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Math 252 (Calculus III) Syllabus

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• Required Text
• Auxiliary Materials
• Course Content
• Prerequisites, Articulation, Relation to Other Courses
• Lectures and Attendance
• Grading Structure
• Sources of Help
• Academic Integrity
• Holidays
• Course Orientation
• Classroom Decorum
• Other Details
• Contacting Me

Required Text

Multivariable Calculus by James Stewart, 5th edition (2003) includes Ch. 11 and Ch. 12 from Math 151; our coverage starts with Ch. 13 and proceeds unbroken to at least Sec. 17.5, maybe as far as Sec. 17.7. Ch. 18 is not covered in 252.

Auxiliary Materials

There is a Student Solutions Manual which is optional; I have ordered 20 or 30 for those who like them. More importantly, there are two good CDs in the front endpaper of the text; among other things, they contain hints to the exercises highlighted in red throughout the text, some of which will be assigned as homework. Also online help is available as described in the text, and I have 30 color transparencies that will complement the good graphics. It is also helpful to have access to technology such as a TI - 92 or the graphing calculator software that comes with a Macintosh, solely as an aid to visualization of surfaces and curves in space.

Course Content

• Vectors, surfaces, 3-D analytic geometry
• Derivatives of vector functions
• Partial derivatives, extrema of ƒ(x,y,z)
• Multiple integrals
• some vector calculus including line integrals

For more, see the complete lecture schedule and "Why take this course?"

Prerequisites, Articulation, Relation to Other Courses

Please see "Why take this course?" for detailed information.

A grade of C in Math 151 is the prerequisite. Particular skills of 151 which are especially vital in 252 are integration technique and familiarity with polar coordinates. Differentiation skill from 150 is important too. Really the main departure from 151 is the leap from the plane to 3-space and in some cases n-space, but if you can do calculus of one variable, you can probably do calculus of several too once you learn the principles. About the same amount of time is required as was for 151, i.e., a lot. You know how math is.

Lectures and Attendance

As Stewart mentions in his CD, it helps to read each section before I lecture on it. Some of the formulas and techniques are complicated; also, my lectures and the text sections are meant to complement, not reiterate, each other. Another thing about attendance, and this is university-wide and a big change: we can now administratively drop students, as is done in community colleges, for early non-attendance, specifically if a student misses the first class and the beginning of the second class and their seat is needed for some one else. Also, the deadline for all schedule changes has been moved up: it is now September 22, only 3 weeks in.

Grading Structure

600 total points, distributed as follows:

1. 4 MIDTERMS totaling 300 points: the Ch. 13 and Ch. 14 midterms are both 60 points and the Ch. 15 and Ch. 16 midterms are both 90 points. These are, respectively, on September 23, October 7, November 4, and December 2, all Tuesdays. My intention is to devote most of the Monday before to review, as we will have already progressed into the next chapter by then in lecture. All are required, none are dropped, and there are no makeups. In the rare case of a legitimate medical excuse, it must be documented to my satisfaction, which will include a specific message from a physician, not a nurse or receptionist, and even then a scheme of prorating will be used rather than a late test. You may rely on the above dates and plan around them for any vacations.
   
   
2. The FINAL EXAM, 200 points, is Monday December 15, 8 to 10 AM [for the 10 AM class] and 10:30 AM - 12:30 PM [for the 11 AM class], the first day of finals week. They will probably not be given in our regular classrooms; locations will be announced in December. About half of the final will be on Ch. 17 and the rest comprehensive. Everyone must take it. Incompletes are vanishingly rare and are the result of a sudden catastrophe right before the end of an otherwise successful semester.
   
   
3. HOMEWORK, the foundation of knowledge in a course like this, will comprise the other 100 points. Homework is detailed on another series of handouts; there will be selected written, handed-in homework, and also "practice" homework, both consisting of some odd and some even problems.
   
   
4. As a rough preliminary guideline, in a course like this frequently around 300 would be the bottom of the C range, around 400 the bottom of the B range, and around 500 the bottom of the A range. It's not easy.

Sources of Help

As you may know, the state as a whole, and its university system, are having budget problems, or leadership problems if you like. Last academic year there was no money for tutors, and this year looks similar. However, the department has been accumulating a list of recommended outside tutors. By far the best source of help are my office hours, which I will expand a bit as the semester wears on if necessary.

Also and fortunately, it happens that my office mate is the legendary Arnie Villone, who will help anyone when he is there; he is retired now from teaching.

Use the CDs in the text and, if needed, the online tutoring at StewartCalulus.com.

Academic Integrity

It is essential that you turn in your own work rather than someone else's; this is the reason I no longer give take-home tests, though 252 problems can be rather lengthy.

