on your graph (see this picture). See my email for more details.
On some of your printouts for lab 2, I saw that your graphs were very zoomed-in, cutting off the picture. I heard that this can happen when you use the "scaling" method of modifying your view of the graph with the mouse. Avoid this and you should be okay.

A note about the background webpages is in order. The same guy (Dr Greenfield) who designed these labs also designed the webpages. Here is what he has to say about them: ``This web page was deliberately designed to help students learn more about Maple, and not just to complete the assignment. Students will need to select the ideas and instructions themselves." It won't walk you through the lab, but it should give you the information you'll need to complete the assignment. Also, there is no need to print out the background information and include it with your lab.

Ahh...the memories...

Lab 4: Instructions. Background. Data. Lab 3: Instructions. Background. Data. Lab 2: Instructions. Background. Data. Lab 1: Instructions. Background. Data.

Using Maple Remotely

Some people have asked me how they can use Maple without coming in to a computer lab. The short answer is "buy it." Rutgers doesn't distribute it free to students.

You can purchase the student version online. Maple 10 is the most current. Check out the prices at Maplesoft's website. The cheapest version I've found is $79 for a student version that expires in 12 months.
You can purchase a student version through Rutgers, although I've heard they're not the most helpful. Go to http://software.rutgers.edu for details.

Links

There is already a wealth of information available online for this course. I strongly recommend checking out these resources.

Math 251 Website. This is the official webpage for the course.
L. Pudwell’s Maple Tips. Lara has been TA for a few times. She helped write those labs, so she knows what mistakes you're going to make.
Lara's 251 Page. Here you'll find lots more links to sites that help visualize some of the more difficult concepts.
Dr Z’s 251 Page Dr Zeilberger taught 251 last semster. His exams are listed here. Also check out his handouts, which are very useful for getting to the heart of solving common Calc III exercises.
Greenfield's 251 Course Diary: 1 2 3 4: Dr Greenfield taught this course last year. He keeps a course diary which summarizes each lecture and gives extra examples. Be advised, this is just once instance of the course so if two explanations of the same thing don't match up, don't worry. Most likely both are valid.