Instructor:  Gordon Craig
 Office:  Middlesex College 103G
 Office Hours:  Wednesday 6:00 pm, in UC 204, and by appointment. I will also be available to answer questions after class.
 Email:  gcraig@math.sunysb.edu
 Web:  http://www.math.sunysb.edu/~gcraig/mat031.htm
 Textbooks: Biggs and Moore, Finite Mathematics with Applications, Third Edition
                     Venit and Bishop, Elementary Linear Algebra, Fourth Edition
There are also solutions manuals available for these books.
 Lectures:  Monday and Wednesday 7:00 pm to 9:30 pm, in University College 204

Grading.  The course grade will be computed as follows:

        Homework and in-class quizzes: 10%
        First midterm: 25%
        Second midterm: 25%
        Final exam: 40%

I'll be writing the homework assignments myself. They'll be due on Wednesdays, and I'll always give you at least a week to do them. Their main purpose is to give you different kinds of problems from the ones in the book, and to allow me to see how you're handling the material. One of the difficulties with the textbook problems is that you can normally figure out how to approach a question based on which section of the book it is from. The quizzes will be made up of questions from the suggested problems on the course outline. Here are some of the past  assignments, quizzes and tests:

 Assignment #3
 Assignment #4: Venit and Bishop: p.14: #20; p.24: ##6, 20; p.35, ##16, 18; p39 #14.
 Assignment #5: Venit and Bishop: p.75: ##24, 37; p.105, ##19, 24.
 Quiz #3
 Quiz #4
 Quiz #5
 Midterm #1
 Midterm #2
 

The purpose of this course is to give an overview some of the non-calculus based mathematics that students in business and the social and health sciences need to know. The main goal of the course is to provide a sound conceptual background in logic, combinatorics, probabililty, and the study of linear equations. After this course, students should have a solid theoretical base to study more advanced mathematics, and particularly statistics. The main emphasis in this course will be on acquiring a good feel for the concepts and developing problem-solving skills.

The lectures will follow the topics in the textbooks, although the approach and emphasis will be quite different. You'll get a lot more out of the lectures if you read the sections that we will be covering before coming to class. Try to at least skim over them. It's also important that you work through the problems in the textbook, and avoid looking at the solutions manual until you're either fairly confident that you have the right answer or are completely stumped. For better or worse, the only way to learn math is to take the time to think things through yourself. If you have any questions about anything, please email me or come to the office hours.

 I'll use this page to keep students abreast of what we're doing in class. I'll write which sections I'm hoping to cover in each class, and then within a day or two I'll make whatever changes are necessary to reflect what we actually accomplished.

Wednesday, June 6: Biggs and Moore, sections 2.5-2.6.
Monday, June 11: Biggs and Moore, sections 2.6-2.7.
Wednesday, June 13 : Biggs and Moore, sections 3.1-3.3, quiz on sections 2.3-2.7.
Monday, June 18: Biggs and Moore, sections 3.3-3.4.
Wednesday, June 20: Biggs and Moore, sections 3.4-4.2, quiz on sections 3.1-3.3.
Monday, June 25: Biggs and Moore, sections 4.2-4.4.
Wednesday, June 27: Second midterm (Covering Biggs and Moore, chapters 2-4.)
Monday, July 2: Canada Day (No class)
Wednesday, July 4: Review of Midterm #2, Venit and Bishop, section 1.1
Monday, July 9: Venit and Bishop, sections 1.1-1.2.
Wednesday, July 11: Venit and Bishop, sections 1.3.
Monday, July 16: Venit and Bishop, sections 2.1-2.2. Quiz on sections 1.1-1.3. Assignment #4 due.
Wednesday, July 18: Venit and Bishop, section 2.3.
Monday, July 23: Venit and Bishop, section 3.1. Quiz on sections 2.2-2.3.
Wednesday, July 25: Venit and Bishop, sections 3.2, 3.5, 4.1. Assignment #5 due.
Thursday, July 26: Help session in Middlesex College 108, 7 pm to 10 pm.
Monday, July 30: Help session in Middlesex College 108, 1 pm to 3:30pm. Help session in Social Sciences Centre 3010, 6pm to 7pm.
Monday, July 30: Final Exam, Social Sciences Centre 3010, 7 pm to 10 pm.