Perhaps more to the point for most students is the issue of computer algebra systems, which we all know can do many 252 problems, which may seem convenient but results in very little learning and produces no sense of empowerment either. So on the tests, I can't allow calculators, and on the written homework you have to show enough work to convince me you did it with the organic computer between your ears. University policies on this are invoked if necessary.

Course Orientation

These days most of the audience are engineers, with a few scattered math, computer science, physics, astronomy, and other sciences. Realizing this, my presentation and topical emphasis as far as possible will tend toward the practical rather than the theoretical.

There are many natural applications to physics, mechanics, electricity, and astronomy; some of the quantities and formulas arose from these sciences in the first place, and some such as divergence and flux exist really only as science applications. We will do as many of these as we can, while of course also providing the necessary theory for those who are going on to math or applied math.

Again, see "Why take this course?" for more on the relation of 252 to other courses, both in and out of math.

Classroom Decorum

Surprised to see this in such a course as Math 252? So am I.

Conversation

Unfortunately, behavior problems have lately been surfacing even here; e.g., last Fall I had a 151 class in which a group of 5 or 6 young women, who sat front and center, repeatedly engaged in side-chatter with each other; often it related to the course, but it was a distraction and degraded the learning experience for 30 other students. I will not tolerate this again. My classes tend to be intense but relaxed, once the ground rules are understood and obeyed.

Questions

Questions to me are usually welcome, subject only to time constraints and unless the questions are below the level of this course, arising from lack of understanding of prerequisite topics from, e.g., Trigonometry or Math 150 or 151. In these events I might decline to take class time to answer, referring the student in the latter case to office hours or tutoring help.

Taking Notes

Also it's true, even for the best math student, that sometimes it's a matter of just making sure one gets into one's notes what goes on the board, in hope that one can understand it more fully later. Having sat in your seat in 35 or 40 university math courses, I know the feeling well.

Lecture Pace

What I'm saying here is that I have to consider the needs of the many, rather than allowing one or two students to dominate the class. Also, if anyone ends up mad at me, I would rather it be the C and D students instead of the A and B students. The class has to have a certain pace, or we will never finish the required material; what they pay me for is being competent, being fair, and upholding academic standards, above all else.

Other Details

If you start falling behind, or experience some problem which is distracting you, see me earlier rather than later; perhaps I can help. Or see counseling or other appropriate agencies of assistance.

Anytime you miss class, and you should try hard not to, arrange to get the notes from someone who will be there and is reliable. I will pass out an optional phone & e-mail sheet for this purpose.

Also, I like to say that we are all starting from a standpoint of equality, though of course this doesn't, and shouldn't, mean equality of results. What it does mean is that no particular human subgroup is necessarily better, or worse, at multivariable calculus than another.

There are still many contrasts at SDSU, though; the workload for students in technical majors is much stiffer than for those who seem to have little to do other than go to social events, get intoxicated, or get their eyebrows waxed. I respect this distinction, realizing that 252 students are members of the former category (though some have been known to get their eyebrows waxed), and I will be paying attention the whole semester to the issue of giving students what they need out of Math 252 without overdoing it. Approached the right way, many find that 3rd semester calculus is more interesting than were 1st and 2nd.

There are several ways to approach 3rd semester calculus from my side of the desk; one is to lean more heavily on linear algebra, using derivative matrices and matrix notation for vectors. This is in some respects the more elegant way, but it tends usually only to confuse those who have not had Math 254 or its equivalent yet. Later, in Math 342A (mainly for engineers) or Math 533 (more for math majors) this is done.

Holidays

After Labor Day, the only one is Thanksgiving Break: the 4 days of Thursday, November 27 to Sunday, November 30.

We will meet on Wednesday, November 26, 2003.

However, we do get off for the winter holidays before most classes do, our final being the Monday of finals week at 8 AM.

Contacting Me

The reason I don't do e-mail with students is:

1. You can't do math in e-mail without special software most people don't have, or without tedious coding;
2. thus 90% of it tends to be requests for special treatment or complaints about grades, and
3. for some students, for some odd reason, sending the teacher an e-mail excuses them in their own mind from coming to class.
4. For that matter, not much real communication happens in e-mail anyway, as it tends for the most part to be an exchange of monologues rather than a true dialogue

Also, due to back operations, I can't sit for long except in special chairs, which is why I work at home. And I don't like to post my home e-mail publicly.

However, to take care of possibilities I can't foresee, and to be as accessible as I can, I am looking into a campus e-mail I can access at home, for any special reasons not covered above that a student might have to want this avenue of contact. If and when this happens, I will post here this campus e-mail address.

You can call me at (619) 594-1492, my office, but that works only if I'm there, which unless it's office hours I probably won't be; I do nearly all my work at home. So best, very reliable, is leaving a message with the Math Dept. at (619) 594-6191, during normal university business hours.

Last updated:
October 13, 2003

The information on Joe Rieker's webpages represents that of the author and not that of San Diego State University. He takes full responsibility for the information presented.

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