MAT 127: Calculus C, Fall 2010General Course InformationCourse WebsiteYou can access the course website through blackboard, as well as athttp://math.sunysb.edu/∼azinger/mat127-fall10/.Please print out the Teaching Staff, etc., Additional Course Information, and Frequently Asked Ques-tions handouts as soon as possible. All homework assignments, exam information, and a lot more willalso be posted on the course website. Please visit it at least twice a week.PrerequisitesIn order to take MAT 127, you must have either completed MAT 126 with a grade of C or higher orachieved at least level 8 on the Mathematics Placement Examination. Furthermore, you must have asolid understanding of the topics covered in MAT 123, 125, and 126 (otherwise, you’ll almost certainlyfail MAT 127).Course DescriptionMAT 127 is the final part of the three-part one-variable calculus sequence MAT 125-126-127. It contin-ues where MAT 126 left off and covers the final two chapters of the textbook: 7 and 8. These chaptersbuild on the notions developed in MAT 125 and 126 to introduce two (seemingly) separate concepts:ordinary (i.e. one independent variable) differential equations and infinite power series. These are es-sential in many areas of mathematics, science, and engineering and are in fact closely related, as manyreal-life problems can be modeled by differential equations and solutions to these equations are oftendescribed by power series.Unlike MAT 125 and 126, there are no recitation sections in MAT 127, but the lectures themselves arequite a bit smaller. You are very much encouraged to actively participate in the class; please do askquestions during lecture (and come to office hours!).TextbookThe textbook for this course is the Stony Brook Edition of J. Stewart’s Calculus: Concepts and Contexts,4th Edition. This is the textbook also used by MAT 125, 126, 131, and 132 this semester and lastsemester, but not the edition used by MAT 127 last semester. The textbook is required and is availableat the campus bookstore and possibly for less at Stony Books. We will also use notes on second-orderdifferential equations and the ratio test; these are available on the course website. Anything else postedon the course website, even temporarily, is required reading as well; this will include exam information,summaries of parts of the course, solutions to the problem sets, etc.Special NeedsIf you have a physical, psychological, medical, or learning disability that may impact your course work,please contact Disability Support Services at (631) 632-6748 orhttp://studentaffairs.stonybrook.edu/dss/.They will determine with you what accommodations are necessary and appropriate. All informationand documentation is confidential. Students who require assistance during emergency evacuation areencouraged to discuss their needs with their instructors and Disability Support Services. For proceduresand information go to the following website:http://www.sunysb.edu/ehs/fire/disabilities.shtml.HomeworkAs in MAT 125 in Fall 09 and 126 in Spring 10, the problem sets will consist of two parts. You will haveto complete one of the parts online through webassign and to hand in the other part to your instructor.The webassign portion will be due at the same time for all sections of the course and before the writtenhomework is due for any of the sections. Unlike MAT 125/126, the proportion of online exercises mayvary greatly between different problem sets and will generally be smaller.You should be able to access your webassign account through blackboard starting Monday, August 30,provided you registered for this course sufficiently in advance. If you registered late, you should be ableto access your webassign account within 24 hours of your name appearing on the blackboard class list.After you login the first time, take a note of your webassign username; you can use it to gain directaccess to your websassign account by clicking on Forgot Your Password? on the websassign homepage.You will need to purchase a webassign access code if you do not already have one. The Stony Brookedition of the textbook comes with a multi-term access code. You can also purchase an access codedirectly through webassign ($37 for one semester; possibly more if purchased through the campusbookstore).Grading PolicyHomework 15%, Early Exam 10%, Midterm I 20%, Midterm II 20%, Final 35%Your grades will be available through the blackboard website, linked from the MAT 127 website.NO late homework will be accepted; a deadline is a deadline and even 1 second late (according to thewebassign clock for online hw and your instructor’s cell phone for paper hw) is late. However, yourlowest homework score will be dropped. If you will be out of town when a paper homework is due, youcan turn it in to your instructor any time before it is due (which you are welcome to do even if youwon’t be out of town).Your letter grade for the semester will be determined exclusively by your weighted total (rounded to1 decimal point), with the following exception only. If your weighted total is x points below the nextletter grade cut-off and your final exam score as a percent of the maximum possible score is at least 10xpoints higher than the corresponding cut-off on the final exam, then you’ll receive that letter grade forthe term. This exception may increase your letter grade one step only (e.g. from C+ to B-). As it alreadygives you an extra chance to get a better letter grade, this exception will be implemented without anyflexibility (e.g. if your weighted total is .5 below the C cut-off for the semester, while your rescaled finalexam score is 4.67 points above the C cut-off for the final (7 points out of 150), you will not receive a C).This class is not “curved”. The letter grade cut-offs for the exams and the homework will be determinedbased on how difficult these are and how harshly they are graded; in turn, these cut-offs will determinethe cut-offs for the semester. If you receive a C in this course, this means you are qualified to take anycourse for which MAT 127 is a prerequisite (assuming you have met the other prerequisites); this hasnothing to do with how many other students do better or worse than you or withdraw from the class(and thus lower your relative standing in the class). Similarly, A means “superior work”; this also hasnothing to do with how many people do better or worse than