Math 109 Section A (Winter 2026)

Lecture Time: MWF 9am to 9:50am (Section A); 10am to 10:50am (Section B)
Lecture Location: Peterson Hall 102
Textbook: An introduction to Mathematical Reasoning: numbers, sets and functions, Peter J. Eccles, Cambridge University Press. ISBN:978-0-521-59718-0.

Discussion Section:
Section A01: Tu 5pm to 5:50pm at Center Hall 217B
Section A02: Tu 6pm to 6:50pm at Center Hall 217B
Section B01: M 5pm to 5:50pm at Applied Physics and Mathematics 2301
Section B02: M 6pm to 6:50pm at Applied Physics and Mathematics 2301

Course Personnel:
Instructor: Karthik Ganapathy Venkitachalam
TA for Section A: Zuo Lin
TA for Section B: Alexander Mathers
Graders: Nathaniel Hernandez
Coordinator: Ming Xiao
Note: To contact us, please use Piazza. The system is highly catered to getting you help fast and efficiently from classmates, the TA, and myself. Rather than emailing questions to the teaching staff, I encourage you to post your questions on Piazza.

Office Hours:
Karthik Ganapathy: M 11am to 1pm; WF 11am to noon at AP&M 1230, or by appointment.
Alexander Mathers: W 4:30pm to 6:30pm at AP&M 5412
Zuo Lin: M 5pm to 7pm at AP&M 6446

Course Schedule: Find here (note that 2/21 will be "The Division Theorem/Review", 2/24 will be Midterm 2, and 2/26 will be "The Division Theorem" for our sections). The schedule is up to date on Canvas. See Important dates to keep in mind on the bottom of this page.

Homework:
Homework assignments will be posted here and on Canvas almost every week by Friday. Normally you will have one week to submit your completed homework via Gradescope. Your lowest homework assignment will be dropped at the end of the course when computing your grade.

Exam:
There will be two midterm exams and one final exam. No makeup exams will be given in this course.
Note: It is standard Math Department practice to utilize different versions of exams, both within each lecture's exam, and between lectures whose exams are at different times.

Midterm I: It will be given in class on Wednesday, Jan 29. No cheat sheets are allowed.
Midterm II: It will be given in class on Monday, Feb 24. No cheat sheets are allowed.
Final exam: For Section A, It will be given on Wednesday, March 19 and for Section B, it will be given on Friday, March 21. The detailed exam instruction is TBA.

Regrades: Regrade requests will be made using the built-in regrade request feature in Gradescope. There will be a limited window of time after the exams are made available during which the regrade request feature will be active. This time window will be announced when the exam scores are released. Only the regrade requests sent within the time window will be considered.

Grading Policy:

The grades will be determined as the best of: 

a) 20% Homework, 20% Midterm Exam I, 20% Midterm Exam II, 40% Final Exam; OR

b) 25% Homework, 25% Best Midterm Exam, 50% Final Exam.

Attendance Policy: You are expected to attend every session of the lectures and discussion section you are enrolled in. Students who do not attend class rarely succeed in this course.  If you must miss class for any reason, it is your responsibility to catch up on the material. You are also responsible for the information given in any announcements made during class. To help you with this, I will record every lectures in the event you are unable to attend. Lecture recordings can be found at UCSD Podcast.

Academic Integrity: Academic dishonesty is considered a serious offense at UCSD. Students caught cheating will face an administrative sanction which may include suspension or expulsion from the university. It is in your best interest to take pride in your work maintain your academic integrity.

Accommodations: Students requesting accommodations for this course due to a disability must provide a current Authorization for Accommodation (AFA) letter issued by the Office for Students with Disabilities (https://osd.ucsd.edu/.) Students are required to discuss accommodation arrangements with instructors and OSD liaisons in the department in advance of any exams or assignments.

Here are some resources from other UCSD instructors that you may find useful:
1) Prof. Rayan Saab's notes from Math 109, Spring 2017: Basic Logic; Methods of Proof; Set theory; Functions; Counting; More counting;
2) Dr. John Eggers' lists: Tautologies; Terminology;
3) Prof. Sasha Knop's amazing videos: Logic; Proofs; 

January 6: First day of classes

January 17: Deadline to join the class

January 29: Midterm 1

January 31: Deadline to drop the class without a W

February 14: Deadline to drop the class with a W

February 24: Midterm 2

March 14: Final day of classes (also, Pi day)

March 19: Final exam for Section A

March 21: Final exam for Section B