Spring 2015: Math 375, Discrete Math

Math 375, Discrete Math

Time: T/Th 1030-1145, 1200-115

Location: Univ 003

Office Hours: Tuesday 800-1000 AM, Thursday 130-330 PM.

Class News:

  • The lectures for the 1030 class on the dates of January 15, January 20, and January 22 will take place in EE 270. Our class will be temporarily merged with CSE 369 (Discrete for CS/EE). It is worth noting that finding 270 in EE is not trivial (or was non-trivial for me). Allow for some additional time if you are unaware of the complexities of this search.
  • It seems moving our class to a room other than Univ 003 is nearly impossible with terrible options.
  • Pset 1 and 2 have been posted.
  • I updated the lecture notes with some links to some on-line resources.
  • Our first in-class quiz will take place on February 3rd and will cover Pset 1. By cover, I mean I will pull 1-2 problems directly from the Pset and you can use your solutions to do the quiz. Each date when a Pset is due, we will have quizzes of an identical nature.
  • Problem 4 (b) on Pset 2 has a typo. The series should sum to n/(2n+1) not 1/(2n+1).
  • We will have our first mid-term on February 19 in class. The material will be from the first 6 lectures. I will post some additional information on the exam soon.
  • I will be away on February 10, 12, 17, and 19. Britain Cox will serve as my replacement for those lectures. He will cover recursion, generating functions, and more on advanced counting.
  • IMPORTANT: You will only require a writing utensil for the exam (pen or pencil). It is closed notes, closed books. You will not be able to use any reference material.
  • Quiz 3 on Pset 3 will be on March 3.
  • Mid-term 2: Covers probability theory and the arithmetic/algebra/congruence stuff.
  • Mid-term 2: March 26. Same format as Mid-term 1.
  • There is a quiz on March 24 on Pset 5.
  • Mid-term 2 will have 6 problems. Problem 6 is two parts and is basic arithmetic.
  • Solutions to Exam 2 posted. I want to reiterate that regardless of how you did on the exam (even if you collaborated), I believe in each of you and still hope very much for you to be successful not only in my course but in life. We all have bad days. We all make bad choices. These things don't define us as we are more than the choices we make. Each day we have a chance to improve as people. I am invested in each of you and that investment goes well beyond this course. You are amazing and I consider myself deeply fortunate to have such wonderful students.
  • IMPORTANT: Problem set 6 has been posted and we will have a quiz on Pset 6 on April 6. I made the problem set short and simple (largely) as a result. Sorry for being mean!
  • Pset 7 has been posted along with many picture scans and the Exam 2 stats.
  • Pset 7, Problem 5 has a typo. The condition on distance is that d(a,b), d(a,c), and d(b,c) cannot all be equal for any triple of distinct vertices.
  • IMPORTANT: Short review for mid-term 3 has been posted.
  • IMPORTANT: There will be office hours Thursday AM this week. 800-1000 AM. No office hours 130-330 however.
  • Added solutions to Exam 3.
  • Our "final class" will be Saturday May 9th at 500 PM at the Pint. The Pint is located at the State/River intersection in West Lafayette.

Class Lectures:

  • Lecture 1, January 13. Sets and functions.
  • Lecture 2, January 15. Some basic logic and methods of proof.
  • Lecture 3, January 20. Induction.
  • Lecture 4, January 22. Binomial Theorem and some basic counting.
  • Lecture 5, January 27. More on sets and functions (and counting)
  • Lecture 6, January 29. More on counting.
  • Lecture 7, February 3. Discrete probability theory.
  • Lecture 8, February 5, More on probability theory.
  • Lecture 9, February 10, The Britain Cox Experience, Part 1.
  • Lecture 10, February 12, The Britain Cox Experience, Part 2.
  • Lecture 11, February 17, The Britain Cox Experience, Part 3.
  • Mid-term 1, February 19. Exam on Lectures 1-6.
  • February 24, Handed Exams back.
  • February 26, Review of Probability Theory.
  • Lecture 12, March 3, Review of arithmetic.
  • Lecture 13, March 10, More on congruence relations.
  • Lecture 14, March 12, The Chinese Remainder Theorem.
  • Review, March 24.
  • Mid-term 2, March 26.
  • Lecture 15, April 2. Graph theory.
  • Lecture 16, April 7. Matchings, Hall's Theorem, and Games.
  • Lecture 16 (part 2), April 9. Proof of Hall's Theorem.
  • Lecture 17, April 14. Ramsey Theory.
  • Lecture 18, April 16. The Britain Cox Experience. Van der Waerden's Theorem.
  • Review, April 21.
  • Mid-term 3, April 23.
  • April 28. Final grades. Class is done except for our "final class".