Mazny of you have been asking important questions by e-mail. I still don't have all the answers!
First, about our TAs: Mr. Byun will be covering sections 1 to 4, and Mssrs Bak and Hoelscher will cover the other two, but I don't yet know which is which.  (We have had scheduling problems because of conflicts with graduate courses.)  I hope to tell you at the next class session.
Second, about pairing: Some have asked if they must pair with someone in the same section. It is certainly much easier if at least you pair with someone who has a recitation with the same TA. Otherwise the record-keeping gets much harder and I don't want any homework to get lost.
Third, about the homework assigned below. I only want one paragraph, not a paragraph about system you find -- you could write a book that way! But make it an interesting paragraph about an interesting system.

I will try to get a preliminary (outline of a) syllabus on the web in the next few days.  Be warned that it may change. (Some new modules are being prepared.)

The following was e-mailed to the class on 1/11:
Today in class we discussed the Egyptian system of numerals (handout)
and the Mayan.
Be prepared to answer all the questions in the handout on the Egyptian
system. With this, as with the homework yet to be assigned, I may call
some of you to the blackboard to give your answers.  Also,  go to the
web or any other source to find information about the numerals (and
number systems) of other civilizations.  Write a paragraph or two about
what you have found and hand it in on Thursday. (Cite the source! In the
case of the web, cite the URL.)  Please let me know if you have found
what you think is a particularly interesting, unusual (or even
outlandish) system. I would like to collect a few of these.
We also discussed the binary system, and I showed you an easy algorithm
for computing the base 2 representation of a number (looking at the
remainders after succesive division by 2). We will review that on
Thursday, but in the meantime you can look at pages 377 to 381 of the
text. Here is an exercise for the more stout-hearted: You may have
noticed that it generally takes more digits to write a number in base 2
than it does in base 10. (The only exceptions are the numbers 0 and 1.)
How bad does it get? Try some large numbers and compute the ratio
between the number of digits you need in base 2 and the number of digits
you need in base 10.  Is the binary representation ever five times as
long as the decimal notation?  Try some large numbers and see what the
average ratio in lengths is and give me your answers in class. (Tell me
the numbers you used.)
Next week we will start work on Chapter 1 of the text, so please read as
much as you can by next Tuesday. Some of the original work was done by
that towering mathematical genius Leonhard Euler. See if you can find a
short biography and find out about some of the other things that he did.
What was he doing in St. Petersburg? Can you find a map of the German
town of Koenigsberg  showing the bridges as they were in Euler's time?
Are there more bridges today? Would  the bridge problem be solvable today?

Remember: I want you to pair up, so that after this week, when homework
is due I will get one solution from every pair. You must "register" your
pairings -- give me a sheet of paper with the names and the person who
is the first designated "scribe", i.e., the one who writes out the
homework to be handed in. (The scribe must rotate after at most two
weeks.) In exceptional circumstances I will allow a triple and also a
singleton (e.g., if you commute from a distance and find it difficult to
pair up with someone else in the class). We will then aggregate pairs
into sextets or octets for five-minute blackboard presentations of
homework at every class meeting.
There will be two in-class midterms and a final paper in lieu of a final
exam. More details later.

EXAM SCHEDULE  (Any changes will be posted.)
 MIDTERM I:  Tuesday, February 8.  (The drop period ends Friday, February 11. This is the last possible date to get an exam graded and back to you before the end of the drop period.)  This midterm will concentrate on the first four chapters of the text (collectively devoted to "operations research" or "management science") but may include some other material such as the binary number system which are developed in class or in modules which are added.
MIDTERM II:  Tuesday,  March 29.  The emphasis in this midterm will be on statistics, but may included some materials from later chapters of the text if we get to them.
FINAL PAPERS: These will be due on the last day of class.  Even though most of you will be working in pairs, every individual member of the class must submit a final paper.  Xerox copies of another final paper are not allowed.  There will be many fascinating topics on which you can write.  You will do the best job on something that really interests you. As we proceed through the semester spend a few moments to think about which topics you would have liked to have seen in greater detail.
SYLLABUS (tentative)
The semester will be divided essentially into three parts: Management Science (before the first exam), Probability and Statistics (to be covered in the second exam), and Social Choice and Mathematical Modeling in the last part of the semester. Since so many of you have expressed an interest in the law, I will try to add a module on Statistics in the Law and in the Courts in the period between the two midterms when we are concentrating on statistics. There probably will not be enough time to cover all the chapters in the book but there is some flexibility. Browse through the text; if there is some topic that you think particularly interesting and if several of you express the same opinion, I will try to make sure that it is included.
HOMEWORK AND QUIZZES: There will be a quiz during each recitation.  After this week, unless I tell you otherwise, homework should be handed in during recitation and will be returned in recitation. The scribe should hand in the homework in his or her recitation.  Every paper should carry the name of all members of the group and should carry the day and time of the recitation and the name of the recitation leader. There are some homeworks that I will want to read before passing them on to the recitation leaders. These will be handed in at the end of class.
Homework to be handed in to me Thursday, January 20:
0. Everything you were supposed to do up to now (see top of page).
1. Exercise 54, page 30 of the text.  (Use the minimal number of words that will make it unequivocably clear that you know what you are talking about!
Reading: Finish reading Chapter 1, begin Chapter 2 (read Sections 2.1 and 2.2 by Tuesday).
 
Homework to be handed in to me Thursday, February 3:
1. Read Chapter 4, Linear Programming, and hand in exercises nos. 28, 36,
and 42 on pages 162 and 163.
2. See the module on the transportation problem. Click here.
For those who do not have immediate access to a table for the chi square statistic, I have posted one here

Here is a link to

MIDTERM 2

Here is the cover page you must attach

Cover page for Midterm 2


This exam is being posted on March 28, 2005 and will be distributed in class on March 29. It is due on April 5, 2005 at the end of class.